After back-to-back wins, the Braves were set to take the final game of the series with ace Tim Hudson on the mound. However, Huddy did not have close to his best stuff tonight and he gave up six runs in five innings. Albert Pujols hit a first inning homer and then another in the fifth, which kick started the Cardinals' onslaught.
The Braves were in the game until the terrible fifth inning. Pujols' homer came with the score 2-1 and the Cards finished the inning with the score now 6-1. Kyle Lohse and Brendan Ryan each had RBI hits later in the inning. Pujols, Holliday, and Rasmus all had two hits in the middle of St. Louis' lineup.
Nate McLouth continued to impress today, which is a positive to take out of a tough loss. McLouth ended up 2-4 with a double and a home run. Jason Heyward also had two extra base hits, both doubles, and Alex Gonzalez went 3-4.
Craig Kimbrel had another solid inning as well, striking out two in a perfect inning. Peter Moylan gave up the only other run of the game in just 0.1 of an inning.
The Braves were fortunate to take one of the previous two games with Chris Carpenter starting in one and the following game going to extra innings. They weren't as fortunate today and got beat by yet another bad pitcher. Their next series is against Washington so hopefully they can add some wins over the next few days.
0 recs | 41 comments
the score...tied....2-1....?
AllSaintsDay - September 13, 2010
It should be noted that I say this because I don't really wanna talk about the game
:-(
AllSaintsDay - September 13, 2010
And the mets finished the inning?
Lol
GwinnettBraves - September 13, 2010 via mobile
That’s the part that concerned me more… have we phased into an alternate reality where we played the Mets tonight?
…does Jessica Biel have a thing for me in this strange nega-verse…?
/wishfulthinking
J-Freak - September 13, 2010
Yes, she does
But her ass is sort of flat there.
Sam Jethroe - September 13, 2010
Fie on this universe then. In the words of Berkeley Breathed, “Ahead Warp 37 to the wild, loud PLANET OF THE LUSTY WOMEN COMMODITIES BROKERS!”
J-Freak - September 13, 2010
This weekend has been bad for Georgia teams...
But, McLouth and Heyward looked great today. They both seemed to crush every ball tonight. It wasn’t surprising to see Heyward do it, but Nate looked great at the plate and drove everything to the outfield wall.
award6 - September 13, 2010
Jason Heyward
is seriously going to hurt someone with the way he’s hitting baseballs. And it’s nice to see Nate really turning it on. If he can hit like this for the next month, it’ll be huge for us.
Scott Coleman - September 13, 2010
Heyward should hit 3rd
I keep hearing, “The lineup is working as is”
Since when? Since the Braves went 4-6 in their last 10? Heyward is on fire lately and he needs to be coming up with more men on base.
ATLandUNC - September 13, 2010
That's something I've been banging on about for a while, now.
All it gets me is grief from Cox apologists.
Sam Jethroe - September 13, 2010
facepalm
Braves Biceps - September 13, 2010
How am I wrong?
Don’t you really think Heywoard would do far more damage batting third?
Sam Jethroe - September 13, 2010
Nope. But Heyward might.
Seriously though, with the way he’s smashing the ball, it’s a sin not to bat him third or fourth. He’s getting a ton of hits from the 2-spot with no one on in front of him… imagine if there were, like, I dunno, like POTENTIAL RUNZ and stuff there.
J-Freak - September 13, 2010
His awesomeness
Has earned him another letter in his last name.
Sam Jethroe - September 13, 2010
At least
I finally won the seat upgrade tonight….I’m 1-5 now!
kauf67 - September 13, 2010
OMG did you see Barney?
Scott Coleman - September 13, 2010
That was you at the game?
award6 - September 13, 2010
yeahhh
We know when/where Mark Owens looks for the seat upgrade contestants so my fellow season ticket holder and I have been on 6 times. And this time we saw the answer on his sheet….haha
kauf67 - September 13, 2010
lol, I thought it was kind of a tough question. nice. how were the seats?
award6 - September 14, 2010
Bobby Cox has got to change his lineup. Lightning must be caught in a bottle with McLouth’s current hot streak and Heyward’s bat is too hot right now to be batting second. You’re never going to ask Heyward to bunt, nor is he going to steal a lot. He needs all the RBI chances he can get. Derrek Lee is a black hole in the lineup. Whenever he does produce, it’s nothing but singles. He has only one home run, which was a hideously hung curveball by Wainwright.
I’d say give McLouth his lead-off spot back and move everyone down a notch. Or maybe keep Infante lead-off, plug McLouth in at #2, and knock everyone down. Maybe flip-flop Lee and Gonzalez.
Something must change because the current structure is only good enough to play .500. And with the Phillies and Rockies refusing to lose, the Braves can’t afford to go 9-9 in the last 18 games.
And another thing: just let Matt Diaz and Eric Hinske play LF the rest of the way. Melky is going ice cold at the wrong time and the Braves don’t have enough games left to let him come out of it.
AnEternalEnigma - September 13, 2010
re: Derrek Lee is a black hole.
Do you have any statistical premise for stating this? Or is it simply anecdotal? Lee has generally put up good at-bats thus far, that I’ve seen.
DuPu - September 13, 2010
Hard to get around 12 GIDP and 17 Ks, slugging under .400 and hitting .267, OPS is .747 b/c of the .350 OBP. And he can’t hit a fastball. That’s just my take on it.
CharlotteChop - September 13, 2010
The direction he is trending toward seems promising to me:
Last 14 days: .333 AVG, .422 OBP, .513 SLG, .935 OPS.
I don’t expect that to maintain for the duration of the season, especially the .400 BABIP during that timeframe. He’s doing a fine job offensively over the past two weeks and though it is a small sample size, well, his entire tenure with the Braves thus far could be declared SSS.
According to baseball-reference Lee has 5 GDP in the past 28 days, which exceeds the amount of time he has been with the Braves. 10 BB to 17 Ks isn’t stellar, but it isn’t bad either. He knows how to take a walk.
Lee is playing well for us.
DuPu - September 13, 2010
I see the GDP stat on baseball reference, I picked that up somehow and thought it was while he was playing for the Braves, but you are right. Anyway – i do like his trend and he’s not as much a black hole as some might think, but I think he is doing just ‘ok’ not neccessarily well, except as a defender compared to Glaus IMO.
CharlotteChop - September 13, 2010
Agreed on Melky.
10-4 - September 13, 2010
Anyone else hear the radio broadcast of this game? Don and Jim got to talking about websites they frequent, and Jim said he loved Shanks’ website for feeling out the pulse of the Braves fan community.
And then he mentioned some washed up blog I’ve never heard of called Talking Chop. Seemed to think that was also a great place for Braves fans. Not sure what he was smoking there…
J-Freak - September 13, 2010
I was listening to it on and off.
This must have happened during one of those “off” times. My favorite thing tonight was Don saying that today “Freddie can rent a car!” and Jim saying he was sure that was at the top of his to do list.
Sarahbeth - September 13, 2010
Dude...someone HAS to get a transcript or something from tonight's game
that’s awesome if it’s true.
Scott Coleman - September 13, 2010
What the hell do you mean “IF it’s true”?!?!? Why would I make that up?
J-Freak - September 13, 2010 via mobile
because your pants are on fire. that is a dead give away.
fandave - September 13, 2010
I heard it too.
I was getting on here to tell exactly that. And to think, I wouldn’t have heard it if the Braves had actually played a decent ballgame-I woulda have still been at Turner Field and not driving home. Thanks Braves!
10-4 - September 13, 2010
Huddy's Got a Tired Arm
The other night, in an interview, Huddy was asked how he felt, how his Tommy-John-repaired arm felt. He said that he felt fine — what else was he going to say?…but he genuinely seemed to mean it. But then, as an aside, he said something about “the innings beginning to mount up.” He’s throwing now not like he’s hurt, but like he’s starting games in the 5th inning instead of the 1st. He’s good enough to push through, but misses up in the zone a lot and tends to give up the big inning. Perish the thought, I know, but I wonder if he wouldn’t benefit from skipping his next start, if maybe, double perish the thought, Bobby ought to start Kawakami in his place and see if we can’t freshen up Huddy for the final push.
Buddy Holly - September 13, 2010
Huddy is probably combining a tired arm with regressing to the mean. He survived early in the season with a low BABIP and a fairly low K ratio. He started striking more guys out in August, but now he seems to be regressing to the BABIP mean. Balls in play are falling for hits instead of outs (i.e. the Lohse dribbler for a hit and RBI). Actually, Huddy as a Brave has always been very strong through July then falls off in Aug and Sept. I think this year he just lasted a little longer before starting to tire, which keeps the ball up, which increases the BABIP and ERA. 19 Earned Runs in five starts and 36 hits in 31 1/3 innings. He struck out 13 ini his best start at Florida, but has topped out at 5 in the other four. I think it’s all linked and he’s just starting to wear down. He’s had a great year, hope he can gut it out five or six more times.
CharlotteChop - September 13, 2010
Dear Major League pitchers,
Pitch around Albert Pujols when the division is on the line. Helps your chances. Thanks.
CharlotteChop
CharlotteChop - September 13, 2010
Agreed...
The entire series the team repeatedly pitched to and got burned by Mr. Pujols. Why? We are either overconfident, stubborn, or stupid.
I don’t mind losing games, but I hate losing games because we get beat by the opposing team’s best player…Make Matt Holliday beat us…
Jman781 - September 13, 2010
On the flip side...
Why pitch to McCann with Derrek frikkin Lee batting behind him?
He is terrible.
HalleyGator - September 13, 2010
gah....
no mention or love for the Braves MiLB Future Stars and the division awards they received pre-game??? What a load of talent all in one place!! :-)
rbravesfan - September 13, 2010
I totally missed that announcement, and was pissed when we walked into the ballpark and they were honoring the guys on the field. We went last year and got autographs from Heyward, Kimbrel and the like. I sure wouldn’t have minded getting Freddie’s and Teheran autograph.
10-4 - September 13, 2010
Kimbrel and Freeman were not in the autograph line, but everyone else was. My pics are not great, I’ll try and put a post together if anyone wants to see them. That late gametime was a killer for us, between the drive and it being a school/work night.
rbravesfan - September 13, 2010
Godd to see McLouth looking better
..and Melky has to be non-tendered at the end of the season. Please give Matt Young his AB’s as the 4th OF!
Rick Z - September 13, 2010
melky is slumping horribly. he is like 0-infinity in the lastest games
joshant - September 13, 2010
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