Braves Report

As I mentioned yesterday, the problem of the bullpen still seems to linger from last year. Well, once again tonight’s game bore witness to that. More interestingly, however, is the question of how the Marlins are 7-1 this season? Maybe it’s the shoddy play of their opponents? I guess we’ll find out in this recap. Onto the game.

Derek Lowe, the Braves’ new ace, had his worst outing of the season tonight, although it wasn’t that terrible: 5 innings, 7 hits, 4 earned runs, 5 strikeouts, and a lot of walks (5). Not the greatest, but with the way this team’s offense has been, it certainly didn’t put the game out of reach.

[Image: Yahoo! Sports]

(Pictured above: a 9-foot tall Derek Lowe
expresses dissatisfaction for the Marlins)

Well, at least not until the end of the game. Buddy Carlyle followed Lowe and pitched a perfect inning, including a strikeout. Moylan came in the 7th inning and would end up walking in the game-winning run. On an exciting note, he lowered his ERA closer to the drinking age without going over in his 2/3rds of an inning of work. O’Flaherty relieved him and struck out the following batter to end the inning. Soriano then came in and pitched an inning without incident. Then things got a bit out of hand. Blaine Boyer started the 9th, but was wholly ineffective. He walked the first batter he faced, hit the next one, and gave up two singles while only recording an out. This was compounded by another defensive miscue in left field, which is starting to become a concern. Campillo closed out the inning while giving up another 2 singles and a run (unearned). Boyer would later be charged with 4 earned runs.

The bats were mainly kept in check tonight, which isn’t good when the pitching is struggling. Leading the charge was Omar Infante, who singled in a run and also had a sacrifice fly. Casey Kotchman doubled in a run. Prado would also pinch-hit into a fielder’s choice for a run. The only other really notable appearance by the offense came from Jeff Francoeur, who had two hits, raising his average to .281. Unfortunately, once again, the bullpen blew it and the offense just didn’t have enough to come back.

Braves drop another, 10 – 4.

Series finale: Thursday vs. the Marlins.

12:00 PM EST. Kawakami vs. Sanchez.