Chris Johnson starred as the Braves beat the Dodgers 4-3.
CJ had help, Juan Uribe and Nick Markakis mostly. Johnson had two singles and a double and drove in two runs. Cakes singled and tripled, plating one and scoring one. Juan went two for three with a double, a single, a walk and the game winning RBI.
Alex Wood was not great. Alex gave up a solo home run to Justin Turner in the first. Then after Dem Bums helped the Braves score two in the bottom of the first to take the lead, he gave up the tying home run to Yasiel Puig in the top of the second.
The Braves kept getting Alex the lead, and he kept giving it away. Atlanta went ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the third when Markakis tripled and CJ singled him home. That lead lasted until the fifth; when relief pitcher Chin-hui Tsao doubled, and Howie Kendrick singled him home to knot the score at three.
Atlanta reclaimed the lead, this time for good, in the bottom of the fifth. Markakis singled and took second on an error by Dodger centerfielder Joc Pederson. CJ smacked another single, pushing Nick to third; and Juan singled in Nick with what turned out to be the winning run.
Wood went 6.2 innings and escaped with the win, thanks to capable relief work by Jason Frasor, Luis Avilan and Jim Johnson. The Dodgers used four relief pitchers after starter Brett Anderson left due to injury in the third, and all four threw a lot of pitches. The Dodgers bullpen is stretched thin going into tomorrow’s game; and the Braves may have an advantage in the noon start.
As resident Braves sage Chip Carey said at the beginning of today’s broadcast, “There is no such thing as an ugly win.”
Break out the brooms.
I don’t have a problem with CJ, and while I do hope he gets traded, I wish him well on his new team. He almost won a batting title a year and a half ago, and he had a down-year along with most of the offense last year. He probably deserved a little longer of a leash this year, but Uribe has stolen the show. His contract is not that bad if he can be somewhere between his career norms and his 2013 season, which is not unreasonable for a 30 year old. Hopefully the Braves can get something for him, and he can move on with his career.
Went to high school with this guy & he’ll be singing the National Anthem before this afternoon’s game:
http://tinyurl.com/q4yoj4j
Go Rusty!
94 games in, and we have a better record than the Padres. This amuses me.
The last two nights have been fun. Wood was fighting it all night, but he gutted it out, and Frasor dodged a rocket from Puig in the 7th. I was glad it was Eury out there, because I don’t know if Gomes would have gotten to that laser beam.
CJ must have been a Wren guy. Which furthers the point, Hart (in some capacity) and JS were around for that signing.
Worth noting that Gomes hasn’t been saying “Play me or trade me” to the press, even though the experiment clearly hasn’t worked out.
Showcase games for Chris Johnson!
@3 but just wait til Justin Upton gets hot for 3 weeks in August…
Gomes probably feels like his career is close to being over. CJ still feels like he has great years ahead of him. It’s obvious by his comments.
I’m surprised Seitzer hasn’t gotten CJ going. It would suggest to me that Seitzer’s hitting philosophy would make a lot of sense to CJ. Maybe that explains the white flag by the Braves. If Seitzer couldn’t fix him, ship him.
@8 Because the Padres will look bad for trading him?
Keith Law says the Braves have the second-best farm system in baseball.
I forgot the Red Sox nabbed Yoan Moncada.
@9, but what exactly is Seitzer’s philosphy? And even if he’s on board philosophically, a low-power, low-walk, high-strikeout guy has to have an awful lot going right for him to be a good hitter.
I’m still wondering why Gomes has over 100 AB’s already vs RH’d pitching.
Stu, didn’t law have us at #28 or #29 going into the offseason?
Looking back, he had us at 22nd in January of 2014 and 6th in January of 2015.
Thanks. I read a reference where he stated we were a bottom 5 farm system at the end of last season. Baseball America had us at 29th
What is up with KD Kang in AA? He is like 18 for his last 39!
Great start, Persian Julius. Make believers of us again!
16—Yeah, I remember reading the same, but I think that was his mental list, not anything he published. By the time the January 2015 rankings were out, we’d already made some of those system-replenishing deals.
Not sure you guys have talked about this or not; not around all that much these days. If not, of interest to many here I suspect.
WSJ: Defensive Stats Shift Back Toward Irrelevance
Bring back OPS+!!
5 k’s and a pickoff is a hell of a way to get through your first six batters.
Lots of strike outs in dominant fashion, inexplicable complete loss of the strike zone, a runner picked off… The only thing missing from that inning was a long home run, and we could have lived The Julio Teheran Story all in one inning.
A variation on our old offensive strategy: Get ’em on, get ’em to make an error, get ’em in.
I guess $270 million doesn’t buy as much as it used to.
@24, No kidding. The Bums: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a-yEinFNc24xoTlGAH-S_1DRsZuGtx1yZOXsBpWNuSU/pub?output=html
9 pitch inning. Julio needed that.
Sly old Sutton: “Tell you what, if he keeps this 1-hitter going into the sixth inning we oughtta see about getting that single changed to an error.”
Ah, shoot.
Being that Callaspo is an ex-Brave, that was as inevitable as the sunrise.
And so, sadly, was that.
The first flyball Markakis played like a chump.
You just can’t believe in Julio Teheran.
Julio has inherited the “Episode” gene from Tim Hudson.
Pierzynski really can get under a person’s skin. Takes a 2-out, none-on walk in the 7th inning, down 2, and throws his bat away and gets the pitcher, who is cruising, jawing. That must count as a skill of some sort.
@33, enlighten me
35 – check the glossary here
JohnWDB, check the Glossary:
Episode: When Tim Hudson suddenly loses the ability to get anyone out, to the degree that it is surprising he has full control of his limbs and his bowels, he is having an Episode. Usually in the sixth or seventh inning.
Come on, Kelly.
Had always noted that about Timmy–all his pitches would start to sail to the 2 o’clock position. I’m glad to have the appropriate medical term for the condition now.
Between the Johnsons and Terdoslavich, it’s not just the line-up where we’re missing Freddie. Sheesh.
Wow. Alberto Callaspo robbing his old team.
Well he was robbing us while he played here, and robbed us for $100k on the way out the door, so what do you expect?
Take two and punt the third game. Julio deserved a better rightfielder.
Callaspo tried his best when he was here, and he earned every penny, and what about when the Angels underpaid him so really he’s getting makeup pay for that, and I can’t believe people care more about Liberty Media’s money than the well-being of Callaspo’s family, and…whew this is tiring. It’s so much easier just to complain about the fact that he sucks.
Apparently the Braves whined about the Dodgers’ throwing too many curveballs today. WTF? Sounds like a Madden video game opponent complaining about the guy they were playing against cheesing by running the same play over and over. But is this real life?
Edit: Apparently that’s what AJP and the Dodgers pitcher were talking about in JJ’s comment @34.
Love how fun this team is! (But seriously even a bad game makes my work day better.)
Edward, what do you do? You’d be a fun co-worker.
Liberty Media’s money equals future potential payroll (hopefully). My short-term and long-term interests are in the Braves being good – something I will always care far more about than Alberto Callaspo’s grandchildren having robust trust funds. Not that I begrudge him or dislike him as a person, I just weight my selfish interests more highly. I suspect this is the case for many fans.
@20
Interesting stuff. Although this…
“…Inside-Edge credits major-league teams for saving 179 hits over what was expected with an excellent play as of Tuesday, while bad defense was blamed for allowing 156 hits that normally would be outs.
But that seems like a drop in the bucket given that position players have had 76,112 total chances this season.”
…is as dubious an assertion to me as any defensive WAR numbers.
@48 – I believe 44 was John getting his Pierzynski on: taking an innocuous moment and trying to find a way to irritate people, being sarcastic, apropo of nothing except some perceived slight remembered only by him.
Recapped.