Saturday, Saturday.
Don’t give us none of your aggravation. I volunteered specifically for Saturday recaps for two reasons- knowing that you young blades would thus be freed to trip the light fantastic to all hours, such is my empathy. Secondly because of this song i like which i intend to offer every Saturday night the Braves win until i am overwhelmed with protests. How can you be angry if we win? Saturday day games will be mercifully free of all cant.
A good baseball game broke out, two pretty evenly matched teams,till late, a few very big plays and, strangely, we won out on all of them.
JT had a sorely needed excellent outing going 6 innings, 3 hits, 3 walks, 4K., no runs. That obviously put us in a strong position but their guy Volquez was more than decent and Julio left with a 2-0 lead after 6 only because of two big plays, one pure luck the other Braves HOF for me, considering who made it
Scoreless in the 4th Freddie led off with a routine fly ball to left which Osuna lost in the night sky.(Hey There, you with the stars in your eyes). Running hard all the way Freddie was on second. Nick(3 hits on the night) drove him in and a couple of outs later Dansby ‘served in’ Jace with two outs, nice, lucky.
We had a two run lead but almost right away it was threatened. They had the tying runs on with this awful guy Riddle up(wasn’t he in Batman?) Chip and Joe had sworn he couldn’t harm a fly but Joe’s courage began to fail him when the Riddler smashed a vicious line drive over Nick’s head. Amazingly and athletically Nick turned, reached up for it and held on. Joint play of the game, the other was to come later.
In the 8th we added a much needed third run when Freddie hit his best ball of the night to deep left center for another double. Matt followed with a dribbler to third which Marlena threw away letting that insurance run come home. Dietrich BTW, the culprit here, impressed mightily at the plate with his power, as did Bour of course. Two LH bats that define the word contact either one of whom would add mightily to our arsenal. Bour in fact is beginning to look like another Schwarber, without having to play the outfield. I guess he is untouchable but Dietrich surely not? Some young pitching? They have a real need, now.
In the 7th, Bour leading off , Snit sent in EOF to take care of him. And he did, he was back in the dugout after just one pitch – which halved our lead. Be honest, have you ever seen a second deck home run hit with so little effort, such smooth gentle grace, by a fat man, all wrists?
Snit then did something i could never do. Ho hummed EOF’s first pitch in the upper deck, left him in, he got all three outs to take us to the 8th. No problem.
Viz did a nice job in the bottom of the 8th but was increasingly under pressure when with two out Yelich got on and Osuna the mighty came to the plate as the tying run, Stanton waiting on deck. There then followed the second play of the game after the ninth pitch of an epic duel., his seventeenth pitch of the innings. He threw a slider inside, it wasn’t a strike likely, Osuna took it, Flowers framed it. Called strike three. Wow. I thought Osuna handled himself very well in the circumstances but it was a massive call and the roof raised a little in our house.
The ninth was anti climactic after all that. We didn’t score and more importantly neither did they thanks to a highly competent save by JJ. Great game, great win.
Saturday, Saturday
Great game even better recap! Thank you, blazon.
Glad to see JT getting back on track.
Everything timo said. Happy Mothers Day. Make it a sweep one, Braves.
No protest here, keep it coming.
I loved that recap
thanks to all…
here’s something you didn’t know…
Frank Lloyd Wright
used to watch Ryan Klesko’s routes every night
those concentric meandering circles
permanently etched on his stylish bifurcles.
and now the sweep?
I find it curious that no one has commented on Glavine’s interest in buying the Marlins….
Lost in all of the frustrating parts of this season, it’s important to note that the pitch-framing has been really good. Flowers leads the league in stolen strikes, basically, and Suzuki has done really well too. In the 1st, Suzuki stole a strike 3 on a potential ball 4 to Stanton to end the inning with runners on the corners. If the pitchers would meet these catcher halfway, we might have a good team.
When did DOB start with the “silencing of naysayers” line? Admittedly, he says “skeptics” in lieu of “critics”.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/baseball/braves-tyler-flowers-continues-silence-skeptics/QWszJUwu3busKvNwXGfV7J/
Cy Nicolino… sigh…
Has anyone heard anything about Medlen? I miss Medlen.
Cakes! That’s what we needed. It really makes you anxious to have all those baserunners with nothing to show.
Yesterday I said most of the starters have been disappointing at best. That was not fair to Dickey. If you look at his numbers so far, he’s given us just what we should expect. And it’s not bad. (Of course I probably just jinxed him)
10 — His Fangraphs page says he is in extended spring training.
Adonis is so slow.
@12, thanks.
I’ll take credit/blame for that one. Dickey is doing what we should expect. We will be glad to get 7 innings and 3 runs from him every time. Sometimes that’s not enough.
Lucas Sims: 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 K
I’m following on the radio so did not see but Jim Powell insists that Dickey got squeezed big time in the walk to Ellis.
He did. I was on the treadmill and clapped my hands in frustration to the bewilderment of the people around me. With that said, Dickey had a large zone all day. Suzuki deserves credit for a half WAR of Dickey’s season. The problem was not the call or the HR, but that we’ve put one run across all day.
@16, he did get squeezed prior to the HR. But the strike zone’s been rather huge all night.
Or what Rob said. We should have scored more runs against Nicolino.
I hate Chip.
Shows that the season is still early that Dickey was leading the SPs in ERA before that home run, and one swing of the bat put him 3rd amongst the starters.
@19
To be fair, that’s gone in a lot of parks. I hope, as we see how SunTrust plays out, that we get some ground ball pitchers and players with HR power to RF. It doesn’t seem that speed, fly ball pitchers, and HR power to LCF are the optimal skills of our players. Accordingly, Swanson/Albies, strong backup middle INF and an upgrade at 3B will help tremendously. But Garcia, Dickey, Colon, and Teheran could all be victims of the park.
@15, sounds like he’s letting them know he’s ready.
At AA, another great start so far by Allard. Two hit shutout through 5 And Acuna 3 for 4. Almost makes me wish I lived in Jackson.
I’ve been critical Coppy’s job with the major league roster, justified or not, but he has pushed every button correctly with Kolby Allard.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/2015-mlb-draft-top-51/
The later articles don’t show it, but before the injury concerns lowered his stock, he was really high on boards (that article has him higher than Dansby, the eventual #1 pick). He clearly has not shown any injury concerns, and he’s been lights out. They’ve clearly managed his placement and promotions right, and aside from innings limits, he definitely seems to be a major league talent.
Allard pitched 5 more shutout innings today. Acuna went 4 for 5 with a double and is now batting .560 in Double A.
Recapped.