Solid starting pitching.
Timely hitting.
Quality bullpen work.
The long ball.

This was more like the Braves we were expecting to see to start the season. I was most impressed with starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens -- he really put on a show tonight. He lost it a little in the sixth, but his first five innings were brilliant. If he can stretch that solid work for another inning or two and repeat that for 60 to 70 percent of his starts then we will be in for a real treat watching him this year. It’s great seeing the kid get the Braves their first win this year.

(By the way, the newest fan club appeared tonight -- Jurrjens Surgeons.)

Seeing more homers from the team is also a solid sign. Teixeira’s homer was one of those mammoth shots we got used to seeing last year. He’s traditionally a slow starter, but maybe that will get him going. Escobar’s homer is one I think we’ll see more of from him this year. He looks like he’s bulked up and with such a solid fundamental swing his power will come without having to try and swing for the fences.

It was also good to see Martin Prado fill in so well for Scooter. I know there are some that doubt Prado, but I really believe he can be a solid major leaguer -- a guy who can serve as a quality backup and fill in adequately when a regular is injured. He had the wind knocked out of him in the eighth, but got up and finished out the game.

I was a little baffled that Bobby went to Bennett to get out of Jurrjens’ jam in the sixth. I would have thought he would have gone to Resop (who was warming up) or one of the other “one-inning” relievers. But Bennett got out of it with a little help from Chipper Jones, who avoided a broken bat while starting a double play.  Could this be the sign of a different role for Bennett, who we thought would be the long reliever out of the pen, not a situational righty who can get out of jams. With the double play in order, perhaps Bennett has sinking action on his pitches that will lead Bobby to use him as his double play ground ball pitcher.

Another interesting thing to note about this game (and Monday’s game for that matter) was how many relievers were used to bridge the gap between the starter and the ninth inning (of course, after the Braves scored seven in the eighth there was no need for a closer). After Acosta redeemed himself in the seventh inning, Cox used three pitchers to make it through the eighth. Perhaps it’s the luxury he has this year with two left-handers in the bullpen, or perhaps it’s the luxury he has early this season with eight relievers in the pen.

We get Mr. Glass on the mound tomorrow… sigh.

After the rather bizarre play last night in the ninth when a routine "can of corn" pop fly was allowed to drop between the leftfielder and centerfielder, I wondered aloud, "why in the world is that called a can of corn?"

My buddy Silas who was with me at the game -- and writes under the name sinickal at this blog -- assured me that it had something to do with a grocer catching a can of corn that fell of an upper shelf in an old timey general store. Never one to be called to task on what he believes is fact, he dug up this explanation of can of corn from a Seattle newspaper:

Damn, that means he was right. I consulted the all-knowing Wikipedia and found this answer:

That last sentence, I believe, is one of those times where the hall monitors of Wikipedia failed to catch some sort of personal reference being thrown into what are supposed to be accurate reference materials. I kind of feel good every time I see something like this on the Wiki, though in a way it’s kind of like graffiti on a building.

At any rate, I’m more inclined to believe the first explanation about the grocer shelf. And believe it or not I feel much better now that I know what a "can of corn" is.

Last night was one of the craziest, most nerve racking games I’ve even been to (and yes, I was one of those who stayed until the very end). McCann’s hit which tied it up in the ninth was unbelievable -- just unbelievable. If every game goes the way these first two have gone this is going to be the season of Tums.

Anyway, I’m slammed at work today, so there probably won’t be any posting until tonight. I just posted the Spiezio announcement -- seems like a weak move.

It's not a recap since the game isn't over (it's a mid-cap), but for the Braves regulars it's the end of the night as they have left the game and been replaced by the youngsters. I was able to catch up with Tom Glavine in the clubhouse -- after he came out of the game -- with the rest of the gaggle of reporters and I am filing this mobile post (something new we're trying out).

Yes, it was an inconsequential game during spring training, but the Braves came within one out of no-hitting the Cleveland Indians in what can only be described as lopsided tribal warfare. With two outs and two on (via walks), Braves non-roster pitcher Colter Bean allowed a single off the right-field wall to non-roster infielder David Sandoval. That ended the combined no-hit bid and the combined shutout bid.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I actually enjoyed David O'Brien's play by play of the game on his blog. I've done stuff like that in the past without much fanfare, but I think I'll do some live blogging next Tuesday and Wednesday night when I'm at the games in the press box.

Jair Jurrjens started the game with three perfect innings, and he was apparently en fuego. Here are some good quotes O'Brien got from him in the locker room after the start:

Not only does he know what he's supposed to do, he actually goes out there and executes it (even though this is really just practice). It's great to see a young pitcher with that kind of attitude and ability. I may have to reverse my earlier thought that Jurrjens needed more time in the minors.

As for the Braves hitters during this game, Teixeira mashed his first homerun of the spring while collecting two hits and (here's that name again) Joe Borchard crushed his fourth double of the spring to drive in two more runs. Borchard now has seven RBI on four hits, all doubles.

I know it's only a spring exhibition game, but it's kind of fun to get excited about these kinds of performances. Now watch us get no-hit tomorrow.... but it won't matter, right?

Fun time, spring training is. Every once in a while something or someone appears in a box score that makes you go, what!? Such a thing happened while I was checking the box score this evening in between watching the Queen behind the scenes. I saw that we lost to the Mets and I was trying to hide my disappointment that someone who might make the team gave up the game to the Mets.

Much to my surprise it was not a regular, not even close. It was a pitcher by the name of Jonathon Rouwenhorst - that is a mouthful. I looked him up on The Cube, and realized, oh, he's a left-hander. He's spent his entire 7-year minor league career in the Angels organization, the last two and a half of them at triple-A.

For every road game the team takes one "lucky" minor league pitcher with them just in case they need an emergency pitcher or someone to throw if the game goes into extra innings - which is what happened today. I just love finding players like this.

I thought it'd be fun to do a Google search of his name and after doing so I came across this talk-sports.net site that apparently offers up "forums" on all sorts of "hot-button" topics. These topics include Fan Club, Fan Blog, Girlfriend Forum, Links, Pics, and Sucks Forum. I laughed and laughed and laughed. They apparently generate these sites for every player, big or small. I especially like the Sucks Forum (catchy name) and the Girlfriend forum, which had the only post that read: "Jonathon is married with two sons!" Yes, they used an exclamation point, and spelled Jonathon correctly. I wonder if it was someone in his family. I felt tempted to make a post on the "Sucks Forum" but then I thought that one of Jonathan's two sons might read it and get upset - wow, that guilt post really worked!

I got off work early, stopped by the deli and picked up a sandwich, got home and got comfy, and sat down to watch the Braves and Dodgers go at it on ESPNHD (I had recorded it from earlier in the day). Let me just say that baseball in HD looks AWESOME!

We didn't get to hear Joe Morgan doing the color commentary for ESPN, so sad. The announcers were the always-monotone Gary Thorne with John Kruk and Steve Phillips (meh). Those two have some good things to say as well as some stupid stuff, but with the ESPN requirement that all their announcers fill every available moment of air time with chatter it's got to be tough to constantly come up with interesting stuff to say. (Say, could that be Morgan's problem? Nah.)

Jair Jurrjens started the game for the Braves and looked pretty good. I liked seeing how he kept most every pitch down in the zone, and when he missed with a pitch he usually missed low. The only high pitch I noticed from him was a 94 MPH heater at the shoulders that got a swing and a miss (from Repko, I think). Jurrjens got into some two-out trouble in the first inning after an infield single to the hole between short and third. He seemed to lose his concentration with a runner on base and allowed a stolen base then a walk. The other LaRoche then came up and smacked a hanger to deep center for a grounds rule double. Jurrjens showed a bit of his youth by letting the first get out of hand with two outs, but he came back in the second inning and looked solid.

In the third inning Javy Lopez took a 1-0 pitch on the outside corner and pulled it over the right left field fence for a two-run homerun in his first at-bat. The pitch was a lazy 82 MPH and looked to be a hanging breaking ball - Javy really tagged it.

Gammons interviewed Cox in the top of the fourth, and Cox said that Mike Gonzalez was ahead of schedule in his rehab and set to return on June 1st - good news.

Jeff Francoeur had an opposite field run scoring single in the fourth - very good to see Frenchy hitting the ball where it's pitched and going the other way to drive in runs.

The top of the fifth got a bit messy. Brandon Jones misplayed a ball on a sinking fly ball (and then didn't really hustle after the ball to get it back into the infield). Javy Lopez threw a ball into centerfield on a double steal attempt when no infielder covered the base. The announcers thought it was probably a missed sign by Javy. The pitcher that inning was Peter Moylan, and he didn't look too sharp. He was topping out at 91 MPH, and last year he was topping out in the mid-90's. Perhaps it takes him longer in the spring to get up to full velocity.

In the bottom of the fifth it was the Braves turn to pick on the Dodgers mistakes and bad pitching. Jordan Schafer got an at-bat, and boy is he an aggressive. With him, Francoeur, and Escobar on the same team, games might take less than two hours. Joe Borchard had a nice opposite field double. I must say I like his approach at the plate. Amazingly, Scott Thorman drew two walks in the inning - that's how bad the Dodger pitching was in the fifth when the Braves batted around and scored seven runs.

A good game overall, even for this early in spring training. Kelly Johnson looks like he's ready for the season to start. Of course, Francoeur was ready a couple of weeks ago. Chipper had a bit of a target on him today with a ground ball off his chest and a dicey play on a throw in the dirt to him at third with the runner bearing down on him, but he seemed to escape unscathed. While Moylan looked a little shaky, the rest of the relievers competing for spots looked pretty good. Buddy Carlyle breezed through two innings of work, and Yates and Ohman pitched well. Damian Moss also had a pretty good inning of work.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Braves. Even though most of the regulars were out of the game by the fifth inning, I like seeing all the young rookies playing in Atlanta Braves uniforms (despite jersey numbers ranging into the 90's). Hopefully we'll get a few more televised games (in HD) before the end of spring.

John Smoltz threw seven innings of no-hit ball on Friday night in Atlanta before the National's second baseman Ronnie Belliard broke it up with a hit to lead off the eighth inning. Smoltz registered 10 strikeouts and had just about every one of his pitches working, especially his slider. He began to tire in the seventh inning after not getting much rest when the Braves batters quickly went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth. Smoltz labored through 20 pitches in the seventh inning as his total for the game went over the 100 pitch mark.

He came close, but he likely wouldn't have had enough gas to go a full nine innings anyway. Even then, would we have wanted him too? Sure, if he did have a chance at the no-no we would want him to get it, but at what pitch count does he hurt his chances to be effective for the rest of the season - and in a 7-run game, no less. I hate to say it, but if we have any playoff hopes, we need a healthy John Smoltz, and there was no way he was going to throw 120+ pitches, no-hitter or not. So it may be a good thing that hit came when it did.

As far as I can remember, this was the farthest Smoltz has ever taken a no-hit bid. It is actually not the best game I've ever seen him pitch. I was about 20 rows behind home plate on April 30th, 1999, when Smoltzy threw a one-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. That was a rather impressive game, made all the sweeter in that I was attending the game with a friend who was a Reds fan.

Chipper Jones, who went 3-for-4 with a 3-run homerun to get the Braves on the board first in the third inning, supplied the offense for the Braves. The opposite of John Smoltz and Chipper Jones combined tonight for the Nats was Ryan Zimmerman. The Nats third baseman was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts and three errors in the field - yuck.

It's good to see the Braves put up a solid victory and keep up the momentum they gained from their hard won come from behind win on Wednesday afternoon. Let's keep rolling!

I can't freaking believe it! I was so down in the dumps at work this afternoon because the Braves were losing like little girls to the Phillies. So I just stopped checking the score and closed my MLB game cast, which crashes my computer every 10 minutes anyway. Then I decided to check out the score and WHAT! We won the freaking game with a freaking comeback, A THREE RUN COMEBACK, in the ninth inning. Of all days to have an off-day tomorrow, we could really use that momentum. Of course, perhaps that momentum will carry through to the next series - one against the Nats, one that we should win.

But wow, we came from six runs down. A rally which started in the eighth inning with four runs, and concluded in the ninth. The rally in the ninth started with two out... freaking amazing.

How many leads/wins must Soriano give up? The guy still has stellar stuff. He's still throwing in the mid to upper 90's, but he keeps leaving pitches out and over the plate that are absolutely killing him and the team. He was dominant back in May, but ever since then he's been hittable and Kolbable.

Month: ERA
May: 0.77
June: 4.22
July: 4.28
August: 7.36 (before tonight)

The frustrating thing is that he's still striking people out, and he still has his stuff together, he's just leaving it up and it is hittable - and getting hit. Is it fatigue? Well, it's been going on since June in some fashion, so it's probably not fatigue, though that could be part of it. I think it's a lack of concentration. Perhaps it's a lack of being "the closer" - the guy who is gets the final out. But Soriano pitched well for 10 or so outings after Wickman returned to the closers role back in May. But there is no doubt that Soriano has been at his best this year when he's been "the man" at the end of games.

In July he blew three saves and lost two other games in which he entered into a tie game. Tonight's game was his first loss this month, but he has given up multiple runs in key situations repeatedly over the last several weeks.

To hit on it again, his stuff is still there. He can still throw it by people, it seems, at times. But other times he serves it right up for batters to square off and jack it out of the park. He has given up (and the stat pages have not caught up tonight) 10 homeruns - as many as Scott Linebrink (another good non-trade in retrospect). That's one homerun off the lead for relievers in the National League. This is a guy who we got to be virtually unhittable and he has been anything but unhittable.

This is one of those instances where the team, the GM does what it is supposed to do, but the player does not perform as expected. My fear is that this is another "Kenny Lofton situation." That for whatever reason the guy who has performed excellently in the past seems to wither and under-perform for the Braves. It's frustrating... damn frustrating.

I have lost all confidence in Soriano to get outs and keep the game close in any situation. Furthermore, Dotel seems to be going down the same road. Can we call it Devine-itis? We need to change the players in the late innings for the Braves bullpen. The go-to guy in the eighth inning to keep the game close should be Peter Moylan - he has demonstrated the ability to keep the ball in the park and keep inherited runners from scoring.

Damn frustrating loss to say the least. Gosh. And how worthless is Andruw Jones in key situations. I would have preferred a strikeout and to see Yunel Escobar get an at-bat in the ninth - how pitiful is that, Andruw!