Braves Report

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Another day, another good outing by a starter, another loss. Why do I get the feeling that writing the recaps isn’t going to be much fun for the rest of the season? But, I guess I will have to slog through somehow.

Morton had what was probably the best outing of his career, also his longest. He gave us seven outstanding innings limiting the Brewers to only two runs on four hits. When he came out, the game was close, but Soriano took care of that for us, promptly giving up two runs. Nunez got the last three outs with out incident.

Quiet day at the plate today. We had more K’s (10) than hits (7), never good. The only runs were driven across by Kotchman and Johnson. Prado and KJ each had two hits.

Brave lose, 2 - 4.

Tomorrow’s game, 1:35 PM not nationally televised.

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Back to our losing ways I see. Chuck James continues to the be ultimate “AAAA” player. Dominate at “AAA” and can’t quite get over the hump to be successful in the bigs. Maybe it is the injury, maybe it is the lack of a third pitch. If it is the injury, he needs surgery. If it is the lack of a third pitch, he needs to learn one over the off-season.

As I mentioned, James wasn’t so good, but I wasn’t clear exactly how bad he was. He couldn’t get out of the third inning. In his 2.2 innings, he allowed six runs to cross, on six hits and four walks. Oh, since he is Chuck James, he did give up two home runs. Overall, the pen was solid tonight, except for one. Carlyle pitched 1.1 perfect innings. Tavarez was perfect for two. Boyer threw a great inning. Ring, wasn’t as good. Two hits, a walk and an error later three runs had crossed. Ohman (of course) was perfect.

Not much going on behind the plate tonight. We managed only five hits and no one had more than one.

Braves lose 0 - 9.

Today’s game 3:55 PM on FOX.

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Finally, we win one! It seems like it has been a week (6 days). I can’t get too excited over this, since the team has largely given up and is beginning to focus on next year. But, a win is a win, and I will take it.

Pitching was better than it has been the past few days. Hampton wasn’t great, but he wasn’t awful, either. It was his longest outing of the season (not hard) and he lowered his ERA. He went five innings, giving up seven hits and four runs. If he could have cut back on the walks, it would have helped. The pen helped tonight. Bennett pitched two solid innings, perfect innings, in fact. Soriano and Gonzo pitched the last two innings, neither game up a run.

The story of the night was the hitting. We pounded out seven runs on fifteen hits. Escobar had two hits, scored and drove one in. Kotsay did the same. Infante is on fire as of late. He had three hits tonight, two RBI and two runs scored. KJ joined the hit parade with two hits and two RBI. Sammons hits and three RBI in his second (?) game.

Brave salvage the series finale, 9 - 4.

Today’s game 7:35 PM. Not nationally televised.

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Well, now that the Braves have given up, I wonder if I should give up writing these recaps? How many in a row have we lost now? Five, I think? Oh well, I guess I’ll just make the recaps shorter.

Once again, poor pitching from the pen and poor hitting did the team in. On the hitting front, we did have a few, 11, but nothing really in the clutch. Our new acquisition, Kotchman, impressed with an 0 for 5 performance, stranding four runners. On the plus side, Norton is swinging a hot bat posting two more hits. Infante had three, KJ two, and Frenchy two. With all that hitting, we only managed two runs?

Once again, the starter gave us a good start… once again the pen didn’t. Jurrjens (the only starter from the start of the season who HASN’T spent time on the DL) pitched a solid seven innings allowing only three runs. Boyer stunk. He only got one out, allowing two runs to cross on a home run. Ohman (AKA soon to be gone) was perfect, the only good outing on the night. Ring gave up a run, as did Tavarez.

Braves continue to stink, lose 2 - 7.

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It is official, the Braves’ season is over. The only burning question left is… “Who else is going to be traded?” So far, I have been pretty disappointed with Frank Wren, JS always seemed to have a way to get that extra player, to get extra value back. Since Wren has taken over, I’ve really felt like we have gotten the short end of most of the trades. Regardless, without Tex, we are done.

The Braves played as if the season ended yesterday, the pen allowing the game to be blown wide open. Campy gave us a great outing, but we have come to expect that from him. Seven fantastic innings, allowing seven hits and only two runs. When he was taken out, the game was tied, it didn’t stay tied long. Soriano comes in, a walk and a hit later we are losing. He makes it through the inning. Gonzo was next. Three walks, two hit and five runs, he was done. Boyer was brought in to put out the fire, he did, by letting more runners cross.

Our Texless offense didn’t show much either. We had nine hits on the day, four of them came from Blanco. Outside of Blanco it was pretty sparse, Norton did manage two hits.

Today’s game, 7:10 PM. Not nationally televised.