Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – August 19, 2011 – ESPN.
Fredi returned to his quick-hook strategy with Derek Lowe, and it paid off, as Lowe wasn’t allowed to lose the game in the middle innings, and after a bullpen hiccup things settled down.
The Braves took the lead in the first with a leadoff homer by Michael Bourn, his first as a Brave and just his second of the season. In the third, Brian McCann homered with Jose Constanza aboard to make it 3-0. Chipper Jones finished off the offense with a solo homer in the sixth. Not a lot of sequential offense by the Braves.
Lowe didn’t stink up the joint, allowing four hits and two walks in five innings. I guess he was actually pretty good. But he was at 99 pitches after allowing the first two on in the sixth, and Fredi went with Arodys Vizcaino. Vizcaino delivered, getting out of that jam with two strikeouts and a flyout, then struck out the first man in the seventh.
He ran into trouble then, walking the next two, and Eric O’Flaherty came in. He couldn’t nail it down, though, allowing both of Vizcaino’s runners to score on a double with two out. Jonny Venters pitched the eighth, striking out one and getting two ground balls. For the first time in a while Craig Kimbrel had a bit of trouble, allowing a bunt single to Kelly Johnson and a walk, but got out of it, getting two strikeouts, then a dribbler to end it.
It’s official, Houston 6, Giants 0. We’re now seven up for the wild card.
A scoring question – O’Fleherty allowed Cowgill to reach on a fielder’s choice, with Bloomquist erased at second. At that point it was Johnson on 3rd (Vizcaino’s man) and Cowgill. Since it was a FC, does the runner still belong to Vizcaino?
Pretty sure both runs belong to Vizzy.
Yes, because the runner was on base at all because of Vizcaino.
OK, that makes sense. If he had gotten a double play (with no outs), and then put another on who scored, the run then goes to EOF.
Check.
@2 It’s scored to Vizcaino. From the rules:
“(g) When pitchers are changed during an inning, the official scorer shall not charge the relief pitcher with any run (earned or unearned) scored by a runner who was on base at the time such relief pitcher entered the game, nor for runs scored by any runner who reaches base on a fielder’s choice that puts out a runner left on base by any preceding pitcher.”
Posnanski on Melky: “Almost unwatchable as a center fielder.”
Tiger224 on Lowe: “Almost unwatchable as a starter…much less a $15M per year starter”
Melky has had a pretty good season at the plate.
And is younger than frenchy and can at least fake CF which makes the Frenchy decision a bit odd
Madson’s blown the lead for the Phillies in Washington. 4-4.
And Zimmerman hits a grand slam to win it for the Nats in style. We’re now almost as close to the Phillies as the Giants.
A walk off grand slam for Zimmerman.
Madson’s ERA went from 2.06 to 3.25 with that 6ER, 0.2IP performance.
Melky has an .824 OPS this season. What the hell.
Well, this homestand just got a whole lot better.
The Braves would’ve done better with the Royals’ CF and RF than the ones the Braves had for the first 4 months of the year. As unbelievable as that is, it’s a simple fact.
It’s worth noting that Melky was a semi-decent prospect when he was coming up, and he’s even younger than Frenchy (who’s only 27 at this point). So it’s not like he didn’t have upside. He was just embarrassingly bad last year for the Braves is all.
@17 that, and by far the worst outfield defence I’ve ever seen.
@17, In those months, we could’ve arguably done better with the Royals’ AAA CF, Lorenzo Cain. It wasn’t hard to outdo what we sent out there.
Game thread — a bit early, it should have been scheduled.