Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – May 03, 2012 – ESPN.
Sometimes after a long game, one or both teams comes out extraordinarily flat in the next game. Except for Randall Delgado, who was hung with a loss for probably his best start yet, the Braves were that flat team.
The Phillies took the lead with a sac fly in the first. That was all that they would need, as Joe Blanton threw a complete-game shutout. The Braves had just three hits and never put together anything like a rally.
The Phillies didn’t need anything else, but they got a solo homer in the seventh, and Livan Hernandez gave up a two-run homer in the ninth. Spoiled was eight innings of good work from Delgado, including five strikeouts and no walks.
Tip that cap, Fred.
Punt.
Shorter recap: LOL.
One assumes we’ll score some runs in the Denver air this weekend. Hopefully, we’ll prevent some as well.
Pathetic. The immortal Joe Blanton. The Braves need to kidnap Chipper, find some sort of potion that would turn him back to 25 and never let him go because without him, the Braves stink.
Very disappointed in this effort after last night’s game. Blanton was throwing 88 mph fastballs down the middle of the plate for called 3rd strikes. Delgado gave the team a great effort, but it looked like nobody cared.
Also was Fredi calling the pitches? What is the point of that?
Umm…it’s over and recapped? Did I enter some sort of time warp? Geez…..
Wow. This game was over before I even finished yesterday’s recap.
At least the players will get to Colorado in plenty of time for a nice dinner.
I’ve realized that I post most often when angry, probably trying to commiserate/complain with other Braves fans. But I think it’s time to temper the negativity and have fun with baseball. So, a positive/negative/positive sandwich:
1. I like what Delgado’s doing. Most guys aren’t phenoms and take time to mature. I think he will be a good one once the growing pains are over.
2. Hate hate hate to lose a home series against the Phillies. If we want an NL East rivalry, the one-sided nature of Braves/Phills we’ve seen for 6 years needs to stop.
3. Good thing the bullpen is rested heading to Coors.
Only two players saw more than 10 pitches today. Bourn had 18, Fransisco had 13.
Prado 0-4 9 pitches
Uggla 0-3 7 pitches
Jhey and Pastor 0-3 8 pitches
Sorry, Blanton isnt close to ever being that effective.
ON the season, the Braves are averaging over 5 runs per game. But that’s misleading because half of the runs (67) came in five games. In the other 21 games, the Braves are averaging 3.1 runs. The offense is, as usual, inconsistent, especially when Chipper is not in the lineup.
Honestly, that was a pretty unacceptable getaway day effort. I don’t really see any difference between that game and the Chris Capuano hurricane game last year. However, because of last night, I’m having a hard time mustering up a whole lot of anger about it. Though I’m sure it didn’t happen, I’ll pretend that Fredi or Chipper or somebody overturned the postgame spread in the clubhouse to make myself feel better about it and move on.
Thought the Braves pretty much always played at 7:00 on weekday home games. Imagine the surprise when SportSouth is turned on to try and catch the end of last night’s game, only to see today’s game was already over and the Braves lost 4-0.
Okay so the Phils played a pretty good game. When do the Braves show up?
Hell, Jim Powell called in sick on the radio, and DOB was covered for by Chris Vivlamore. It’s like NOBODY showed up for todays game.
They must’ve let Uggla plan a night out for the team and others last night. And they somehow must’ve forgotten to invite Delgado.
@12, So what you’re saying is:
-When you take away the Braves’ best offensive performances, they’re not as good at scoring runs
-When you take away the Braves’ best offensive performer, they’re not as good at scoring runs
I concur!
lol, exactly what I was thinking, @17
The only team ahead of us in RPG is the Cardinals. Take away their top six games and they’re averaging 3.2 RPG. The team right behind us is the Rockies — take away their top five games and they’re at 2.8 RPG. I’m not sure our results skew any differently than what the general nature of the sport would dictate. Also, we’re in a very low run environment overall right now — even lower than last year, so even that 3.1 isn’t as bad as we’ve been conditioned to believe.
Yeah, through this slight downturn we’ve had over the last week, I really haven’t seen anything from the hitters that I wasn’t seeing during the good stretch. Certainly nothing that has caused me to say, “We’re just not playing very good baseball right now.” Until today, obviously…and as I said, I’m gonna chalk that up to the hangover/getaway day thing for right now.
Yeah, really the only thing I’ve noticed is that we SUCK when we lose, and we DON’T when we win.
Marc, the Braves are 5th in baseball in wRC+ and 6th in wOBA. Their bats, at least through a month of the season, are upper echelon. That’s just not the problem.
The real problem, insofar as the team has one, has been run prevention. The Braves are 23rd in in ERA. But what’s hopeful, and frankly, exciting, is that Braves pitchers collectively have the 5th best FIP and 8th best xFIP in baseball, so that ERA is almost certainly just the result of some bad luck (a .329 BABIP). If they keep playing exactly as they have been, the ERA will fall a little and the record will continue to improve. So perk up.
@22
Well…maybe. FIP and xFIP are helpful in divorcing individual pitching performance from the defense behind them. But, to borrow a phrase, you take the mound with the defense you have, not necessarily the defense you wish you had.
For instance, Pastornicky failed to make the inning-ending play on two consecutive batters behind Medlen last night, and both batters ended up scoring. They appeared to be tough but makeable plays. He HAS to be a plus defender for our pitching staff’s results to match their efforts, solely because of who plays on either side of him.
Is it too hard for Fredi to manage not having both Chipper and Mac out of the lineup at the same time?
@17, 18, 19,
All good points. I stand corrected. I have learned something.
I still say trade Durbin for Kemp but maybe now we need more than just Kemp since Durbin is our best relief pitcher.
@23, Suuuuuure, Rummy.
Look, I know this is one of those games where one (and maybe both) of the teams kinda mail it in.
Why did it have to be us?
I’ll never be able to prove it, but THIS is the difference between Bobby and Fredi.
Gattis still destroying baseballs after the move to AA:
4/9 1 walk 1 double 1HR 4rbi 1.389OPS
Bold prediction: Evan Gattis is our starting LF in 2013 after a sensational end of the year 2012 callup.
And he had an outfield assist.
Mo Rivera tore his ACL shagging fly balls.
Damn.
Are you serious?
That’s like, the so sad.
Article and video here.
#30–Gattis’ progress is fun to watch: I am hoping that he could develop a career along the lines of Kevin Millar who only had 3 PAs before age 27 or Matt Stairs who had less than 50 PAs before 27. I could see Gattis getting his first PAs when he is 26….
Clearly he has become one of the most intriguing prospects in baseball….
Dang. I hate the Yankees with the best of ’em, but can’t hate on Rivera. Big respect for that guy. That sucks.
Semi-related: While I’m glad Vandy was finally able to add another commit for next year’s basketball team (and he looks like a good player), it’s gonna be really hard for me to get used to cheering for someone named Jeter.
Someone two threads back referred to Hernandez and Durbin as Hernandurb. I read that as “hern and durb,” and i like that. That sounds like an extremely unpleasant chore one might have to do.
“Great, now I’m going to have to hern and durb the septic, again.”
Yeah–or something a person might do if they ate too much or the wrong thing….
Boy, that’s distressing about Rivera.
He’s broken my heart more than a few times, but every time he came out of the ‘pen I knew I was watching greatness. A very rare player.
“Keep your dog on your own lawn! I’m not cleaning up his hern and durb anymore!”
Now that is a surprise, maybe. Fredi on ajc.com:
“On offensive struggles: “I think maybe today, maybe you’ve got to tip your hat.”
@23, 24
Sure, but the team’s FIP last year was much lower and in line with its ERA. The BABIP was much lower too. And the team defense was pretty similar.
To be sure, I don’t dispute that the infield defense is bad, and for that matter, that the coaching is behind the curve on infield positioning, but they’re still getting unlucky. The only reason why the Braves will keep giving up this number of runs will be if the pitching gets worse.
Man, I’m having the absolute worst luck in fantasy baseball this year. I’ve already lost my top 2 closers for the year (Bailey and Mo) and my top draft pick, Joey Bats, is hitting like he’s Jack Wilson. In a 14-teamed league, you’d think a core offensive team of McCann, Avila, A. Craig, Hamilton, Bautista, A.Cabrera, and Swisher would be dominant. Apparently not.
My entire team may be on the trading block for a dozen candied apples. So good.
Happy Star Wars Day, everyone. May the Fourth be with YOU! Since the Braves had their casual Friday yesterday, I think it’s only fair for us Braves fans to take it easy at work today. Be relaxed!
http://fashionablygeek.com/t-shirts/the-ultimate-shirt-for-casual-fridays/
If I was Wren, I would call Fredi in and say “if you say ‘have to tip our caps’ one more goddam time, you are fired.
Fredi as a Carthaginian: “You really have to tip your hat to those Romans.”
Serious question: Has anybody ever actually seen Fredi tip his hat? To anyone, let alone the opposing team?
Just finished The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. I anyone is interested in a (somewhat)baseball related summer, beach book (veiled as a literary endeavor) I recommend it.
@35 – Kevin Millar? I will eat my hat if Gattis hits any less than 700 homeruns.
At this point I picture Fredi waking up every morning, sitting down with a cup of coffee in front of his MacBook Pro, and giggling at the uproar caused by his cap-tipping from the night before. Of course, I could be giving him too much credit.
1. The fact that they played a bad game (and getting blanked by Joe Blanton is a bad day, even if you’re sitting Mac and Chipper) doesn’t indicate a lack of effort or a “mailed in” performance on getaway day. It just means they played a bad game. You can’t tell anything about a player’s psychological engagement from a single game’s performance.
2. The uproar over cliches that every manager uses all the time is hilarious.
3. I’m going to have to start hating on Mo Rivera, just to prove it can be done. Universal love is sickening to behold.
I can think of only one other entity that hates Mo Rivera.
I will have to agree with Sam on 1 and 2 above, but really, wouldn’t you just like to tip your cap one time to Rivera?
So Sam now hates Nelson Mandela.
@49
Post of the day
I don’t like him either.
#47
There’s a difference between love & respect.
I guess Sam’s not too keen on the Beatles either.
@54 I don’t like them either.
@55
Wait, really? The Beatles?
RIP Yauch
http://tinyurl.com/7j4zwca
Well, shit.
Fredi on April 20, 1961: “you really have to tip your cap to Fidel.”
@56 Yes, the Beatles.
I’ll admit, I’m not a Beatles fan either.
I don`t like the Beatles either
These kids…
I’m old enough to have watched the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. I’m not a fan either. I must admit that I have spent most of my adult life convinced that John Lennon was one of a long series of antichrists. Not so much in a religious vein, which we know is not allowed on here, but as one who leads many to general destruction. Songs about peace and love might have been easier for me to swallow, if they weren’t surrounded by a drug induced haze.
Is it Miller Time yet?
Ok…how about sunshine? Anybody have any feelings about that? Sheesh.
Peace & love, as opposed to the other thing that was going on at the time.
Sunshine almost always makes me high.
@64, You should check out a couple stories from In His Own Write. You’ll see pretty quickly that John Lennon was John Lennon before drugs could’ve possibly entered the picture. The book is like Finnegans Wake for beginners.
I wouldn’t reduce him to “peace and love” either. They all went to some dark places, him especially.
Good news for Brooks Conrad. His contract was purchased by the Brewers from AAA where he was simply demolising the ball.
Game thread is up.