Atlanta Braves vs. Washington Nationals – Box Score – April 02, 2011 – ESPN.
See, what they don’t talk about when they talk about the “promise of a new season” is games like this will absolutely happen. The game is designed to make you nauseous.
Tommy Hanson had nothing at all. His velocity was off and so was his control, and he was fortunate to get out of it with only four runs, three “earned”, charged to him in a 3 2/3-inning rain-shortened start. The big blow was a two-run homer by Rick Ankiel after the Nats had already taken a 2-1 lead on a pair of sac flies (one in the second, one in the third).
After the rain, The Lisp did a pretty good job through the fifth, and Dan Uggla‘s first hit as a Brave, a solo homer leading off the sixth, cut it to 4-2. But the rest of the bullpen didn’t hold serve. Ankiel drove in a run off of Scott “Contract” Linebrink in the seventh with a squeeze bunt, and after AG (who had a monster game, 3-3 with a walk) hit a solo homer to cut it to 5-3, Peter Moylan gave up a run to reach the final score.
Each team had ten hits. The Braves stranded nine, but then again the Nats stranded ten. Prado‘s 0-5 looks pretty bad in the boxscore, but he hits some line drives that just happened to be in the wrong place.
It’s clear these boys just don’t have a winning attitude. I blame Fredi for ruining the team chemistry.
Prado’s 0-5 looked better way better than Nate’s 1-4. He’s been hitting the ball well.
That run Moylan gave up was definitely on Chipper and the squeeze play against Linebrink was just good execution. Decent effort by the bullpen IMO.
But still a frustrating game to watch.
and the squeeze play against Linebrink was just good execution.
Not to mention that the runner who scored only reached because of a three-base error by our CF.
Can we start the count now?
Number of PAs that Heyward has missed by hitting 6th instead of 2nd: 1
Two.
@3, Yeah. 2006 Andruw Jones would have caught that mid yawn. Man was I spoiled growing up watching him.
Obviously, I’m the worst general manager in baseball.
Frank Wren is fine. The Braves are fine. Nate McLouth, however, sucks.
New Whipping Boy.
Verbatim David Justice Tweet:
UK…Show’em what u got!! Go Big Blue!!
I always liked Ron Gant better.
I hate to say it, but I think keeping either Ankiel or Diaz as a backup would have been better (and in the long run cheaper) than what we’ll get this year. I bet we’ll make a trade for an outfielder as either a backup or replacement for McLouth well before the trade deadline.
Guys… 2 games. Out of 162. If 25 game spring stats are worthless, let’s not get bent over 2 game regular season stats.
Yeah, if we were going off these two games, Agony would need a new nickname.
Via Peanut:
He said he will make every attempt to prevent both of them from notching save opportunities more than two consecutive days.
“I don’t foresee using either of those guys more than two days in a row, especially in April,” Gonzalez said.
I hope Fredi holds to that. That was Bobby’s weakness.
I don’t mind seeing Ankiel have some success, but I’d much rather it come against the Phillies, Mets, and Marlins.
XGonzo!
That was Bobby’s weakness.
Well, that, and giving playing time to Keith Lockhart, Kevin Gryboski, Garret Anderson, Jeff Francoeur, Dan Kolb, and Kim Jong-Il.