Just when things couldn’t get worse…
The Braves opened their series against the Cardinals on Monday night, and frankly, I don’t know what their intentions were. After blowing the two games on Saturday and Sunday, and the announcement of Chipper and Hudson being sent to the DL, they were unable to rebound and dropped another game in grand fashion to put them 7.5 back from first.
Morton had to be called up to from AAA as a result of Hudson’s injury, but he wasn’t exactly what the Braves needed.
[Image: Yahoo! Sports]
Quite simply, he had a terrible night, only lasting 3 and 2/3 innings, while giving up 7 hits, 8 earned runs, walking 4, and striking out 1. Bennett relieved him, 2 and 1/3 innings, 1 run, 2 hits, and striking down 2. Not horrible. In the 7th inning came Carlyle, my favorite non-closer-esque bullpen pitcher, who was perfect in his inning of work and recorded two strikeouts. Ring pitched the 8th, gave up 3 runs, 4 hits (bleh). Tavarez pitched the last inning and had the same line as Buddy. Not a great night for the pitching staff, who let up 13 hits and 12 runs in total (Note: I’m sick of this almost 1:1 hit:run ratio that opposing teams have against the Braves).
Offensively, the story wasn’t much better. Tex had the first RBI of the game in the 4th inning, and he recorded two doubles on the night. Escobar (WGC) had an RBI double and a single. Kotsay singled in a run in the 6th, but that was the end of run-production. Other notables are Infante had a pair of singles. Francoeur, Gotay, and Clint Sammons all had singles of their own. 10 hits, but not enough.
Braves drop the ball and the opener, 12 - 3.
Tonight’s game, at 7:00 PM EST, not nationally televised.