Braves Report

You know, these recaps aren’t much fun to write when the Braves are losing. They lost their third game in a row last night, and now have a 11-14 record. What’s worse, I know how I mentioned that Bobby pitches to pretty much every hitter, no matter how much they’ve beat up on the Braves in the past. I named Carlos Beltran as one of those players, and he’s beginning to make me question Bobby’s decision making. Beltran knocked the Braves around last night, but I’ll get to that in a second. Let’s start with the pitching.

Javier Vazquez was having a good night yesterday until the 6th inning. Then things unraveled pretty quickly. Carlos Beltran and then David Wright each hit 2-run homers, giving the Mets the lead. In the next inning, Beltran would do it again. O’Flaherty would relieve Vazquez and end the inning without incident. Vazquez’s night was okay until that point, where his line was: 6 and 2/3rds innings, 7 hits, 6 runs, 3 walks, and 8 strikeouts. Of the 110 pitches he threw, 73 were strikes. Had he not allowed those homers, he would be looking at a pretty stellar night. Unfortunately, this isn’t a fairy tale. Moylan and Bennett would pitch the next two innings, without incident.

The offense probably should’ve done more than it did, but it didn’t. They scored 4 runs on 5 hits, even though Maine walked 6 people.

[Image: Yahoo! Sports]

Almost sadly, the first two runs of the game came from a Javier Vazquez ground out, which actually scored 2 due a throwing error. After that, Escobar would single in a run. Chipper, continuing his tradition of beating up on the Mets, had a solo shot in the 9th. Other than that, Kotchman, Francoeur, and Brandon Jones had singles. Kelly Johnson went 0-4, lowering his average close to the Mendoza line, at .208. Maybe he shouldn’t be batting lead off? Also, this team needs a real power hitter.

Braves lose 3 in a row, 6 – 4.

Next game: Tuesday vs. Mets.

7:00 PM EST. Kawakami vs. Hernandez. Time to turn this streak around.