Friday afternoon baseball at Wrigley! Wind blowing out! Sunshine and cold beer! Plenty of time this
evening to write the recap! Cut and paste special from any of the last 16 Shelby Miller starts! Braves
lose!
Ahem….
The game started out well, with Freddie Freeman driving home Nick Markakis in the first. After
surrendering a Wrigley Field Windblown Special to Chris Coghlan, the Braves pushed across two
more in the third, with Markakis getting the big two out hit to drive home Andrelton Simmons and
Pedro Ciriaco. According to Joe’nChip, it was MIller’s first two run lead since June 8. And if that
doesn’t blow your mind, I’m not sure what will.
In the fifth, Ciriaco made a throwing error to allow the Cubs to get one of the runs back, but Miller
got Kyle Schwarber to ground into a bases loaded double play to escape further damage. However,
in the sixth, Miller couldn’t keep the lead. After a 2-2 call went in favor of Anthony Rizzo, Miller
seemed to lose his composure and suffered a five pitch Episode. 1. Ball 4. 2. Run scoring double to Kris Bryant. 3. Run scoring
double to Miguel Montero. 4. Ball one to Jorge Soler. 5. Single which would have scored any human
with even below average speed, but not Montero. And like that, it was Cubs 4, Braves 3, and that’s
all she wrote. Rizzo added a two out single in the seventh for the final score.
The Braves threatened in the 9th getting Markakis and Cameron Maybin on with two outs, but
Freddie grounded into the shift to end it. Braves have lost their last 237 games away from Turner Field (number of losses approximated), and it seems like they’ll never win batting first again. I know that won’t happen, because we still get to go to Miami one more time, right? Please?
Maybe we should petition MLB to let us play all our road games down South Beach way?
Is this season over yet?
2 things here.
2) let’s sign that kid who hit the ball 370 feet
1) let’s sign that kid who tipped his cap to that kid! #playsthegamerite
Who high-fives a kid when he homers off you and you’re losing? That’s some bush-league… oh yeah.
Have 3 teams in the same division ever lost 100 games?
Bad news, Bert, we’re on pace for 70 wins right now. Losing an extra 8 on top of that is going to be tough.
But if there’s one thing we can put our faith in, it’s that Fredi Gonzalez just might be the manager to make it happen in September.
Say! Over the last 10 games we haven’t lost any ground to the Nationals!
This really sucked as shelby did indeed have an episode there. I felt really good in the 9th with two on and Freddie at the plate… Let’s see how the Bills will do today. I will actually be able to be on the field before the game.
I’m glad I haven’t been able to watch any of Folty’s recent starts, but I’m also glad he’s in the rotation. Let him work his crap out as a starter. Might as well.
I don’t think we will be good in 2017
Smitty, I agree. I feel like it is the mid 80’s with nothing to really look forward too.
I do like trotting the young arms out there and taking their lumps though. Most pitchers experience growing pains and that is fine. Very few come out great and stay great.
We were 42-42.
Now we are 53-69.
My spidey senses tell me that the difference between those is 11-27, and that is a winning percentage of .289.
If we keep winning at that prodigious clip, we figure to win 11.6 games out of the remaining 40, which would make us no worse than 64-98.
To reach 100 losses, we would need to go 9-31, which is a .225 winning percentage. I know there are a lot of naysayers out there who think we can’t do it, but I say YES WE CAN!
If you had told me midway through the 1990 season that not one, but two of the Braves starters would wind up in Cooperstown, I would have laughed in your face while calling for the men with the butterfly nets. It just goes to show that sometimes it takes a year or two for young pitchers to get a handle on how to pitch in the bigs.
“There is one word in America that says it all, and that one word is, ‘You never know.'”
@12
And what if someone told you in 1990 that the Braves would be in the 1991 and 1992 World Series?
What if someone told you that not one but two of today’s starters would wind up in Cooperstown?
I’m not sure I’d believe it, but if it happens, I hope they’re both enshrined as Braves.
Great recap. Let’s lose one for the draft pick!
I’m starting to get excited about Isranel Wilson. His average is creeping up and he’s still showing big power in Center. I’m not sure if he can stick there, but the kid has been impressive.
@17 – And he’s getting his fair share of walks. Plus, he won’t be 18 for six more months.
Definitely one to watch, do you know anything about his defense? If he’s a true CF, that’s a monster year
@17, but can he move runners over?
Whatever happened to all those international guys we signed?
Isranel Wilson was one of the 16 year olds we signed. He’s doing really well so far. Not sure what’s going on with the Cuban outfielder (Toscano?). He doesn’t project as a starter though. Olivera looks like he’ll join the major league team on Monday.
The big deal signings from 2015 were Derian Cruz, SS, and Christian Pache, OF. Gondeee wrote a good article about them here:
http://www.gondeee.com/2015/07/03/braves-2015-international-signings-and-trades/
Don’t expect to hear much from them until they reach A-ball in 2017-18. These guys are 16 years old.
Also read this entry about some of last year’s int’l signings who are playing in the rookie leagues:
http://www.gondeee.com/2015/06/25/prospects-to-watch-on-braves-short-season-teams/
Greetings from Wrigley. Let’s get em today.
I think these Braves pitchers have a much better chance to own a house in
Cooperstown someday, than have a plaque there.
Nick Swisher, Baby!
Nick Swisher may not actually be any better than Chris Johnson, but I sure do prefer watching him play.
So, I am sitting in the fifth row behind the Cubs dugout. People did not appreciate me celebrating Swishers HR for some reason.
Hey, the Mets gave us actual money — American dollars, which are legal tender in all 50 states — for Eric Young, Jr.!
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/mets/post/_/id/109262/mets-acquire-eric-young-jr-from-braves
@29, I’m not even going to look to see how much–this is the best trade Hart has made yet.
@28 I was at a Cubs game in Washington and tried to change a post-game chant of “Let’s go Blackhawks” to “Let’s go White Sox.” They didn’t like that either, moody bunch.
@30 We got bamboozled. According to mlbtraderumors, EY “could… conceivably be useful.”
This Swisher kid will have a great career.
A couple of tough breaks today for Perez, but he looked gassed in the sun.
Oh Fredie woke up.
Swisher has a non-zero chance to rebound to be a useful part-time player. If that happens, this will be the coup of coups
Edwin Jackson is finally starting to help the Cubs
I know I’m committing baseball heresy, but that damn basket net around the outfield is just one of many things I find obnoxious about Wrigley field, second only perhaps to the stupid brick fence that has no business existing on a modern ballfield.
Older isn’t always better. Blow it up.
I find a lot annoying about Wrigley Field, but I think they’d all show up at the next place.
Somehow, it does not surprise me at all this team blew a 7-3 lead.
What do the Braves see in Pedro Ciriaco? Last time I checked he hasn’t walked all year and has a lower OBP than a BA.
So will Gonzalez be fired, or does have the front office already have the ‘he did a lot with what he had to work with’ end-of-season statement written up?
Had a great day at Wrigley. Was able to get on the field during Braves BP. Very cool. Game was fun. Obviously the difference between Fredi and Maddon Maddon pulled Haren after a couple of loud outs and two base hits in succession.
I checked in on and off on this game until it was 7-3, and then headed out the door to go to a minor league game with the thought “if anyone can blow that lead, it’s these Braves!” I was completely not surprised to pull up my MLB app a couple hours later and see the final score. At this point, I basically expected it.
I know we’d have to lose almost every game from here on out to get to 100 losses, but, even with a lot of home games and some against Miami left, I’m almost expecting that to happen, too. I mean, it’s the Braves under Fredi in September…if a scenario existed where a team could go from where we were at the beginning of July to a 100-loss season, it’s this team with the scenario just mentioned.
After last night’s game, Swisher has an .867 OPS with Atlanta. It’s not out of the possibility realm for him to be a .750-.780 OPS player with 20 HRs. Big if coming…if he stays healthy.
Recap is up.