New York Mets at Atlanta Braves Series Recap

by SCrebel10 on Sep 19, 2011 9:15 AM EDT in Series Previews & Recaps

Well, no one can accuse the Braves of not making things interesting going down the stretch. With the race for the National League wildcard spot in its final stages, the Braves dropped two of three games to the New York Mets.

As of now, Atlanta sits 3.5 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals with nine games left to play. Here are some notes from this weekend's series.

Ruben Tejada had a field day this weekend against Atlanta. During the series, he went 5-10 at the plate with six RBI's, including four in the series finale.

Jason Heyward started only two games in the series, but went 3-7 at the plate with two walks against the Mets.

Friday was the tale of two different pitchers. Mets starter Chris Capuano threw well against Atlanta again, giving up two runs in five innings while striking out six. Derek Lowe on the other hand, pitched terribly. Lowe lasted only 2.1 innings, giving up nine hits and six runs. The Braves need Lowe to improve by leaps and bounds and fast.

David Wright recorded four hits over the three-game series, but two of those were home runs in game one of the series.

Tim Hudson was dominant Saturday afternoon, striking out ten in eight innings of work, earning a win when Atlanta badly needed it.

Sunday was the first time all season that Craig Kimbrel and Jonny Venters have given up a run in the same game. I wouldn't expect it to happen too many more times.

Brian McCann went 1-9 during the series. Atlanta can't afford for that to keep up as it attempts to lockdown the wildcard.

Up next:

Atlanta heads to Florida for a three-game series against the Marlins. The Braves magic number sits at seven with nine games to play.

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Just win games, guys.

Any game we win is a huge dagger into the aspirations of the other Wild Card hopefuls. It’s reprehensible that it’s taken this long to wrap this up, but there’s still time to rectify it by just putting up some Ws.

Hell, if we go 7-2 over this stretch, we’re all set. Even 6-3, which just involves winning every series (or sweeping one and losing one) gives the other guys very little room for error. Just win.

by Ivan the Great on Sep 19, 2011 9:33 AM EDT reply actions

Tejada and Duda have "Braves Killer" written all over them...

Well, we essentially beat ourselves, yesterday.

Having McClelland out there didn’t help. Jeez…. Horrible strike zone which, of course, is going to snowball against the Braves. Is that dinosaur ever going to retire, or are they going to be wheeling him out there? He’s been making shady calls since the freaking Pine Tar incident and will probably be around another 10 years.

Manny Acosta. Unbelievable.

"It looks like The Hound of the Baskervilles out there." - Steve Stone
"...I'm reminded of Wuthering Heights." - Harry Caray
~
"Wang, my third at-bat, he threw me a 1-0 fastball that I fouled straight back, and he came back with another heater, which surprised me." - Freddie Freeman
~
Gaby Sanchez - 1, Nyjer Morgan - 0

by Chief Noc-A-Homa on Sep 19, 2011 10:42 AM EDT reply actions

Duda’s homer off of Kimbrel was only the second HR Kimbrel has given up all year (per SI . com). I liken Duda catching up w/Kimbrel’s high heat to the blind squirrel finding the occassional nut analogy. Regardless, it came at the worse time. It was pretty much the insurance run that sealed the deal.
I dare say Kimbrel & Venter’s will be fired up & ready to avenge themselves in this Marlins series. Poor fish. Lucky for them no one will be there to see it.

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." Rogers Hornsby

by adc62 on Sep 19, 2011 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Regardless of the homer….

I don’t even want to know the guy’s avg against the Braves.

by Chief Noc-A-Homa on Sep 19, 2011 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions

vs ATL this year

He’s .325 / .372 / .475 w/3 doubles & a HR in 40 AB’s. (I think we all know when he got the HR.) He wasn’t much at the beginning of the year with most of his offense coming from Aug 26 to present. I don’t think the Ted is helping matters by playing “Oh duda day” or “zippity duda” whenever he comes up to bat. I think it fires him up alittle.

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." Rogers Hornsby

by adc62 on Sep 19, 2011 2:37 PM EDT up reply actions

….Sounds about right.

the knife in the heart is he looks like Mac’s older brother.

by Chief Noc-A-Homa on Sep 19, 2011 2:46 PM EDT up reply actions

5 wins

Assuming the Cardinals lose against Halladay today, that is all the Braves need to win over the last 9 games to make the playoffs. More then likely, 4 games would be sufficient. It would then take the Cardinals/Giants to win 8 games in the last 9 to TIE the Braves (also assuming my math is right).

"It said 'Bear Left,' so they turned around and went home...." - John Smoltz

by bashby20sh on Sep 19, 2011 10:47 AM EDT reply actions

If the Cardinals beat Halladay, then I’ll be perturbed.

The Giants ahve their work cut out for them, as they face Kershaw and the Dodgers tonight. And they also have a 3-game series left against the Dbacks.

If we can just take care of our own business, we should be fine, but with every one of our players trying to go yard every at-bat, instead of just getting a base hit, it’s going to make the funk-like conditions continue.

Lowe vs Vazquez in this series with the Fish. Fitting enough.

by Chief Noc-A-Homa on Sep 19, 2011 10:56 AM EDT up reply actions

and...

No Livan when we face the gNats next weekend.

I won’t be convinced until I see it. He’s contractually obligated to face the Braves in every series.

by Chief Noc-A-Homa on Sep 19, 2011 11:00 AM EDT up reply actions

Instead we get Strasburg, whom unlike lots of veterans who are phoning it in, feels that there’s something to prove. I’d rather have Livan.

No wonder nobody likes you, Tuttle... everything's a (Pujols) damn debate.

by royhobbs on Sep 19, 2011 11:02 AM EDT up reply actions

Either way, we have to play the gNats.

Our final Phillies series is looking like this….

Delgado vs Lee
Lowe vs Worley
Hudson vs Oswalt

If we take 1, AND make the playoffs, I’ll be happy. Hopefully, at that point, we can reload with Hanson and/or Medlen, and one of them takes Lowe’s spot. Lowe is running on empty…..actually….he just ran out of gas.

by Chief Noc-A-Homa on Sep 19, 2011 11:09 AM EDT up reply actions

If Lowe were a horse, we'd be selling him to the glue factory by now.

by Nabb1 on Sep 19, 2011 11:46 AM EDT up reply actions

That Passan article on the Red Sox and Lackey made me feel a little better.

Ok….. alot better. We only have 1 year to go.

And if, early next year, our other pitching is beyond hot, we can Kawakami it and let Lowe decide whether he wants to hang it up, or be Zito for a year.

by Chief Noc-A-Homa on Sep 19, 2011 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions

If Lowe were a horse...

he would’ve already been put down by now…

by WeStillHaveBobby on Sep 19, 2011 12:15 PM EDT up reply actions

If Derek Lowe were a horse...

We probably wouldn’t have paid him $60M to pitch for us.

If Albert played in the AFL, they’d have to rename it the AZ/NM Fall League, based on where his homers landed.

by Yakker on Sep 19, 2011 1:31 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

touche

by WeStillHaveBobby on Sep 19, 2011 2:03 PM EDT up reply actions

Except we've hit him before

Livan has been a problem of late.

http://sportsandgrits.com/

by Mr. Sanchez on Sep 19, 2011 12:41 PM EDT up reply actions

No Livan when we face the gNats next weekend.

shhh…keep it down. They might hear….

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." Rogers Hornsby

by adc62 on Sep 19, 2011 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions

On the brighter side...

We have won 3/5 after losing 4 straight.

And it could have been 4/5 if the perfect storm of McClelland / Beachy / Venters / Tejada / Duda hadn’t hit.

by Chief Noc-A-Homa on Sep 19, 2011 11:15 AM EDT reply actions

brighter still would be a sweep of the Fish ...

we’ve already swept the 1st two 3 game series at Sun Life, so another sweep is definitely in order.

by fandave on Sep 19, 2011 12:33 PM EDT up reply actions

Brian...

needs to talk to his daddy.

"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

by sddbaker on Sep 19, 2011 11:54 AM EDT reply actions