Braves Report

As one of the best left-handed pitchers ever, Warren Spahn will be forever remembered in baseball lore. Possibly without a three-year stint in World War II, Spahn may have been the third pitcher with 400 wins. Still, Spahn enjoyed a stellar career that would leave him with the most wins by a left-hander during the live ball era.

Born on this day in 1921 in Buffalo, New York, Spahn endured the pains of the First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second World War. Spahn reached the majors in 1942 at the age of 21, but he did not last long due to Spahn refusing to throw at a hitter during an exhibition game. Stengel would later state that it may have been the worst decision he ever made. Yet, in the following year, Spahn enlisted in the American army to serve 3 years during World War II along with several other major leaguers, and he was awarded several Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star for bravery and courage. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge and was the only major leaguer to receive a battlefield commission.

After coming back to the major leagues at age 25, Spahn began a long and prosperous career. In 1947, Spahn had the lowest ERA in the NL with a 21-10 record. He would win two other ERA titles in 1953 and 1961. In 1948, a columnist wrote a poem entitled “Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain” in admiration of the two hurlers who won 8 games in 12 days. By 1957, Spahn was still the ace, this time for Milwaukee, and that same year the Braves won the World Series. He pitched on two other pennant winners in 1948 and 1958. For four consecutive seasons from 1949-1952, Spahn led the league in strikeouts, and by the time he was done, he was second on the all-time strikeout list with 2,583. Yet, his success did not end there. He had 13 seasons with 20 or more wins, including a 23-7 record when he was 42. In 1957, he won the Cy Young Award, and he finished second three times in an era which only gave one for the entire major leagues. At age 39, he threw his first no-hitter, and he added another a year later.

Known for his high leg kicks and incredible durability and stamina, Spahn was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1973. After playing, he was the manager for the AAA Tulsa Oilers, the pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians, pitching coach for a minor league team in the Angels organization, and the pitching coach for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. A few months before he died, he attended the unveiling of his statue at Turner Field. Spahn died at the ripe old age of 82 due to natural causes.

 Fun Facts:

- Gave up Willie Mays’ first hit which was a homerun in the 14^th inning of a game he started and battled with Juan Marichal. (He ultimately lost the game because of it)

- Known as “Hooks” because of the shape of his nose due to being hit by a ball when not paying attention.

- Hit surprisingly well for a pitcher by hitting a homerun in 17 consecutive seasons and finished with an NL record 35 for his career.

- The Warren Spahn Award is given to the best left-handed pitcher in baseball.

It was a great day for Smoltz. As has already been mentioned in the blog, he achieved the milestone of 3000 strikeouts. Only 15 other pitchers in all of baseball have matched that accomplishment. He will forever by immortalized along side other greats like Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Don Sutton, and Phil Niekro. That is a heady group, that Smoltz belongs with. Congratulations, John.

The bats, after several good days, decided to stay home, so there is not a lot to report. Escobar had 2 hits, both were singles. Diaz, also 2 singles. Sadly, KJ, Chipper, Tex, McCann and Kotsay all went 0 for…

While John Smoltz got his 3000th K, he also got hung with the loss, a totally unfair one at that. He had a fantastic outing. He went 7 innings, allowing only five hits, striking out TEN. But, on a night like this one, the one run he gave up was enough to give him the loss. The pen was ineffective, but started out well. Boyer pitched .2 innings, only allowing one hit. Ring did his job after than, getting out the lefty. But, it went down hill from there. Campillo was shaky, but looked like he was out of the inning until he mishandled a ground ball that should have been a double play. He never recovered. Eventually 5 of his runners scored, but only one earned. Resop was brought in to put out the fire. But, after a hit and a walk he finally ended the inning, and for all intents and purposes, the game.

Tommorrow’s game 7:10 PM. Not nationally televised.

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John Smoltz recorded his 3,000th career strike out in the 3rd inning of tonight’s game vs. the Nationals. The new trivia answer is that Felipe Lopez is the victim.

In honor of Smoltz’s 3,000th K, here are 3,000 K’s:
K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K

The Braves just continue to roll. After sputtering out of the starting block, everything is finally starting to click and we are seeing the team we thought we had at the end of spring training. That makes five wins in a row for the Braves and for the first time this season, we are over .500.

Normally here I would talk about either pitching or hitting, but tonight, I will do something different. Tonight, the Braves threw out 3 runners on the base paths, not something you see every game. The Nats forgot the first rule of baseball, “Don’t run on Francoeur.” If you are thinking about running, refer to rule 1. Tex also threw out a runner at second when that runner tried to take advantage of an error. The last runner erased was by Escobar whose heads up play gunned a runner down at home.

Bobby went with a little different line up tonight. KJ and Kotsay were given the night off and it worked out pretty well for us. Prado may finally be realizing he belongs in the majors. He has torn it up at AAA, but has struggled with each call up. Tonight he was 2 for 5, both doubles, with 2 RBI and a run scored. Blanco, who has been hot subbing on for Diaz, continued his torrid streak. He went 2 for 3 with a walk and is batting a cool .444. Oh, he also scored once. Diaz, apparently trying to get off the platoon, had three hits in four tries, scoring twice. McCann hit his 5th home run in the second and had a single to go with it.

I missed the first few innings, when I got in my car and clicked on the old XM radio. First thing that came up was the score, 6 - 0 Atlanta. I though, “Wow! Huddy must be dealing!” Then, I get to my TV only to find out he gave up 10 hits! He made the pitches when he needed to. Tonight his line was, 6.2 innings, 10 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, 2 BB and 3 Ks. Except for those hits, it’s a pretty impressive line. Ring got Huddy out of the 7th by getting out a left hander. Carlyle pitched an inning. The plate was jumping around a little on him. He gave up 2 hits, a walk, and a run. Acosta pitched the ninth, got into a little trouble, but made FILTHY pitches to get out of it.

Tomorrow’s game, 7:10 PM. Not nationally televised.

Feel free to leave a comment or join the discussion in the Forum. Check back often to see all of our blogs.

I believe I said in a past recap, that for the Brave to succeed certain thing had to happen. I’m pretty sure two of those things were, Tex needed to start hitting and the pen needed to perform. Well, looks like those two things have happened, and the results have been pretty good. When the starting staff gets back and healthy we are going to be the team to beat, if not sooner.

Jurrjens had what can only be termed the best outing of his career, giving an exhausted pen at least one day of rest. He pitched 7 innings of three hit ball, giving up only one run. Boyer pitched an inning, got into a little trouble, but pitched his way out of it. Ohman pitched the ninth and ended the game

Tex keeps coming out of his early season funk. He’s got his power swing working, along with it, his average is starting to creep back up. Tex had 3 hits, one was a home run, diving in three on the day. Kelly Johnson, who really needs to step up if he is going to keep the lead off spot, had 2 hits and crossed the plate three times, once for each time he reached base. Chipper had 2 hits before he had to be pulled from the game, but more on that later. Frenchy reached base 4 times, 3 hits and a walk. He drove in three. Kotsay continues to prove his is healthy with 2 hits.

Now for the bad news. Chipper was pulled from the game with a sore/strained quad. Bobby has said its, “nothing that’s going to have him out any length at all.” But, this is Chipper, we can’t help but be worried. After all, he is the hottest hitting on the team (in all of baseball actually) and has a 12 game hitting streak working.

Tomorrow’s game, 7:10 PM. Not nationally televised.

Feel free to leave a comment or join the discussion in the Forum. Check back often to see all of our blogs.