Tagged: Braves
And So It Goes
It took me a long time to be able to write about the Braves after the playoff loss. I understandably fell into a baseball depression and I have to admit I may still have it but the time has come to write about the disaster that was the one game playoff.
The Braves found themselves unable to get out of the position to have to play a one game playoff. This was of course their first mistake. Putting all your post season hopes in one basket, win or go home situation is not something the Braves are good at.
Drawing the Cardinals was also unfortunate. The Cardinals are a team that finds ways to win. They can win with almost any combination of players as they have demonstrated by winning with a team peopled with subs.
There was of course the call not to be believed. Many a Braves fan blames the loss of the game on that call. Many a Braves fan would be mistaken. The call was ridiculous. It was something I have never seen before and may never see again. If you look at the call in the “intent” of the rule you can make a case that it was over stepping by quite a bit. However, it was not the wrong call. It was just a bad break for the Braves in a game where they could not afford it. But did it lose the game for them? Absolutely not.
There was the storyline of the retiring Chipper Jones. The very heart and soul of the team. Chipper who had a really bad game committing an extremely costly error in the biggest game of the year. Adding to other errors committed by one of the most error free defenses in baseball this season. The fans were crushed to see Chipper Jones career end on this kind of sour note.
The same thing lost this game that lost many, many others during the year. Leaving multiple runners in scoring position. The Braves main cause of lost games including this one was RISP. Plain and simple. They get runners on base, in scoring position and they cannot move them across home plate. It’s just that simple. When you leave as many as 15 or more runners on base during a single game, you are not going to win. I don’t care what kind of calls are made during the game, RISP will lose you games. It lost the Braves this game and many others that put them into the position of having to play a 1 game playoff.
It is very disheartening for Braves fans to watch a team that seemingly has the talent to win putting up very good numbers in many categories but still they fall short. They keep repeating the same mistakes over and over and the team and fans end up right where we are now. Watching other teams, some nowhere near as good as the Braves are, play in the post season.
And so it goes….this is the life of a Braves fan.
Bad To Worse
The Braves are coming off one of their now infamous bipolar stretches and head into a weekend of games with the Phillies. If history is any indication, fans can expect more of the same.
The Braves just finished a four game series with the Cubs. This is a team that is languishing in the NL Central at now 15 games out of first place. A team that by all accounts the Braves should have handled easily. A team that seemingly couldn’t buy a win before playing the Braves. But just like clockwork, the Braves went into bipolar mode and ended up losing two of the four games in typical bipolar fashion. Lose by a little, win by a lot, lose by a little, win by a lot. Bipolar is the ONLY explanation remaining for the functioning of this team.
The Braves have also had up and down news the past few days. Chipper Jones gets named to the NL All-Star team to replace injured Matt Kemp and doesn’t have to get in on the final vote. It is a fitting tribute to a great player, who is supposedly in his last year. The same player who generated a five hit performance in a single game. That doesn’t seem too old and worn out to me. Of course the Braves got bad news too, Venters was sent to the DL with elbow impingement that no one seemed to think to mention until he was placed on the DL. Not even when he was pitching very, very badly.
Now comes a weekend series with the Phillies before the All-Star break. If you recall my fellow fans, the Braves/Phillies before the All-Star break hasn’t been a historically good thing for the Braves. In fact in nightmares, I can remember the Braves being crushed by the Phillies before the break. Of course, this was a Phillies team that was performing much different than the one they have currently. The Braves were pretty much the same, bipolar. The Phillies though were on fire. This year though the Phillies are not exactly burning up the standings except in the flames erupting as they see their season turn to ashes. The Phillies are now 13 games out in the NL East. The Braves are 6 games out. It’s not exactly top tier stuff for either team this time around.
I have long believed that the Phillies were the Braves Kryptonite. That no matter what the Braves did the Phillies were likely going to win the game. This time around, I’m not so sure, but I believe that anything can happen and the Braves are just bipolar enough to make it happen. In a weekend where the division leading Nationals get the under-performing Rockies, the Braves could find themselves losing even more ground and going from bad to worse.
Braves’ Kryptonite
The Phillies have to be the Braves’ kryptonite. I thought that it was the Mets…but that’s just crazy talk. It’s the Phillies. I has been the Phillies for years. The Braves just cannot seem to shake them no matter what they do.
In a series that contained just about everything a baseball series can hold, the Phillies once again bested the Braves. The Phillies took the first game 4-2. In true Phillies fashion, they didn’t get a lot of opportunities for runs but when they did they got them and held the Braves bats almost silent. Phillies winners game 1.
In game 2 of the series, all sorts of wildness ensued. The Phillies Roy Halladay pitched something akin to an apocalyptic meltdown giving up EIGHT earned runs. I was wondering during the game if he gives up EIGHT earned runs a season and he gave them up in one game. It was very strange to say the least. The Braves pitching also gave up their fair share of runs and at the end of 9 innings the game was tied at 13-13. That’s 26 runs for those still counting. In the 11th, on comes the 40 year old bionic man Chipper Jones who hits a walkoff homerun and the Braves win 15-13. In a Braves/Phillies game there were 28 runs scored. That’s an aberration by anyone’s standards.
Then comes game 3 and we are back to the real world of Phillies/Braves baseball where the Phillies get enough runs and the Braves get zero runs and the Phillies win 4-0. Kryptonite back in full force. The Braves mustered all of three hits on the game. Three hits. This is how most games for the Braves against the Phillies go. They lose by anywhere from 1 to 4 runs and score zero runs and get almost no hits. Kryptonite.
The Braves were atop the NL East standings this week for half a day or something like that until the Phillies unloaded the Kryptonite on them. Now they are back in second place at 1.5 games back of the still division leading Nationals. The only hopeful thing for the Braves this weekend is that they 1) Don’t have to play the Phillies 2) Get to play the rocky Rockies and 3) The Phillies get to play the red hot Nationals.
Braves’ kryptonite…and it’s not green…it’s red….Phillies red.
What A Difference A Week Makes
Just a week ago, the Braves were 0-4 and some of their fans had all but given up the season. What a difference a week makes.
Now, the Braves are 4-4 and today they could sweep the Brewers to move above .500. The team is getting settled into the routine of the season and is playing some good baseball. The fact that they have had the Brewers in this series has helped as they are not exactly one of the elite teams in baseball right now. That was evidenced by the multi-run game earlier in the series that had 18 runs being scored between the two. Not exactly a pitching clinic on either side in that game.
But as baseball fans and teams are prone to say, a win is a win and for the Braves it’s 4 wins in a row. For the Braves though, there will be no time to rest on their recovery. On Monday, they start a new series with the Mets. You know the team that they lost all those games to when opening the season. The Braves will have the opportunity to show if they are truly an elite team or if the Mets are going to have their number this season.
Hanson and Delgado will start the Mets series for the Braves. Hanson is 1-1 so far on the season and Delgado is 1-0. The Braves will face Gee and Santana the first two games of the series. As you will recall, the last meeting with Santana was not a good outcome for the Braves hitters. Let’s hope this time around things are different.
Jason Heyward is having a good start to the season so far and currently is sporting a .346 average. Chipper Jones has contributed when he has been in the lineup, but he still continues to suffer with his knee issues. Braves pitching has been good for the most part with a lot of close games so far this season except the one game against the Brewers where Braves pitching gave up 8 runs and 13 hits.
A sweep of the Mets in the upcoming series would go a long way in the standings early in the season and in the minds of both the players and the fans. With 4 wins in a row and sitting now at .500, what a difference a week makes.
Repeating A Pattern
As soon as I made the statement that I was disappointed in the Braves 1 run loss to start the season, the attackers pounced. Claiming I was throwing in the towel, giving up on the season, over reacting and a multitude of other things. All of which were wrong. I was just pointing out that the Braves are repeating a pattern and it’s not a good one.
Over the past couple of years, the Braves have had a repetitive pattern to their game play. They have decent to very good pitching. They have some hitters who can get hits. They can get runners on base in most games. The pattern is that they can’t get runners across home plate to score runs. They end up losing games by 1 run in tight matchups, 1-0, 2-1, 3-2, over and over and over again throughout the season. It is a pattern they have repeated consistently for at least the last 2 years.
I realize that pitching has gotten much better. The science of pitching has greatly outpaced the science of hitting. The use of PEDs not withstanding (and it is still going on in large numbers don’t kid yourself) has not helped batters to overcome the improved pitching (and they may also be using PEDs). All things being equal (use of PEDs or not), the Braves have been unable in many games to get runners across the plate and win games. The RISP has been rising every single year. They can get runners on….they just can’t get them around.
The game to start the 2012 season was a perfect example. The Braves pitching was very good. The Mets had 4 hits and 1 run for the game. That’s very good pitching. The Mets pitching was very good. The Braves had zero runs, but they had 7 hits. That means they had 7 chances to score a run and didn’t. At least 7, this is based on hits only. Not walks or any other base reached event. They had those 7 chances off hits to score runs and could not do it. They lost the game 1-0. This is repeating a pattern and it’s not good and it does not bode well for the 2012 season.
The Braves have the pitching to compete in the NL East. They have some batters who can hit the ball. But if you cannot move those who get on base around the basepaths and score runs, you just are going to keep repeating the same pattern over and over and over again. This Braves fan is just pointing that out.
I never give up hope for a season until the last game is played. But it would be foolish to ignore what is so obvious and so repetitive. This is a pattern that the Braves have got to stop repeating if they want to get deep into the post season or into the World Series. You cannot do that if you are unable to stop losing games by 1 run. That’s just a fact, not a sign of giving up.
Happy Baseball Day
I like holidays for the most part but I think there are a few that are missing from the calendar. I truly believe that Major League Baseball opening day should be a national holiday. Luckily for me, it’s spring break here and I have the day off. Happy Baseball Opening Day day!
My Braves open the season today against the Mets. An NL East rivalry that has been in play for a long time. The Braves had had the winning end of most meetings with the Mets and it would seem likely they would win today, but the Braves have a lot of unanswered questions to start the season.
The biggest question is Tyler Pastornicky, the Braves new shortstop. Pastornicky’s spring totals went like this: 25 games, 68 AB, 9 runs, 15 hits, 2 doubles, 3 RBI, 5 BB, 6 SO, 2 stolen bases, 3 caught stealing for a .221 average. He also committed 3 errors in spring training in 146.1 innings played. The Braves have him batting 8th in the lineup today. He has a lot of questions to answer yet.
Another question is how things will play out at 3rd base with Chipper having surgery, announcing this is his last year, and playing probably only sparingly this season. Martin Prado will be playing 3rd today for the Braves. Chipper will be out for a while yet. Prado had an outstanding Spring and will bat second for the Braves today.
Still another question is the performance of Jason Heyward. Having worked on his swing and rehabbing his injuries of last year through the off-season, Heyward’s spring was encouraging but not overwhelmingly convincing. He did have 4 homeruns in the spring but carried an average of .227 in 25 games. The Braves have him batting seventh today to open the season.
Braves pitching also has a few questions with Hudson on the DL still and some shifting of starters and relief pitchers. Today, Tommy Hanson will open the season for the team. He had 1 win and 1 loss in Spring Training in 3 games. A 2.77 ERA giving up a total of 11 hits and 5 runs in 13 innings pitched.
The Braves line up for opening day is as follows: : Bourn cf, Prado 3b, McCann c, Uggla 2b, Freeman 1b, Diaz lf, Heyward rf, Pastornicky ss, Hanson rhp. To start the season, the Braves are counting on McCann, Uggla, Freeman to be the power of the lineup. Against the Mets, this may be good enough. Against the Phillies, well that remains to be seen.
It’s a very long season and this is the first day of many, but it’s opening day and for me it’s Happy Baseball Day.
Killing Me Slowly
The Braves are killing me slowly. The torture of a bipolar existence that in the end leads to death of dreams and the slow realization that another post season has passed me by. It’s like the slow drip of a leaky faucet or the tick tock of the clock as the hours and days pass by counting down to the end of the regular season as I watch the team I love slowly, inexorably keep killing me slowly.
The Braves are a team of bipolar ups and downs, wins and losses. It has always been so, it will always be so. It seems ingrained in their very psyche. They do not know how to function in another manner. I have become accustomed to it. It is an existence of normal. They always play well enough. Any team with over 90 wins on a season, is not something to look down one’s nose at. It’s the slow death of missing the post season that is the proverbial dirt on the grave…..and they seem determined to make it so.
The Braves were not very long ago more than 13 games up in the wildcard race in the National League. They looked to have things well in hand. I could make it through the inevitable losses knowing that they would make the wildcard. But slowly, surely, the march towards doom started. A trickle at first. Like the first drop of water torture. Nothing to worry about. Then it became more drops. They started losing series to much inferior teams. The drops became steady. A heartbeat of badness.
The journey continued on. The Braves would win a game and lose 2. Win a game and lose 3. Not win any games. Slowly but surely, the Cardinals began the march to overtake them. Closer and closer they came. Like an evil wind chilling you to the bone. They moved ever closer. The Braves allowing them to move closer until the breath from their mouths was on their necks.
Now, there are 8 games remaining for the Braves. Eight games. The Marlins, the Nationals and then the dreaded Phillies. The Braves are 2.5 games ahead of the Cardinals in the wildcard race. That’s 2.5 games. And let’s not forget the Giants. The Braves are only 3.5 games ahead of them and the Giants have won 8 games in a row. Time is running short. It’s become dire. The coffin is laid out. The flowers of remembrance are ordered. The death notice is written. Killing me slowly.
There is still hope, but it is becoming hard to see. There is still belief, though it is hard to muster some days. The Braves must win. The Cardinals get the Mets, Cubs and Astros. It’s like cake. The Giants get the Pirates, D-Backs and Rockies. A little harder than cake, but not the Phillies. The Braves must win.
Time keeps moving forward. The regular season clock is almost at zero. The Braves are on the precipice of the end…..killing me slowly.
Looking For Answers
There was one thing that the recent Braves/Phillies showed me – and that was that the Braves have no answer for the Phillies top 3 pitchers. As a Braves fan, this is a very distressing realization.
While the Braves have played well this year, they are currently 84-60 on the season and a 90 win season is not out of the question. By most teams standards, that’s a really good season. It’s a good season for the Braves and they will make the playoffs, all things staying equal. But once they get there, the hopes of getting much past the first 3 games are really dwindling at this point.
But then, it depends on what happens in the meantime, what the Phillies & Braves decide to do the last series of the regular season plays into it as well. Right now, the Braves are 10 games behind the Phillies in the NL East but they are 7.5 games ahead of the Cards and 8.5 games ahead of the Giants for the wildcard spot. Let’s say, the Braves come to the last game of the regular season at 7 games ahead of the Philles. The 3 game series won’t mean anything for either team, except in the wins/loss column. But it won’t affect the playoffs. So both teams decide to go with the back of their rotation for that series and whoever wins wins. Then, their top 3 starters for both teams would face off in the post season. The Braves chances against the Phillies top 3 are slim.
Yes, the Braves can beat the Phillies, they have done it on occasion. In fact, this season, the Braves have beaten a Cliff Lee led Phillies team 3 times, April 8, May 6 and July 9. They have also beaten a Hamels led Phillies team once, on May 8. However, the rest of the matchups this season with the Phillies, the Braves have lost. The most recent series, the Braves were swept by the Phillies in devastating fashion.
If you give the starters 4 days rest between starts, they should be the pitchers to go in the last series of the regular season. Both teams could go with their top rotations for that series, because that’s just how it works out. If that’s the case, the Braves are possibly in trouble and maybe in more ways than just losing to the Phillies.
Let’s say the Braves, get on a losing streak, hopefully that won’t happen, but let’s say it does and the Cards or Giants get on a winning one and the Phillies games at the end of the regular season, could determine if the Braves make the playoffs at all, even after winning 90 games. That is a possibility too scary for Braves fans to ponder for very long.
So, let’s go with the Braves making the playoffs. How long can they stay in them? With the showing of the recent series against the Phillies, I would have to say not very long. They had no answer for the Phillies in this series and unless they find one between now and the post season, it’s going to be a short playoff run for the Braves this year.
Not A Good Start
In one of the biggest series of the season, so far, the Braves and Phillies face off in an NL East matchup. Unfortunately for the Braves, it was not a good start at all.
The Braves were blanked by Cliff Lee and the Phillies to the tune of 9-0 in the first game of the series. Adding insult to injury, the Braves had a total of 5 hits for the game.
Derek Lowe didn’t have a good game at all giving up 8 hits, 7 runs with 5 earned, 4 walks and 4 strikeouts. Not a good game at all. Linebrink and Vizcaino both gave up runs in relief for the Braves. Overall, it was not a good night for the Braves pitchers.
Cliff Lee pitched a complete game for the Phillies in the always playoff atmosphere of these games in Philly. Needless to say, the Braves cannot love going to play there. Facing Lee for 9 innings, just makes it that much harder to overcome the great pitching and the sold out home crowds.
The Braves are now 8.5 games back of the Phillies in the NL East and 4-6 over their last 10 games. They are up 8.5 games over the Cards and Giants in the wildcard race.
Today it’s Hudson (14-8) against Worley (10-1) and Wednesday Beachy (7-2) against Oswalt (7-8). Hopefully, the Braves can turn around these two games and come away with the series win, but given the showing of Monday night, I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one if you’re a Braves fan.
The Braves get the Phillies at home for the last series of the regular season. Something to look forward to….or not depending on what team you’re rooting for.
Braves Blast
My favorite baseball team is still bipolar. They still win and lose, win and lose. They still lose to teams they shouldn’t. But when they win, they do it with a blast, or two.
The Braves love the long ball. They regularly hit them to win games. They regularly hit them to help win games. They hit them with the middle of the lineup and the expected players, Chipper Jones and Brian McCann and they hit them with those you would least expect, Derek Lowe.
When the Braves are on, they are close to unstoppable. The pitching is on. The hitting is on. The defense is on. When they play that way, they are one of the best teams in the game, and on some nights they are the best team. But when they are off, well they are really off. Giving up 9 runs with one of your best pitchers, Jurrjens, to the Nationals – that’s an off night. And the Braves do have them. It is just part of their bipolar nature.
The team is still 7.5 games back of the Phillies in the NL East. But they are so far ahead in the wild card race that there is almost no chance that anyone will get near them with it now being September. They are 7-3 for their last 10 games, the same as the Phillies. They are on a 2 game win streak at present and looking for more going into a weekend series with the Dodgers at home where the Braves are 43 and 26 on the year.
The Braves got back utility man Matt Diaz from the Pirates this week along with Jack Wilson from the Mariners. While there is plenty of reason for Braves fans to be excited about Diaz, they know what he can do. Wilson is more of an unknown commodity and currently an injured one. However, when he is healthy, he can be an excellent off the bench addition for the team. Another bat and more power.
The Braves pitching is performing overall very well and Kimbrel who just this week set a rookie save record. The Braves bullpen is one of their greatest strengths and it is going to be what they have to rely on to get them past the Phillies come playoff time. The Braves pen, if they play at the top of their game, could neutralize the Phillies left-handed hitters. And they will have to if the Braves are to have a shot at getting past the Phillies in the post season.
The Braves have the Dodgers at home this weekend and then a 3 game series with the Phillies in Philly. All eyes will be trained on those games and the Braves could certainly use a series win. A Braves blast would certainly be a welcome sight in Philly.
Chop Heads 