Braves Report

Some say that bad calls by umpires are a part of the game. That may be, but that doesn’t mean they have to be. This game was riddled with an inconsistent strike zone and several botched calls, both of which partially contributed to the Braves’ demise. Had the Braves won, would I still be complaining? Probably not, but the fact of the matter is, this is the only sport, other than soccer, where terrible calls are allowed to exist, and I’m getting tired of it. Let’s get on with this train wreck.

Hudson started and he was very solid. He only gave up 3 hits in 7 innings of work, while allowing 2 runs and striking out 2. Saito followed him and pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout. Wagner came in for the save but blew it, giving up the first runs the bullpen has allowed all year on an Edgar Renteria homer. O’Flaherty and Moylan pitched in extras, each only giving up a hit. Medlen followed them in the 12th, giving up a double in that inning. He got out of it, but in the 13th, he was tagged with the loss after an Aaron Rowand infield single. Juan Uribe scored from third on the play after he advanced an extra base on a McCann throwing error into the outfield. From the video, it looked like Rowand hit McCann with his bat, causing interference and the errant throw.

Kind of hard to tell, but it was ruled no contact (both teams’ announcers disagree), and the game ended one pitch later. Not the bullpen’s best outing of the season, but they can’t win them all.

Once again, the offense was not its Day 1 self. Troy Glaus seems to have found his swing, as he had two hits and drove in a run. Matt Diaz played this game and also drove in a pair of runs. Martin Prado had 3 hits on the day, as he continues to be unstoppable. Altogether, the Braves managed 11 hits, but they ended up stranding 12 runners. They also grounded into 3 double plays. Hopefully, somebody can step up in the clutch, but I guess you just can’t expect that every game.

Oh well.

Braves lose in 13, 5-4.

Next game, Saturday @ 10:05 PM EST on Sports South.

Lowe (1 – 0, 0.00) vs. Wellemeyer (0 – 0, -.–).

All good things must come to an end. Pardon the cliché, but that’s what happened to the Braves as they attempted to sweep the Cubs on Thursday night. For them, this loss meant an end to their longest winning streak of the season, 2. They still managed to win the first series of the year, however, but perhaps what is disappointing about this game is the manner in which they did it. So let’s go.

Sophomore Tommy Hanson was on the mound and he was pretty good. He only made two mistakes in the form of solo shots from Colvin and Byrd, but each was enough to cost him the game. Other than that, his line was fairly solid: 5.1 IP, 2 earned runs, 4 hits, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts. Eric O’Flaherty relieved him and was perfect in his inning and 2/3rds of work. Jesse Chavez, who the Braves picked up over the winter for Rafael Soriano, was also perfect in 2 innings of work, while recording 2 strikeouts. Once again, the bullpen looked great, and the only blemish (not really) can be attributed to the starter.

Annoyingly, the offense that we saw opening day seems to have once again disappeared. Overall, the team recorded twice as many hits as the Cubs (8), but they just couldn’t get them in. Contributing to this was three double plays, which seemed to erase rallies whenever they tried creeping up. Notable performances were by Prado, who went 3-for-4 with a double. Troy Glaus also had a pair of singles, redeeming himself from yesterday’s sour performance. Other than that, Chipper injured himself on his right side after a swing in the third inning. Hopefully he can rebound, like I’m sure this team will.

Braves lose, 2-0.

Tomorrow’s game @ Giants, 4:35 PM EST on Fox Sports South/MLB Network.

Hudson vs. Sanchez.

Well, I had it all figured out. I was going to use this space to complain about the botched double play call that the umpire made in the 5th inning. Then I was going to mention that sometimes umpires make mistakes and it’s part of the game (it shouldn’t be), but really that this is just something that the Braves need to deal with if they want to be a good ball club. Well, fortunately, they did, and it allowed them to continue out of the gate strong with a 2-0 record.

So, what happened? Jurrjens started this game and was pretty good for the first 4 innings. Going into the 5th, however, he started having some control issues and began walking people. A Glaus error then led to 2 runs being scored. Overall, Jair didn’t have a bad line: 5 innings, 2 runs (0 earned), 3 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts. Medlen followed him in the 6th and was pretty impressive. He allowed 2 hits and struck out 2 in his 2 innings of work. Moylan came in after him, and would eventually earn the win by only allowing a hit and a walk. Wagner came in to close out the game and was phenomenal. He hit 98 mph several times and only allowed 1 hit while striking out the side. It was his first save recorded as a Brave and his first since July of 2008. Once again, the bullpen continues to impress.

That leaves the offense. One of the main problems Jurrjens has always had during his career with the Braves is a lack of run support. Of course, today was no exception. The Braves quickly got on the board in the first inning thanks to a J-Hey RBI double. After that, however, they became eerily quiet. At one point, 13 consecutive Braves failed to get the ball out of the infield (9 of these were strikeouts). Glaus had a golden sombrero in the game, and Escobar had two strikeouts. I get that Dempster is a good pitcher, but this was in such contrast to yesterday’s hit parade. Fortunately, this all ended in the 8th inning. Martin Prado doubled to left-center with 1 out. Then Chipper came up. The count went to 3-1, Joe Simpson said something about Chipper wanting to be more aggressive in these situations, and then…

Gone.

Chipper ripped it out of there amidst intense fist-pumping by me. Great timing, and it was enough for the win. They held them after that and the rest is history.

Do it again tomorrow.

Braves win, 3-2.

Tomorrow’s game @ 7:10 PM EST on Peachtree TV.

Hanson vs. Wells.

Well, well, well. There are bad ways to start the season and there are good ways. This was a good way.The Braves hammered the Cubs on opening day in a manner that makes me question what I consider to be their weakness.

As always, let’s start with pitching. I’ve had some concerns about Lowe, but he ended up with the win. Not a terrific line: 6 IP, 5 ER, 5 hits, 3 walks, and 2 strikeouts. He also gave up 2 homers, but it didn’t really matter, because the offense had his back. Moylan, Saito, and Wagner followed with an inning each, recording 5 K’s together. Altogether, good work from the bullpen, and I think Lowe just needs a few more starts.

As I said, this game was really about the offense. I’ll start off first with Jason Heyward, or J-Hey, who made his Major League debut. It took him 3 pitches to knock it out of the park. He went 2 for 5 on the day with 4 RBIs. Welcome to the team. Next was Yunel Escobar, who also went 2 for 5 and had 5 RBIs. McCann had a solo shot in the second inning. Overall, it was a bashing. The only position player that didn’t get one of the Braves’ 12 hits was Melky Cabrera. Other than that, they destroyed. Keep up the good work.

Braves win, 16-5.

Next game, Wednesday @ 7:00 PM EST.

Jurrjens vs. Dempster.

Well, well, well. I guess I have some explaining to do about the lack of updates on this blog. As I’ve mentioned before, life is busy. I’ve been going through some major changes in my life recently, and honestly, I haven’t had the time or energy to write anything. So, for that, I apologize. I promise, however, that I’ll try to be better about it in the future. This means recaps for the following games, and maybe old recaps for the ones I missed. It really depends how my schedule works out. Bear with me, though, I promise you no long hiatuses like this anymore.

Now, enough of that, onto the game. The Braves played the Cubs on Wednesday night after coming off a huge walk-off win the day before. Unfortunately, they couldn’t replicate their success once again. This extra-inning loss lowered their record to 26-26, further continuing the .500 trend.

Derek Lowe started the game and had a decent outing: 7 innings, 5 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, and 4 strikeouts. Unfortunately for him, the offense didn’t provide him with much run support, so he couldn’t earn a win when he left the game.

[Image: Yahoo! Sports]

Moylan followed him, giving up a hit and striking out 2 in his inning of work. Gonzalez pitched the next scoreless inning, allowing a hit and a walk. Bennett would be charged with the go-ahead run in the 11th inning, who scored after O’Flaherty gave up a single. Overall, not really a horrid night for the pitching staff, but apparently only perfection would have sufficed.

The offense, alas, wasn’t nearly quite up to the same speed. Leading the offensive charge on the night was McCann and Chipper, who each plated a run. Chipper had a pinch-hit double, scoring the Braves’ second and final run of the night in the 7th inning. Other notables were Kelly Johnson, who had a double and a single. Escobar, Prado, and Francoeur also each had singles. That was about it for the offense. As I’ve said many times before, just not enough.

Braves lose in 11, 3 – 2.

The final game of the series (today) got rained out and was postponed until the 22nd.

Next game: Friday vs. Brewers.

7:30 PM EST. Gallardo vs. Jurrjens.