These are the times that try Fans’ souls.  Our Braves lost last night to the San Diego Padres 7-6 in 10 innings.  It was a particularly frustrating game.  After jumping to a 4 -0 lead in the top of the second, JR Ritchie promptly walked the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the inning, and went on to surrender 5 in the inning.  But our guys tied it in the 4th when Ozzie doubled in Harris who had singled, and took a 6-5 lead in the 5th on a Dubon homer. 

Meanwhile, JR showed what he is capable of when right, as he held them scoreless in the third through 5th.  Ritchie’s line other than the second inning (Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln….): 4 IP, no runs, one hit, 7 K’s, and 2 walks. Ritchie has an excellent curveball, but until he gets better command of the heater, he won’t be consistently successful.  I think that consistency is coming, but I have no idea whether it will be soon enough to help this season.  Meanwhile, his presence in the rotation is a negative.

At the end of 5 innings , though, you had to feel good about the Braves’ chances, since the game was turned over to the best bullpen in baseball.  And then in strolls Cookie Carrasco.  Even the guys in the booth were surprised—where are any of the high leverage guys?  Cookie made it though the 6th unscathed (whew—dodged a bullet there!) but then to our collective amazement Carrasco came out for the 7th. The first batter, Tatis, tied it up with one swing.  Dylan Lee got the last out of the 7th and shut them out in the 8th.  Iggy likewise pitched a scoreless 9th.  Unfortunately, the Braves never scored again after the 5th.  So they go to the 10th.  The Braves failed to bring home the Manfred Man in the top of the inning.  Riley hit a fly to right that advanced the runner to third with one out.  But Rowdy Tellez struck out and Eli White grounded out, giving the Padres and excellent chance to win it in the bottom of the 10th.  Which they wasted no time doing, as Machado singled home the runner on Iggy’s first pitch of the inning.

You could blame this loss on bullpen management.  Dodd had thrown 39 pitches on Monday, and Lopez 58 on Sunday, so I didn’t expect to see them.  But why use Cookie in high leverage? Why not Fuentes or Karinchak or Suarez in a tight game?  Why go to Iglesias for a second inning?  In the postgame, Weiss said that Didi was unavailable—they did not want to use him on consecutive nights, even though he only threw four pitches Monday.  Most ominously, Robert Suarez was unavailable due to forearm tightness.  Welp!  Weiss said “I know the alarm bells go off when you hear forearm, but we don’t think it’s serious.”  I don’t know about you, but the alarm bells are deafening in my head.

They have now lost 9 of the last 12, and the lead over the second place Phillies is down to 5 ½ games.  As the Braves were losing in SD, the Phillies staged a remarkable comeback against the Nats.  With two strikes and two outs in the 9th, and trailing by two, the Phils scored 8 (!) runs to defeat Washington.

Even the very best teams have stretches in which they lose 9 of 12.  A bad 2-3 weeks in June after a first couple of months with the best record in baseball is not sufficient reason to panic.  But there are reasons to be concerned.  To me, the biggest weakness is the rotation.  Martin Perez has been a revelation, but if he is clearly your number 2 starter you’re in trouble.  I’m pretty confident AA will make a deal for a starter or two in the next month (but I’m highly skeptical it will be Skuball). And I still wonder whether they will stretch out Fuentes at some point to start later this season—maybe that’s why they are so careful about his innings now.  I’m not as concerned about the offense.  The biggest questions coming into the season were whether Ozzie is washed up and whether Michael will ever figure it out.  I’m satisfied with the answers to those questions.  Getting Ronald back in the lineup and Baldwin back hitting (he will) will make a huge difference.

So, my soul has been tried by this stretch, but I’m not in despair.  I hope I’m not a mere summer soldier or sunshine patriot.

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For much of this month 250 years ago, from June 11 through June 28, 1776, Thomas Jefferson, with help from a small committee that included Ben Franklin and John Adams, worked on the draft of what we now know as the Declaration of Independence.  The final draft was presented to the Continental Congress on June 28, and that body gave final approval on July 4. 

A primary inspiration for declaring independence was the pamphlet Common Sense, written by Thomas Paine and published in January 1776.  In proportion to the population at the time, Common Sense had the largest sale and circulation of any book in American history.  Gordon Wood and other historians have noted the profound impact that Common Sense had on Jefferson and the other founders.

Later in 1776, as the war for independence had taken a dark turn for the Americans, Paine wrote The American Crisis, whose opening lines were:

“ These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

I had thought that these memorable lines were in Common Sense, but the internet has reminded me that Paine wrote the “times that try souls” line at the end of 1776 rather than the beginning.  Makes sense.  The hopes and dreams of early and mid 1776 had begun to fade, and setbacks on the battlefield had put the whole enterprise in doubt.

Perhaps we should remember that these dark times will only make ultimate success this October more joyous.  As Paine further wrote in The American Crisis:

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

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The Braves can salvage something from the house of horrors that is Petco Park tonight behind Martin Perez, who goes against journeyman JP Sears at 8:40 Pacific time.