Braves vs. Brewers Series Recap
by Scott Coleman on Apr 8, 2011 9:00 AM EDT
in Series Previews & Recaps
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PrintAfter winning their first series of the year, the Braves offense fell asleep in Milwaukee and lost three out of four. Here is the good, bad, and ugly from the second series of the year:
The Good:
Monday's 8th Inning - The Braves bats had been shut down by Chris Narveson and Kameron Loe for the first seven innings of the game. Former-Brave relief pitcher Takashi Saito came in the 8th and wasn't greeted kindly by his former teammates. Martin Prado took a high fastball and sent it deep into the left field seats and Dan Uggla got a hanging breaking ball that just cleared the left field wall. There weren't many bright moments for the Braves in this series, but Monday's 8th inning certainly was.
Brandon Beachy - He was great in his season debut on Monday and pitched six strong innings against one of the NL's most talented lineups. He allowed just one run on four hits and a walk, and he struck out seven Brewers. If he's able to keep this up, the Braves might've found themselves a #4 starter for the foreseeable future.
Jason Heyward's 3-run HR - With the offense struggling to hit Marco Estrada, J-Hey took a 2-0 fastball and hit a monster 3-run home run into the right field seats. It was a no-doubter from the moment he hit the ball and it brought the Braves within one run.
Matt Young - He recorded the first hit of his career in Thursday's game, and he made two incredible diving catches. Looks like Matty will be staying in Atlanta for quite a while.
The Bad:
Tuesday's Loss - The Braves were shutout for the first time and while Yovani Gallardo is no slouch on the mound, our hitters were continually ahead of the count but failed to take advantage of Gallardo's mistakes. They had just two hits off of the right-handed ace and not one runner made it into scoring position.
Prince Fielder Called Safe at Home Plate - He was out, but hey, it was a tough call and mistakes happen. It only cost us a good shot at winning the game, but oh well...
The Ugly:
The Offense - 2 runs on Monday, 0 on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, and 2 on Thursday. But yeah, let's keep on having our best hitter hit 6th and our second worse hitter hit 2nd. Teams around the league are going to realize we don't have any protection for Heyward in the batting order, and they're going to start pitching around him.
The Brewers at Home Plate - STOP GOING AFTER BRIAN MCCANN. It's one thing if a catcher is blocking the plate. It's a completely different thing if the opposing team's runners are going out of there way and are aiming to hit the catcher. That's just not how you play baseball. McCann got pummeled multiple times during the series, and as Gondeee mentioned in the recap, I wouldn't mind seeing a hard slide or two by Eric Hinkse when the Brewers come to Atlanta in a few weeks.
Tommy Hanson vs. Ryan Braun - Braun now has four career home runs off of Hanson. Maybe we should have Tommy pitch around him next time...
Next Up:
The Braves will finally get to celebrate Opening Day at Turner Field with the Phillies coming to town. It's the start of a 9-game home stand, and some time at The Ted should get us back to our winning ways.
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Beachy gets less run support than Kawakami ever did
let’s send him back to Mississippi.
THE NL WEST WILL NAIL YOU IN THE RUSTY GROIN WITH SOMETHING --TheLetter2
www.duwanis.com
Poor Beachy...
He’s never going to get the WINZ. I figure around the time he gets up to 0-6, the trolls will come crawling out of the woodwork, insisting that he sucks and demanding that he BE sent to Mississippi, despite his sub-2.00 ERA.
"Never doubt Derek Lowe's ability to win despite himself."
by EricGreggWasPaidOff on Apr 8, 2011 11:08 AM EDT up reply actions
This is EXACTLY
what I logged on to say. Little jerk.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
I nominate Sherrill for the job.
If we can land [Stephen Drew], I will give FW a bj.
~justincredubil02
by king of games on Apr 8, 2011 11:24 AM EDT up reply actions
No, Sherrill can actually get him out. He’s our NMOOGY.
"Never doubt Derek Lowe's ability to win despite himself."
by EricGreggWasPaidOff on Apr 8, 2011 12:39 PM EDT up reply actions
But we don’t need him suspended.
If we can land [Stephen Drew], I will give FW a bj.
~justincredubil02
by king of games on Apr 8, 2011 6:03 PM EDT up reply actions
Not a good series,
but it’s early, it was on the road, and the Brewers are a good team.
I’ll excuse the Braves as long as they have a good homestand. 6-3 or better would be my preference.
"Yeah, and I have an enchanted jock strap." -- Karl Karlson
I now twitter as @junkstats and blog about made-up stats and general baseball stuff at JunkStats.
2 big concerns, at least for me:
1 – Offense. I think we’ve beaten the Heyward horse to death, so I won’t mention that here. I will, however, say that we’re going to run out of butter for all the LOBsters we’ve seen over the span of the first week. Timely hits, not so much.
2 – Cyborg Hanson must have a virus. Internal Server Error – Velo down, struggling in locating/command of his pitches.
I’m with you Pac – it’s still early, but those are 2 concerns that need to be addressed if we’re going to compete with Philly this season.
CEO and Founder of the Draft Ryan Mallet bandwagon.
by DolphinNation on Apr 8, 2011 10:52 AM EDT up reply actions
Are the home plate incidents really that big a deal?
McCann didn’t care. And I would want any of our players to do the same thing. It’s apart of baseball and has been in the game for a long time. I mean he’s in full pads. Has any catcher been injured in a collision like that before? What about takeout slides at second base? No one screams about those. There’s no crying in baseball so just get over it.
Shane Victorino
Bowled over McCann in 2009 and concussed him. Chase Utley has also bowled him over too, and although he wasn’t injured, he was removed from the game just in case. I can’t remember who it was, but one catcher tore an ACL getting bowled over.
Just yesterday the Twins’ Tsuyoshi Nishioka got taken out by Nick Swisher on a slide at second. He was removed from the game, and it was revealed he had a broken leg and is hitting the DL. Let’s not forget Yunel Escobar giving Ryan Church a Tiger Knee during a slide that pretty much finished off what remaining career he had left.
No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.
Uh, yeah....
A lot of catchers have been injured in collisions at the plate. The fact that you don’t know that causes me to think you maybe don’t know all that much about the entire subject, so maybe you shouldn’t be telling anyone to “get over it”.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
Catchers get hurt on those plays all the time.
But perhaps you haven’t watched baseball in the last 20 years or so.
"That guy mvhsbball is really an insufferable schmuck." - FuquaManuel
Twitter: @scottcoleman55
by Scott Coleman on Apr 8, 2011 6:47 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
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