Braves Report

I think it became evident early on in the season that this team would be hard to define and understand. They can suck for a large part of the season, then, seemingly out of nowhere, take two of three against teams that have given them trouble in the past in heroic fashion, and then go back to sucking so hard again. Last night was one in the last category.

Oh, how I despise the Astros. Two ruined playoff appearances in their joke of a ballpark, and they still kick the crap out of this team whenever possible. So, here we go. Campillo started this game and only lasted three innings. He gave up 4 runs, 7 hits, and struck out 1. Not great, but stuff happens. Buddy relieved him and provided his usual strong outing. He matched Campillo’s three innings, only giving up 2 hits and striking out 3. Nice, he should’ve started the game. Bennett followed with two innings of his own, allowing 2 hits and striking out a pair. Tavarez pitched the 9th, threw 4 pitches, all for strikes, but the last one landed in the right field seats. Darin Erstad (saying his name makes my blood boil) hit the walk-off homer, no less. I could’ve thought of a better location for that pitch (Braves-Report hint: it’s between the chest and the belt).

The bats were plentiful tonight, and although they couldn’t truly be clutch when they needed to be, they at least tried. All told, they plowed out 9 hits. 3 of those came from Josh Anderson, who is a player who I don’t even feel familiar with. McCann had a pair of hits. Kotchman drove in two on a single to left field. KJ had a sacrifice fly which plated a run. Brandon Jones tied the game in the 9th on a bit of a weird play, where he was called out in a delayed double play, but let the tying run cross the plate. The Braves needed a hit from Prado in the 9th to make it a true comeback, but he struck out swinging, leaving the go-ahead run on third. That left the game tied, and the rest is history.

I hate Enron Field.

Braves lose, 5 – 4.