Cubs 4, Braves suck on offense (by coop)

For all intents and purposes the game ended when Chicago scored two unearned runs in the second. Jace Peterson made a poor throw to Andrelton Simmons. Braves didn’t get the double play or the force. Then with two outs, Jonathan Herrera drove in two. Ball game.

Jorge Soler got an earned run for the Cubbies with a homer in the third, and A.J. Pierzynski broke up another Chicago no-hitter wannabe, this time with a fourth inning double. The Cubs added a fourth run in the top of the ninth, and Andrelton spoiled the shutout with an RBI double in the bottom.

Shelby Miller pitched well. He went six; gave up three runs, one of which was earned, and struck out eight.

Jake Arrieta pitched better, if you don’t consider how bad the Braves are with bats in their hands. He pitched seven innings, gave up only two three hits and struck out ten hapless Braves.

It could have been worse. It was good to see Murph, but he’s too old to play anymore. The Braves really miss Freddie Freeman. Bring on the Bums.

68 thoughts on “Cubs 4, Braves suck on offense (by coop)”

  4. Just saw that Beachy is on the mound tonight for the Dodgers.
    Also, Medlen has been moved to the Royals bullpen.

    Good to see them back.

  6. Thanks, coop. The link above takes you to the 8th slide. just take the /8/ off to go to the beginning.

    And once again, sorry about the format. FanSided’s new “to-do” has us doing slides which are just as annoying to make as is to read.

  7. It’s good we’re getting lights out relief pitching now that our offense is hibernating.

    Here’s a question for you guys–if you had a chance to deal Chris Johnson for Hanley Ramirez straight up, would you do it? I believe Hanley is in the first year of a four-year, $88 million contract.

  8. I would do it just to see him fight Fredi G in the dugout. But it’s not my money. I doubt Liberty sees it the same way.

  9. Liberty’s money doesn’t matter–it’s the budget, however arbitrary, that they set for the Johns. When we talk about acquiring an expensive player, we’re thinking about having medium-market type limitations on payroll.

  10. That’s a risky contract for medium-to-small-market. Plus he’s not a good fit on the “plays-the-game-the-right-way” meter. I’d take his bat though. Pretty much every single trade target you can think of would be an upgrade somewhere in this lineup.

  12. I thought Hanley was going to be extra special once upon a time. Now I’m just glad he plays for someone else’s team.

  13. Chris Johnson for Allen Craig might be another matter. Don’t know how much Craig is owed, however.

  16. I was just perusing Cot’s — didn’t even realize AAR was promoting it here! — and noticed that Jason Grilli was due to earn an extra $500K this year if he’d finished 30 games (and a lot more than that if he’d finished even more).

    Per B-Ref, the poor guy finished 29 games before rupturing his Achilles.

  17. Hanley was special–he just hasn’t had sustained excellence, due to injuries and maybe inconsistent effort. He was the best player in baseball the last half of 2013, and he had about the most dominant playoff series I’ve seen in the 2013 NLDS.

    But yeah, he probably wouldn’t be worth it now even if we could offload Dorn. Also, Hanley apparently has a $22 mil vesting option for a 5th year.

    @16, sounds suspicious. If I were him, I’d have that mound tested for sabotage.

  25. JACE! A wild rally by our standards… hustle double, couple walks, bloop double.

  37. @28, there was a grounder to first base. Joey took a step in and towards the line. The ball went by him, about two feet to his right. He clearly had absolutely no idea where it was. I could understand this on a popup. But on a ground ball — a fairly weak squibber, frankly — it’s both inexplicable and inexcusable. The four runs in the inning are all largely attributable to the fact that that out wasn’t made, but they were all earned because Terdoslavich didn’t lay a finger on the squibber that went past him.

  38. @28,33-

    Guerrero hit a ball off the very end of his bat, and it had some of the most extreme spin on it that I have ever seen. The ball was hit to Terdo’s glove side- i.e. down the first base line- but the crazy spin meant that once it bounced, it ended up going by him 5 feet or more off to his right. Hate to disagree with AAR but unless you’d played a TON of games at 1b I bet you would never have known how to react to such a weird ground ball.

  40. 39- Egregious even by Chip’s standards. That wasn’t within 40′ of going out.

  41. #37 – the ball took one hop to his glove hand and then bounced completely in the opposite direction

    Crazy as this sounds Id rather play CJ over Terdo

  43. Anybody see the David Cross directed film “Hits”? There’s a great early 90s braves reference.

  45. Weird spin or no, a major league first baseman should never have that happen to him. Joey didn’t react to the weird bounce — he froze like a deer in headlights. If he’s one of the 750 best baseball players in the world, he ought to start acting like it some time soon. I haven’t seen much from his bat or glove to suggest that he is.

  53. With Jordy Mercer out for six weeks, the Pirates should think about trading for Rollins. The Dodgers could bring up Seager to play short. He would probably do better at the plate.

  55. Jim Powell just said one of the most unintentionally funny things I’ve ever heard on the radio. And I’m going to leave it at that.

  59. That was a big league wild pitch, and I was just funnin’ you, spike.

    I’m more comfortable with Perez in left than Gomes.

  65. In my far-too-early projections:

    Wisler is a first ballot HOFer

    Chris Johnson will never hit .300 again in a full season

    Jim Johnson is going to turn back into a pumpkin by the 3rd week of August – whether he’s with us or elsewhere

    With a few pieces obtained through shrewd trades, and a healthy Freeman, I like this team’s chances…next year

    but they are fighters this year. and i like that. kinda. as long as they are the Clubber Lang kind of fighter and not the Roberto Duran kind of fighter.

  66. of course – only kidding re: Wisler

    but they kid is good. Mad Dog movement with more velocity

    okay – that’s far fetched too.

  67. Eury Perez is looking good. Maybe because he’s getting a chance to play, but he looks a lot better lately. I like him in LF.

  68. Good luck filing new stadium in 2017 jonh Hart,get rid of all your good players

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