The game should have been postponed. Instead, after a two hour and 12 minute rain delay, the Atlanta Braves lost to the Washington Nationals 3-1.
The Braves could have won this game, had they taken advantage of the opportunities the Nats provided. Where is Freddie Freeman when we need him? More to the point, in this new small ball Braves attack, is Freddie still THE OFFENSE?
Alex Wood struggled through seven innings, allowing three earned runs, a quality start. The Nats’ starter Stephen Strasburg only went five innings, allowed no runs and only four hits, striking out six while tossing 94 pitches. By the rules, Strasburg’s effort was not a quality start. Yet Strasburg was the winning pitcher and Wood, deservedly, the loser. Though the Braves threatened, ultimately the game was never in doubt.
The Braves would have won if Denard Span had not led off the Nats’ first with a double and scored on the first of Anthony Rendon’s four singles. Span also singled in Michael Taylor in the third, for all intents and purposes putting the game out of reach. Taylor drove in Wilson Ramos with a single in the fourth, ending the Nats’ scoring for the night.
The same Braves offense that worked so well against the Mets could not overcome Washington’s three run barrage, managing nothing until Cameron Maybin homered in the eighth off Matt Thornton. Nick Markakis then (Arab) singled for the third time in the game, and A.J. Pierzynski singled Neck to second, becoming the potential tying run at first. Juan Uribe strode to the plate, a hero in the making, when Matt Williams brought in old friend and the original David Carpenter to face him.
Brave fans remember a prior Carpenter-Uribe matchup, though not fondly. The sequel likewise disappointed the Braves faithful. What is it about ex-Braves anyway?
Brandon Cunniff tried mightily to pad the Nats’ lead, but the Braves went into the ninth trailing only 3-1. The Braves loaded the bases for Home Run Maybin. Alas, mighty Cameron could not deliver this time. The Braves lost to the hated Nationals once again.
Wednesday may represent the Braves’ best chance to salvage a game in the series, as Shelby Miller opposes Jordan Zimmermann. Perhaps we might even score a few runs.
Perhaps.
Great job, Coop! Really ticked about the lineup construction last night. Neither CJ or Eury had business being in the lineup against Strasburg, and no way in hell should AJ be batting cleanup (he has a sub-600 OPS dating all the way back to late April). Hopefully Fredi fills out the lineup a little more intelligently in days to come.
In 66 games with Freddie Freeman in the lineup, we’re averaging 4.29 runs a game. In 5 games without him, we’re averaging one run a game.
Sounds like the Offense to me.
Mallex Smith started in CF and batted leadoff for the South All-Stars in the Southern League All-Star game last night. He went 1-3 with a single. Tyrell Jenkins, Tyler Jones, and Victor Reyes (and Chris O’Dowd) were also named to the South squad but didn’t get in the game.
Dustin Peterson appeared as a reserve OF for the Carolina League and went 0-2 with a K. Johan Carmargo started at SS and went 0-2 as well.
Albies was a reserve SS for SAL South and went 0-2. Edgerton was DH and went 0-2. Joseph Daris went 1-2 with a double and an RBI. Caleb Beech pitched an inning and gave up 2 unearned runs. Kyle Kinman pitched an inning and struck out the side.
So basically, we dominated the minor league All Star games!
July 3 cited as probable return date for THE OFFENSE.
Edit: Perhaps our Braves will be Freemanned from their offensive doldrums on Independence Day.
Good job, coop. For those of us defying our normal bedtimes, though, I should point out that Maybin came within about 6 inches of putting the Barves ahead on the first pitch he saw in the 9th, a checked swing down the 1st abse line that was about six inches foul and rolled for what would have been an easy double, which would have cleared the bases when Harper, running in, would have permanently separated his hamstring from its attachement to his leg. What might have been….
“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, ‘It might have been.”
True that, JonathanF; but the Braves did not let Bryce Harper beat them, last night at least.
Alex Wood seriously didn’t have it last night. They were hitting bullets all night, and the Braves were lucky that the Nats only scored three runs. Last night’s game is entirely on the offense. Strasburg was good but inefficient; he was done after five innings because Braves batters did a decent job working the count on him, but they barely made any hard contact, and then they didn’t do much with Roark, either. (Not that we used to be able to hit him when he was in the rotation.)
But by then I was gone. I left around 11 pm, which would have been basically the end of the 5th inning, because I wanted to get home before the Metro closed.
We scarcely go a day on the Journal without a Maude Muller reference
This is probably a really dumb question asked by somebody who’s never even been to Washington, but can they not extend the Metro hours when a Nats game goes late, or even just in general? It seems like whenever a game is delayed or goes into extra innings, 75 percent of the stadium leaves. I mean, MARTA is really crappy and even it runs until 1 a.m.
When I went to games in Philly, they would always have extra service from the Bank whenever it was over. They do a lot right at that park.
Lolz….
http://www.theonion.com/article/braves-manager-reminds-players-hell-throw-out-all–50744
@10, they don’t extend Metro hours for much, to be honest. Midweek holidays often don’t have extended Metro hours.
They also are in the middle of a multiyear process of trying to repair the tracks of a working system, because they did very little maintenance for the first few decades of operations, which means that there’s frequent singletracking during business hours and a lot of repairs done after hours. They may feel like they can’t afford to add extra stress to the system.
But, for the most part, the constant struggles of the Metro are just a massive pain in the neck.
Last year CJ hit .357 against Strasburg, so not that farfetched.
@12 – if the Braves are on PEDs, I would hate to see their HR totals without them!
@12, This should make it clear that Fredi Gonzalez is a terrible manager. I can’t believe anybody can read this article and say he’s not the worst manager of all time. SMH!
DC Metro is indifferent to the needs of riders, whom they don’t really rely upon for their funding. They are also incompetent in the extreme, so anything unexpected and out of the ordinary is probably too taxing on the limited skills of their workers.
That story about Fredi’s PED e mail must be hoax. No one in their right mind would write such an e mail.
Impossible. They have a well deserved and longstanding reputation for excellent baseball reporting.
http://www.theonion.com/article/stephen-strasburg-encourages-pitchers-to-shorten-g-38375
The Onion is a very reputable source of information. Our own Alex Remington interviewed many times with The Onion before settling with the Washington Post. Any criticism of The Onion’s credibility should be met with immediate expulsion from The Journal. Alex, can we invoke one of Mac’s rules to dispose of this gentleman?
OH, I get it (finally). The joke’s on me.
Impugnation of The Onion is one thing up with which I will not put.
What about the spinoff Clickhole? Can I impugn that?
Betty is hitting better in AAA. Is he catching the ball?
The Onion is great but The Daily Currant is garbage.
Precious few “satire” sites actually are funny.
Mallex Smith promoted to Gwinnett. He will get the majority of the reps in CF. What do we do with Peraza now?
@27
Back to second base and we’ll figure it out later, I would assume. Can either he or Peterson be converted to 3B?
Either Peterson or Peraza could probably field the position at 3B. The question is whether we are comfortable with another contact bat at 3B as opposed to a power hitter. See the discussions from the last 2 days about this same question.
Keep baking, Cakes.
Vintage Desmond
Edit: bah! He gets he last laugh
I like us around the keystone, and I like Shelby Miller. The Braves have some nice players.
We’ve had the weakest group of base hits I’ve ever seen
Does Yunel still have frosted tips?
He’s a GIDP machine so far this series.
I’m not sure. Do you think there’s a causal relationship?
When will we score again? When will we ever score? Poor Shelby.
Chris Farley: Remember…remember um…remember that time when we drafted anthony Rendon and, um…he signed with us in a parallel universe.
John Schuerholz: Yes, Chris I do remember that.
Chris Farley: That was awesome.
Rats!
Wasn’t Terdo a failed experiment at 3rd one season in the minors?
Yes, we had the bright idea to promote him to AAA and switch him to 3B in the same season bc chipper was retiring and we had freddie. He was terrible at the plate and in the field, so he got demoted to AA.
We’re doomed.
You should not tempt fate.
@36
When The Offense comes back off the DL.
We were playing Kelly Johnson in just in case Rendon decided to bunt………..
Perfect double play ball but KJ was playing in on the grass. Why? Because Fredi couldn’t imagine doing anything but bunt in that situation.
Fredi makes it hard to watch.
Good God…the jam shot of all jam shots falls in to give them the lead.
@44, but if Fredi had made him play back and Rendon had reached on an infield single, the Fredi haters would’ve said “why didn’t he make him play in???” There’s no pleasing Fredi haters.
@47
You’re obviously joking, but the reason why that doesn’t really fly here is that Rendon can barely run right now. The chances of him laying down a bunt were…not good, to say the least. Now, it is possible that Fredi lets Tosca do the defensive positioning and doesn’t have much to do with it, but he obviously could tell Tosca to back him up.
@48, everything you said is true
And dammit we’ve been a foot or two from being ahead in this game.
Shelby Miller probably wishes he were still a Cardinal. St. Louis has been known to score.
This team is making my resolution to cut back on whiskey very difficult to adhere to. Tonight, it’s Knob Creek.
KJ’s played well at first, third and in left, and he’s hit pretty well too.
Jim Johnson’s gonna screw around here to the point where he completely takes us out of the game.
(sighs)
False hope boys, false hope.
Freddie on the DL may keep us from being delusional buyers at the deadline. Keep stock piling for the next few years. Deal Kelly, CJ, Uribe, Grilli, Johnson, Markakis, and Gomes. I’d keep Maybin for next season
That inning wore me out.
I agree, csg, but I hate that I do.
Markakis heard what you said ’bout trading him csg
Nice job hitting the cutoff man, Harper! You douche!
UPDATE: Where the holy hell is Terdoslavich going?
You’ve got to be kidding me
Nice running, Terd.
WHAT THE HECK WAS TERDOSLAVICH DOING?!?!??!?!?!??!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!
Now a sac fly is the last out of the inning. What a freaking moron.
Low baseball IQ or rookie jitters. These aren’t mutually exclusive
Why wasn’t the first base coach in his ear on that?
Guess Joey misses Gwinnett. At least Shelby’s off the hook.
But isnt TP supposed to be advising on that?
My baseball coach coached Terdoslavich in summer ball in Alaska. He once said about Joey: “Not the sharpest tool in the shed but he sure passes the eye test getting off the plane”!
There is no way TP told him to go on that, as dumb as that was. Worst case, TP said nothing. More likely, Terdo went on his own thinking he could make it.
EDIT: For all the people constantly wondering why the entire nation isn’t throwing Bryce Harper a daily parade, I give you this inning.
Terdo was thinking about himself, not the team. All those bus rides haven’t taught him that much.
But TP needs to be telling him not to go. I’m sure it was terdoslavich’s decision
He might have been thinking about staying out of a double play
Not a big fan of Fredi, but he did the right thing benching Terdoslavich, who probably has more experience playing 1B than KJ.
Hey! Did we actually have a proper application of the dive into first just now?
Perez should have gone 7 pitches ago
Why is Perez on the roster if you can’t steal second base in the 10th inning? He should’ve been hosed on that wild pitch.
Low baseball iq? Rookie jitters?
No cigar, Cameron, but close.
Then why have him on the roster if he can’t handle the reason he’s on the roster? How experienced do you need to be to make a move in a big spot? He’s on the roster as a pinch runner and he needs to be stealing bases when they’re needed. Or else bring Cunningham up, who can probably hit, especially since we need an OF who can hit RH pitching.
Don’t like the IBB to get to the top of the order here.
There just aren’t many times when I would intentionally walk a crappy hitter. And I would never do it when an out couldn’t beat me.
If we don’t win this game, it’s going to be an uphill battle to win the series
Didn’t think we’d escape that.
Who we got left in the bullpen, coop? Are they any good?
Our one-run-without-Freddie Runs per game is not going to win it tonight, I suspect.
Eveland is next. Yuck.
I wonder if Ernesto Mejia is available
With this bullpen in extras, it’s not “if” we lose; it’s “when.”
And what a craptacular AB by KJ.
CJ! Who knew?
We may be losing the runs category but we’re cleaning up in the hits category
Eveland and Aardsma, JohnWDB. We’re doomed.
If you laid me 4:1 odds here on a harper homer Id take it
I would loooooove for Bryce Harper to jog to first every now and again in a Braves uni. Shut your pie hole, Joe.
Back in the day, Mickey Mantle ran like the wind on gimpy legs. Harper reminded me of the Mick on that AB.
Me too, Rob.
Eveland sucks. Eveland sucks.
Now comes the unraveling begins…
Melt. Down. Eve. Land.
This worked just as well as we all expected, except maybe Fredlot.
Eve of destuction, followed by the Aardvark.
Eveland doesn’t appear to have any pitch but a slider.
well fart
It’s a tough pill to swalllow when you go from Eric O’Flaherty and Jonny Venters to Dana Eveland in a few short years. Well, fart, indeed.
By the time The Offense returns from the DL, there will be no question as to whether we are buyers or sellers.
Braves lose! Braves lose! At least we lose earlier than last night. Maybe Wisler can be magic again tomorrow.
Recapped.