So thats a pretty big kick in the face. After getting a huge sweep of the (former) best team in the toughest division in baseball, we get swept by a team from the NL West. Come on now. The NL West hates us pretty badly this year. The Braves have a 3-6 record against the Diamondbacks, Giants & Rockies, with a -9 run differential. Thats pretty embarrassing, considering none of those teams are even leading the division.
The team just couldn't get anything going against Randy Johnson, getting a whopping 3 baserunners in 6 innings. Kenshin Kawakami on the other hand, had one of his weird starts, allowing 14 baserunners in less than 6 innings, but he was actually only one out away from a quality start...haha. When he only gets 2 strikeouts, you know its going to be a long night. In the pen, Eric O'Flaherty had his worst start of the year, and I have no idea why he stayed in the game as long as he did. Eventually, Manny Acosta (Manny Acosta!??!) came in to record the final 5 outs...perfectly...on 13 pitches. What kind of alternate universe IS this?
On offense, no one did a whole lot. Garret Anderson had a pinch 2 run single to earn a place in all of our hearts...Jordan Schafer singled and scored, while Matt Diaz walked and scoerd. The right fielder went 0/4, and Brian McCann doubled and walked coming into the game for David Ross. And the savior of the team, Chipper Jones? Yeah, he hates Randy Johnson...0/4 with 4 strikeouts. Thats tough.
Look how close that is folks...kinda scary, isn't it?
SBNation is acting weird...the winner was Johnson (4-4), the loser was Kawakami (3-6), and the save went to Brian Wilson (his 10th).
0 recs | 44 comments
“the right fielder”
haha…love it. He isnt even worthy of a derrogatory nickname anymore.
justincredubil02 - May 28, 2009
Worst. Outfield. Ever.
Uninvited - May 28, 2009
I think last year's was worse
much much worse.
justincredubil02 - May 28, 2009
Last year’s outfield was aided by half of a season of Mark Kotsay…so, they got that going for them. Which is nice…
Uninvited - May 28, 2009
The defense was worse last year, IMO.
Little Lady - May 28, 2009
HA
people yelled at me when i was cautious after sweeping the greatest team on earth, the jays…i have been proven right!
and now i feel dirty…
Doghnut - May 28, 2009
The Braves must be hanging out at gay bars in San Francisco...
Since 2000, the Braves are 14-23 (.378) when they play the Giants in San Francisco. Over that same span, the Braves are 18-9 (.667) when they play the Giants in Atlanta.
sdp - May 28, 2009
That means FYF is hanging out at gay bars in every city.
TradeAndruw - May 28, 2009
By that same logic
The Giants must be hanging out at gay bars in Atlanta.
paboperfecto - May 28, 2009
Please do not dignify homophobic slurs as “logic”.
fandave - May 28, 2009
How was that a "homophobic slur"?
sdp - May 28, 2009
implying gays cant play baseball or something?
why is hanging out in a gay bar a bad thing?
Doghnut - May 28, 2009
First time I’ve ever agreed with fandave.
cbwilk - May 28, 2009
First time I ever got drunk was in a gay bar in SF
I didn’t know it was a gay bar until after we left, and I remember thinking while I was there “Wow, all these guys are really laid-back and friendly”…
buzzdeadwax - May 28, 2009
I accidentally went to a gay bar in DC once
aside from the staring, it wasnt bad…they did have the best sweet potato fries ive ever had…
Doghnut - May 28, 2009
I don’t think I’d feel comfortable getting hit on by dudes (not sure if that’s the way it works, but they’re still men, and we are disgusting), but it would be nice to go to a place where you didn’t feel like you’re constatly just a few misunderstood words away from a bar fight.
buzzdeadwax - May 29, 2009
ehh
I went to college in boston and my experience has been that most gay guys can tell pretty quickly if you’re gay or not…most of them arent going to hit on you if you’re not gay.
Doghnut - May 30, 2009
Back to .500 again. And facing Dan Haren tonight. ick
eaheckman10 - May 28, 2009
Glad I didn’t stay up for this game.
can we just have a cardboard cutout man right field?
Sparhawk - May 28, 2009
It's a shame we aren't in the AL...
We could use the DH for our right fielder.
Uninvited - May 28, 2009
Manny has a good, live arm and can be a big help in the pen, imo.
fandave - May 28, 2009
I agree, it’s very fresh and live right now, I just hope Bobby doesn’t use that as an excuse to over-use him. Maybe it’s just me, he appears to have a bit of a swagger about him that was absent the last two years; and I must say that I like it. Like during the Blue Jays rout, when he was closing out the 9th, he threw those two blatant fireballs and turned around to check the speed. He saw 97mph, and then turned around and threw that 82 mph slider, and the game was over.
royhobbs - May 28, 2009
Dare I say it, he has closer written all over him.
That a boy - May 28, 2009
I wouldn’t go that far. But he is a good Soriano impressionist to bring in the 7th inning, or a better guy to put some heat on mop-up duty in the 9th of a rout.
royhobbs - May 28, 2009
hopefully
it is a rout in our favor…
justincredubil02 - May 28, 2009
He has some control issues to work out but if he can hit 97 with his fastball, slider 82-85, and throw in a change up somewhere, dude could be pretty nasty. He just cant locate his damn pitches consistently.
That a boy - May 28, 2009
Last time I saw him
He had spotty control of the fastball, however fast it may be, and no other pitches whatsoever. To hear he has a slider now is good, but I’m not in the Acosta camp yet. Dude gave up longballs with regularity last year.
fphjr01 - May 28, 2009
"Look how close that is folks...kinda scary, isn't it?" Talking about FYF and GA.
When you look at the May stats you can see that GA is rising and FYF is falling and then they don’t look so similar.
FYF .232/.248/.295/.543
GA .292/.324/.323/.647
I know the SLG% isn’t there for GA but holy freaking crap, a .543 OBP for Francy?
bbxxj - May 28, 2009
**.543 OPS**
bbxxj - May 28, 2009
This team is bipolar.
Smoltz's Beard - May 28, 2009
I'm not sure if its bipolar
Or simply mediocre. As much as we hate to admit it, it is entirely possible the team just isn’t that good. We know the offense sucks and struggles more often than not, but I think the pitching is starting to be a bit of an illusion. For a team with “8 starters on the roster”, the team record on days the 4th / 5th rotation spots come up is 5 – 11. That’s not getting it done.
Our 1-2-3 starters are completely legit. Kawakami probably is bipolar. But the 5th rotation spot, for all we’ve talked about Hanson / Medlin / JoJo / Glavine / whoever, has been a complete and total black hole for all of last year and this year as well. If you look at the record, its not much worse than just starting the season 0-25 and trying to win as many of the other games as you can.
fphjr01 - May 28, 2009
Was talking more along the lines of how we score 8, 9, and 10 runs some nights and then don’t even show up at the park most others…although that isn’t anything new.
But yeah, you’re probably right.
Smoltz's Beard - May 28, 2009
inconsistant
to try to overide this inconsistant hitting I think that Bobby should "juggle the line-up with regularity…my thoughts on it is that other team’s pitching staff read a basic scouting report and make a plan. If Bobby mixes it up or works out that some of his players might need to ride the pine…(in the case of “the right fielder” make it long term) he might be able to overcome a not so good start by his number 4/5 starter.
bravestatoo - May 28, 2009
Chipper had no business being in this game. It was obvious early on, when he grimaced after every swing. Then after the game he confirms that it hurts from the right side, due to not being able to push off his leg. Hellooo, McFly?
For all the off days Bobby gives him, you’d think this little incident wouldn’t have gotten through the filter. Bobby continues his head scratching ways with this ridiculous platoon of Kelly. Surely, Kelly could have avoided the Golden Sombrero.
On a positive note, according to DOB, that was the first 4 ever strikeout game for Chipper. Thats pretty damn impressive. But it shoulda been avoided alltogether.
10-4 - May 28, 2009
I say we light the beacons, and call on Rohan for aide
bravesguy311 - May 28, 2009
lol
Smoltz's Beard - May 28, 2009
The Rohirrim were some bad dudes man.
I’m not sure what the rules are for using a horse at all times, but I’ll risk it as they will no doubt solve our problems in the outfield immediately…
Uninvited - May 28, 2009
“Rohan WILL answer!!!”
rec’d, cause I’m a total LOTR geek.
Rhyno18 - May 28, 2009
Oh. I guess I’m not enough of a geek; I thought this was a Godzilla reference.
cbwilk - May 28, 2009
Yea me too brotha, figured i would set off some Nerd Alerts with that one, but it seemed fitting.
bravesguy311 - May 28, 2009
In Lord of the Rings
It took a Hobitt to sneak in to light the beacon….who will be our hobit? Atlanta Hobitts of the past: Lemke, Furcal, Harris …missed a few but who is our next Hobitt? (Note it could have been Josh Anderson but we traded him…but I think he was too tall
bravestatoo - May 28, 2009
Kris Medlen
royhobbs - May 28, 2009
Yeah, Anderson is like 6’2".
cbwilk - May 28, 2009
He’s also OPSing 100 points higher than any of our starting OFers. Which, granted, still isn’t particularly good, but keep in mind that we basically gave him away for nothing.
Lennox - May 28, 2009
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