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Talking Chop

Billy Wagner Blows Save, Padres Beat Braves in 12

The game seemed all but over when Billy Wagner took  the mound in the top of the ninth, but the normally dominant closer couldn't seal the deal. Wagner allowed a home run to Scott Hairst, a single to Jerry Hairston Jr., and a double to Yorvit Torrealba as the Padres scored two in the ninth to send it to extras. 

The Padres bullpen was impressive, as expected. Their 'pen threw seven shutout innings as Tim Stauffer picked up his third win (3-1) and Heath Bell earned his 27th save, tops in the majors. 

Jon Garland allowed four runs in the third inning thanks to four straight hits by the Braves, including a home run by Brian McCann and a two RBI single from Chipper Jones. The Braves didn't muster up any offense other than that inning, but Jason Heyward, Alex Gonzalez, and McCann each had two hits.

Tommy Hanson was struggling for the first three innings but managed to allow just two first inning runs. He ended up throwing 6.1 innings, striking out five, walking two, and hitting two batters. Jonny Venters followed Hanson up with 1.2 innings and two strikeouts, setting it up nicely for Wagner.

Kris Medlen tried to extend the ballgame in the twelfth but gave up two runs on a Nick Hundley double. Someone was going to score eventually, and unfortunately it was the Padres.

This was definitely a tough loss, but the Braves can still come away with a series victory with a good outing by Tim Hudson (9-5, 2.60 ERA, 4.34 FIP, 4.25 xFIP). Opposing Huddy will be lefty Clayton Richard (7-4, 3.53 ERA, 3.69 FIP, 4.00 xFIP).

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Comments

Any word on why KK is stuck in purgatory?

Cause he doesn’t winz.

D LOWE

IS THE BEST BRAVES PITCHER EVERRRRRR

Seriously though...

why Medlen and not KK. I’d have figured Meds would be starting sometime soon so unless KK is taking his turn in the rotation coming up, I don’t get that decision out of the ’pen.

Your guess is as good as mine.

I think we are a better team with Meds in the ’pen…maybe someone that matters realized this as well?

Yahoo's got...

Lowe slated for tomorrow, and Medlen for Saturday. I guess we’ll find out what the deal is then.

Doesn’t have The Tapes.

CAVEMAN SWING BIG STICK TOMORROW.

Plus Ross will get a HR tomorrow.

anyone know why SFO-LAD is blue on ESPN?

because you touch yourself at night...

+ all the interwebs.

I was thinking it was a no-hitter or something. Nope.

that stunk

We will get um thurs huds wont let us down and i have a feeling the bats are comming alive GO BRAVES!!!

I told you guys the bats would come alive and damn it’s about time Gonzo showed up GO BRAVES!!!!

ugh

Damn it Wags

Yep

Of all 162 games I could’ve spent all night watching, stoked I chose this one.

Cody Ross

made sportscenter top ten. Wren is defiantly gonna trade for him now

I was thinking the same thing when I saw that play.

I was happy to see Alex make the top ten with the great play he made at SS tonight.

Not happy with this game.

It sucks when we lose this type of game, especially because of Wagner.

That's why we have insurance.

Fuck the Padres.

well that sucked

good news…JHEY looked good, Hanson looked great after 2nd inning, and Phils lost and Mets are tied in bottum 9

i wish the Glausosaur would get his groove back

this loss sucked cuz we had it in the bag but tomorrow redemption will be sweet. I always worry about how a loss like this will play on team morale

Why are we not going after David Dejesus?

I know he’s another lefty. But so is Nate, and he’s just not good. He’s an average defender and he’s been productive (though not flashy) for his entire career. Why is this off the radar?

Total shitfest

How did we lose that game?

LOLMets

Lose in 14 to the Dbacks

Mets lose in 14th

Got swept by the D-Backs. Braves’s big division lead still intact.

Lots of fun.

14 innings ends in a walkoff loss to cement a DBacks sweep. That’s not a jolly airplane ride the Mets are heading to right now.

Big day game tomorrow

Braves have great day game record. Good opportunity to win 4 out 6 against the Padres for the season (somehow we did take 2 out 3 at San Diego during the relatively inconsistent April).

I’m starting to be more concerned about the overall NL standing for homefield throughout the playoffs. It’s a great feeling despite the very tough loss tonight (or technically last night)…which is costing some sleep.

Man I wish we had won

Could’ve boost the lead even more but we didn’t lose any ground to the Mets and Phils so it’s all good! I wish someone would take that jinx fanshot down about the Braves having the division in the bag!

Random facts from the MLB.com Preview for today’s game:

Gonzalez has logged more doubles, home runs and extra-base hits as a shortstop than any other Major Leaguer at that position this season. (Hit safely in 5 of 6 games w’ Atlanta)
Atlanta veteran Troy Glaus played in his 1,500th game on Wednesday night
Chipper Jones is one home run behind Juan Gonzalez (434) for 37th place on the all-time chart. Jones is also six walks behind Jeff Bagwell (1,401) for 26th place on that list.
Atlanta rookie Jonny Venters got five outs on Wednesday and leads all qualifying rookie relievers in ERA (1.04).
Heyward had two hits, giving him a five-game hitting streak and five hits in the first two games of this series.

I laughed, I cried, I shit my pants....

I feel about as out of place as that second base ump.

These losses happen.

It sucks, but they’re a reality. Lets marvel at how shocked we are that this happened to Wags and hope he gets right back on the shut down train.

I imagine Wagner will come back w/a vengence his next opportunity.

The Padres must've had a good scouting report on Wags.

They were all over his first pitch tonight (of which most, if not all, were fastballs). I don’t want him to change up anything too much, but if he comes in today, I wouldn’t mind seeing him throw something offspeed the first pitch.

Can someone explain to me...

Why with 2 outs in the top of the 12th, we walked Oscar Salazar (who was 0-2 with a couple groundouts) to face Nick Hundley? It just makes no sense to me. If there was 1 out or nobody out, I’d understand this alot better, but with 2 outs? That was what bothered me most last night…

To burn their backup catcher, which is a no-no in Bobby Cox’s world.

create force plays and make them use their last available position player maybe...

not a bad idea, and probably directly from the book on creating force plays alone.

San Diego only had one reliever other than Heath Bell in Ryan Webb, whom the Braves tagged for some runs on Tuesday. By walking Salazar, Bobby forced SD to pinch-hit with Hundley in that situation in hopes of Webb entering the game and giving up some hits.

anyway we could get the score in the game writeup next time?
I blame the fact that...

We have KK and Lowe on our team, traded away Escobar, Andrus, Wainwright, gave up a 3-run homer to Jim Leyritz in the 1996 WS, and moved from Milwaukee in 1966. If none of the above had happened, the Atlanta Braves would not have blown this game. Bad decisions come back to haunt us yet again.

That's a lot like that "What if..." nonsense on the WWL's College Football show...

Except you were actually funny…

i like you…you make me laugh

thank you

+5

This crap with overthrowing his fastball

Hanson needs to stop. His hitting batters rate is starting to get ridiculous. It’s like he was trying to make his case to MLB that he nor his teammates never hit Braun/Fielder on purpose.

Well now...

The blown save was unfortunate (which will happen from time to time) but the worst part about the game to me was:
They held our offense to 9 straight scoreless innings. We never scored again after the 3rd.

To me, that is much worse than the rare off night by Wags.

Let’s get the Series WIN today and let’s put the Padres behind us.
.

In their defense the Pads bullpen really is awesome

still i understand what you’re saying

play at the plate

as a former catcher I am surprised that no one mentioned B Mack missing that tag at the plate… he definitely should’ve gotten him in my view. He’s more than a man and less than a God, but proved faliable last night on that play.

he could have blocked the plate a little better and let the ball come to him instead of reaching out for it…but he did a pretty good job…nothing major he did wrong…it was a great slide…it happens

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