Game 19 Recap: Cardinals 3, Braves 2
by gondeee on Apr 28, 2009 8:32 AM EDT
in Braves Game Recaps
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PrintAnother quality start from our starter, and another loss to waste that quality start. The inconsistent offense continues.
Recapping the recaps:
"We continue to waste [Jurrjens'] good outings with bad offense," Chipper Jones said. "Until we start doing something at the top, we're going to continue to struggle."
With the top three hitters in his lineup combining for two hits in 10 at-bats, Atlanta manager Bobby Cox was forced to watch [Jair Jurrjens] suffer another tough-luck loss. The Braves have totaled three runs in his past four starts, and just one of those runs scored while he was the pitcher of record.
The kid has a 1.72 ERA this season. Our offense is maddening.
[Casey Kotchman] had a chance to cap his night with the potential game-winner, but flied out with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning. It was the latest example of offensive frustration for the Braves, who put five runners aboard in the seventh and eighth innings and came away with only a run.
"We had some runners on tonight we just didn't get the giant hit that we were looking for," manager Bobby Cox said. "We had the right guy up though."
Hobbsy said it to me multiple times this weekend and it is so true, the LOBs are killers.
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I agree with Chipper
KJ started the season pretty hot, but since April 16, he’s had a .205 OBP. I know he’s historically streaky, but come on!! And his OPB is only .295 for the whole season. It’s going to be hard to score runs when your best hitters aren’t hitting with anyone on base.
Boog said it best
Jurrjens is going to get ready to sue his teammates at this rate.
Chipper calling out KJ and once again Escobar apparently; the question is, are they going to get to prove themselves immediately, or is Bobby going to give them both a simultaneous day off and have Prado and Infante take the middle IF for a day?
I can’t be too upset with Kotchman’s failure to deliver late in the game, when he was setting the table on early up.
No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.
It sounded to me...
…like Chipper was calling himself out as well. I took “at the top” to mean the first three batters, as referenced in the next paragraph.
Honestly I would think that Bobby should shake the line up a bit with Schafer at lead off with KJ moving to either the 2 hole when righties are pitching and maybe back in lead off when lefties are pitching. Though I would really like Escobar further down the line up with KJ batting #2. I can’t stand seeing escobar swing at the first pitch when we are down and needing a hit/baserunner to win the ballgame. Plus I think escobar is in top of the league in DP that are really a rally killer when you do have your guys on base.
Maybe we should lead off with Schafer (if he gets on, he has speed) and switch Kotchman and Escobar until Yunel learns some patience.
Heck at this point, I’d like to see Ross hitting 3rd. He rarely has a poor at bat.
I like the idea of leading off with Schafer and Kotchman. That gives you 2 batters with high OBP in front of Chipper which should help a lot scoring runs. I’m not sure how you’d do the rest of the line up. Maybe
Schafer
Kotchman
Chipper
Ross/McCann
Francoeur
Diaz/B. Jones
Escobar
Johnson
Johnson should probably be ahead of Diaz/Jones, but other than that…that’s not a terrible lineup.
by Smoltz's Beard on Apr 28, 2009 10:53 AM EDT up reply actions
I agree, good lineup
It’s time to get some guys on base for Chipper and McCann.
Really disappointing game. Was it just me, or was the ump’s zone all over the place? Seemed to call the really low and the really high strike.
To the Cards' credit
Piñero was pounding the strike zone mercilessly. He got a few low breaking calls, but for the most part, he was getting ahead of everyone, mostly utilizing the breaking ball on the first pitch for strike one.
Considering how questionable Piñero used to be, I’m convinced that Dave Duncan can turn Blaine Boyer into the next Trevor Hoffman at this rate.
No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to imply Joel pitched poorly…but there were several at bats when their bullpen was in the game where I thought the ump’s strike zone was fucking enormous.
by Smoltz's Beard on Apr 28, 2009 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions
K-Zone
I remember at least a handful of times where the K-Zone disagreed with the ump…. not that that’s final and official but still….
Yeah, it just really stuck out to me towards the end of the game.
by Smoltz's Beard on Apr 28, 2009 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions
He also had he luxury of not having to throw very many pitches per batter.
Our impatience made him look better than he might have if he had to work the counts more.
To be fair...
….they weren’t swinging at a lot of pitches outside the strike zone, because he was throwing a lot of strikes… they just weren’t hitting them very well.
Chipper’s right, but in last night’s game he needs to also look in the mirror.
His at bats were impatient and he didn’t have a decent swing all night.
Whenever there is a loss, I always look at the LOB number (to see what could have been) and it usually tells a tale of inability to execute when it matters. Watching a 10-1 game where we win is fun, but it would be nice to score runs when we NEED them for a change.
I truly feel sorry for JJ. Only 1 run of support while you were on the mound in all your starts thus far this year….Pathetic.
Best lineup right now
Schafer
Escobar (just be more patient)
Chipper
Kotchman/Francouer
Francouer/Kotchman
Diaz
KJ
Ross
by ChipperTeixeira89 on Apr 28, 2009 1:40 PM EDT reply actions
I like this one:
Escobar
KJ
Chipper
Frenchy
Kotchman
Diaz/Bjönes
Ross
Pitcher
Schafer
But Bobby wouldn’t bat the pitcher 8th.
by soup du jour on Apr 28, 2009 1:52 PM EDT up reply actions
What if Jo-Jo puts together a couple nice starts? Does Glavine still take his spot when and if he returns? Bowman says late May is the ETA.
Lineup: I’d switch Esco and KJ in the order. You might have to move Ross up too.
One day three ducks were crossing the road going to get some soda, they weren't looking where they were going and a bus came along and hit them all and now they're handycapped and that's pretty much it. Handyquacks! And they didn't get their soda!!
Glavine’s done… listen to the way he’s talking. No chance he’ll be back… at least for an extended period, anyways.
This won't increase my ability to mate!!
by Cammando2317 on Apr 28, 2009 6:05 PM EDT up reply actions
Moylan
What about him giving up a run when we didn’t have one to spare.
That one run could have made a difference. I never know what we are going to get when Bobby brings them in.
The only positive part of our team is the starting pitchers ( most of the time )!!!
I feel for them. They give the team their best to get nothing in return.
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
Moylan
I might stick him on mop-up duty until he gets straightened out. On the plus side, Soriano is looking dominant.
One day three ducks were crossing the road going to get some soda, they weren't looking where they were going and a bus came along and hit them all and now they're handycapped and that's pretty much it. Handyquacks! And they didn't get their soda!!
I don’t really get why people are so down on Moylan, if you take away his first game where he gave up 4 runs, the guy has been solid giving up 3 runs in 7 innings. He is struggling a bit (as seen in his walk rate), but he is coming of TJ surgery, and he is showing me that he still has it. I say don’t send him to mop up duty, keep bringing him in, his confidence will grow and he will figure it out.
People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.
If he is not ready because of the TJ surgery he just needs to come in when the game is not on the line or send him down to get some innings pitched UNTIL he is ready. The braves are a pro team not a rehab clinic!
"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."
A rehab clinic, I believe that is a bit harsh, he hasn’t been Blaine Boyer bad. In fact, I don’t think he is pitching badly at all, should he have started the year at AAA, maybe, he gave up 5 runs in his first two games without registering an out. However, since then he has went 7 innings giving up 2 runs, not bad in my opinion. I would rather have Moylan in for the 7th inning than Carlyle, The Rev, or Parr. What concerns me is his walk rate right now; however, I believe that this can be attributed to him living at the bottom of the strike zone and perhaps getting squeezed a little bit.
People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again.
8th Inning Strategy (Copy from game thread last night)
I posted this at the end of the game, but wanted to bring it up again for more discussion:
So Schafer leads off the 8th inning with a hit, bringing up Infante with a pinch hitter to follow. Bobby has Infante bunt Schafer over. Braves load the bases, but can’t score. My question is:
Why doesn’t Schafer get a chance to steal with Infante up? He’s the fastest guy on the team. I know Molina has a great arm, but don’t you have to try to steal late in the game down 1 run? You still have the 9th inning to get another chance to score. If you’re successful, you can either bunt with Infante, have Infante get IBB and then the pinch hitter bunt. Then you have a runner at 3rd with one out and a fly ball ties the game.
There was a thread not too long go talking about Braves as the slowest team in baseball and this is a situation where it could cost you a shot at winning the game. Braves have to get better at manufacturing a run at the end of the game if they want their record in one-run games to improve.
Finally, moving guys around in the lineup is only going to change who gets the most at bats. The situations where we haven’t been able to score runs have been happening at all parts of the lineup, so I’m not sold that flipping Schafer and KJ will lead to a dramatic difference in runs scored. If Bobby isn’t going to left Schafer go with no outs down by 1 in the 8th inning, he’s not going to let him go batting leadoff at other times during the game. And to be fair, we don’t know how good Schafer is at stealing bases in real MLB games, although IMO its about damn time we find out.
What we need is to have our full complement of players (i.e. McCann back) and get execution 1-8 consistently in the lineup. Early games aside, this team is only going to score runs with multiple hits back-to-back. Juggling a lineup a bit is probably no better than just waiting for us to snap out of the offensive funk. KJ is going to hit sooner or later. I just wish it would be sooner.
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