Braves 4, Orioles 2
Baltimore Orioles vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – June 15, 2012 – ESPN.
You’re a goat, then you’re a hero. That’s baseball, and Andrelton Simmons‘ night.
The Braves took a 1-0 lead in the first on a Brian McCann homer, but blew a chance for more in the second, when Simmons grounded out to the pitcher with runners second and third, one out. Meanwhile, Tommy Hanson was laboring, needing tons of pitches to get through every inning. Though he wound up allowing only four hits (in only 5 1/3 innings) he walked six, with just two strikeouts. In the fourth, Simmons threw away a groundball out for an error. Then Wilson Betemit doubled and Michael Bourn misplayed the ball, allowing the runner to score and Betemit to go to third, whence he promptly scored on a sac fly to give the Orioles the lead.
Cut to the sixth. Hanson walked two with one out and gave way to Chad Durbin, who somehow struck out two. In the Braves’ half, with two out and Matt Diaz on first, Simmons hit a homer, making it Braves 3, Orioles 2. Jack Wilson followed with a pinch-hit triple — which seems awfully unlikely, but happened — and scored on an infield single by Bourn.
Kris Medlen threw a 1-2-3 seventh, then in the eighth got a free out on a caught stealing, [EDIT: Actually, a pickoff, I was following online] then got a double play to end the inning. Craig Kimbrel got a strikeout, and another double play to end it for his 19th save.
FWIW, Medlen picked off Adam Jones in the 8th.
Jones looked like he was daydreaming out there.
June 16th, 2012 at 10:11 amAwesome recap.
Hahahahaha: http://www.fangraphs.com/not/index.php/brian-mccann-glimpses-the-unthinkable/
June 16th, 2012 at 10:15 amSomeone needs to go remind that Simmons kid that he’s just a glove guy! Lost on his throwing error was a really nice stop on a sharply hit ground ball to the hole. I’m really enjoying him so far.
June 16th, 2012 at 10:27 amI don’t think Simmons is going to keep hitting, but I’ll enjoy it while it lasts.
I’m going to pre-empt the game tonight and go on and say Brian McCann has no business hitting that high in the order.
June 16th, 2012 at 11:02 am@2
For anyone who watched the whole game, what on Earth caused McCann to make that facial expression?
June 16th, 2012 at 11:35 amLivan, as is his tradition every time he is released, streaked through the outfield.
June 16th, 2012 at 11:38 amHe does that pretty frequently since he got contacts. It’s typically too brief to notice but when you freeze it like that it looks pretty silly. It’s like taking a picture of someone right as they blink or when they’re in the middle of saying something. We’re never aware of how many hilarious expressions we make until they get frozen time like that cap of McCann which probably lasted all of one frame on TV.
June 16th, 2012 at 11:42 amJack Wilson hit a pinch-triple.
I just wrote that sentence and it still feels wrong.
June 16th, 2012 at 11:43 amJack Wilson led the league in triples in 2004, with 12. Jack Wilson has earned somewhere around 40 million dollars playing a game we comment on. It is still stunning that – Jack Wilson hit a pinch triple last night.
June 16th, 2012 at 11:54 amMike Hessman, the real-life Crash Davis – Sports Fans, Teams, Stadiums, Page 2 – Fandom Blog – ESPN Playbook – ESPN.
No, he’s not.
June 16th, 2012 at 11:58 am@VoteMcCann2011—
I don’t think BMac wears contacts anymore…Back when he was having eye trouble in ’09 and ’10, I think he said that because of the lasik, contacts no longer fit his eyes…
But I could be wrong…
June 16th, 2012 at 1:24 pmAZ beat writter says we are in on Joe Saunders
June 16th, 2012 at 1:25 pmNO. No no no.
June 16th, 2012 at 1:41 pmDear Lord, no.
June 16th, 2012 at 1:50 pmVomit.
June 16th, 2012 at 1:55 pm@6 – In the same manner that Venus streaked across the sun.
June 16th, 2012 at 2:09 pmHey, I just had an idea. Maybe we could get Joe Saunders and then trade him for Dan Haren.
June 16th, 2012 at 2:22 pmHarper is 0-6 w/ 5Ks against the Yanks today. Probable ESPN headline:
“The Mighty Yankees Turn in Greatest Pitching Performance Ever, Getting Harper on 5 Ks”
June 16th, 2012 at 4:48 pmI hate feeling like I should be rooting for the Braves to not make spectacularly bad trades, instead of hoping they might make a spectacularly good one.
Way to go, Yanks.
June 16th, 2012 at 4:56 pmI’m sure ryan c saw this, but:
David O’Brien @ajcbraves
June 16th, 2012 at 4:58 pm#Braves MiLB slugger Gattis gets cast off wrist this week. Was more serious than initial “mild tendinitis.” Strained ligament, inflamm.
I enjoyed watching the Nats burn through their bullpen and seeing Brad Lidge lose it in the 14th.
June 16th, 2012 at 5:36 pmPhils lost in extra innings too. Could be another good day if Beachy’s right.
June 16th, 2012 at 5:53 pmNice, Brandon.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:19 pmThat was quick.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:19 pmCrap.
FOX is giving me the Marlins game tonight.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:22 pmBill Ripkin sounds a lot like John Laurinaitis and I don’t want to hear either.
Francisco and Hinske in the same lineup is kinda scary.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:24 pmGOOOOOOOO…. gah.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:40 pmI can’t find the game on any channel, and I have MLB Extra Innings. Is it totally blacked out today?
June 16th, 2012 at 6:41 pmI thought the blackout BS was for Saturday day games?
June 16th, 2012 at 6:43 pmFox has it. If your local channel doesn’t have it, you’re out of luck.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:43 pmWow, what a monopoly Fox has. I’m forced to watch the Cubs-Red Sox here in the Pacific NW, a game between two teams that are in last place in their respective divisions.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:46 pmJuan Francisco, new whipping boy.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:53 pmI’m blacked out too. Thank goodness for the radio feed.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:54 pmCompletely forgot that you can use a proxy outside of the states to watch blacked out fox games on mlb.tv.
Thanks Canada.
June 16th, 2012 at 6:57 pmJohn, not to put too fine a point on it, how would one do that?
June 16th, 2012 at 7:02 pmGreat. Beachy is hurt.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:05 pmOh, Jeez. Poor Beachy.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:07 pmWell, that was a depressing turn of events.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:07 pmWell, it was fun while it lasted. Im guessing that Beachy is done for the season.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:08 pmSo from #38 I gather that it just looked like Beachy’s arm or shoulder was hurting, not some other injury that might be less distressing?
June 16th, 2012 at 7:11 pmThrow strikes, Vavaro.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:11 pmIm guessing that Beachy is done for the season.
And likely for most of the next if he needs TJS. Let’s hope he does not.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:12 pm#39, clearly his elbow.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:13 pmIt seems the Braves were right to stretch Medlen out after all, if Beachy’s done.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:14 pm@42, thanks.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:15 pmIs the strike zone moving, or is Vavaro just missing?
June 16th, 2012 at 7:16 pm@34
Um..
Go to a free proxy site, search for a proxy outside of the US, and then enter the IP and port into the appropriate spot in your browser’s settings.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:16 pmBeachy threw a pitch and immediately called out Bmac. Fredi went out and Beachy was shaking his hand. Im guessing his arm went numb and his elbow is shot. Just a guess, but this is his first start after having elbow discomfort.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:16 pm@45, he’s missing. Some times close, often not so close.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:16 pmGreat, we’ve already lost.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:17 pmShoot.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:17 pmBeachy is the pitcher of record.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:18 pmDid Braves pitchers ever have this many injuries under Leo? Not pointing fingers or anything but it just seems like the number of injuries in pitchers has increased dramatically under McDowell…
June 16th, 2012 at 7:18 pm@45, I’m watching and following on gameday. Some he misses, some he throws down the middle for a ball.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:20 pmWhen is Freeman coming back? Why isn’t Chipper playing? This is such a scrub lineup. Grrr.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:22 pmFor people who know these things, would Medlen be able to step in and go at least five innings in Beachy’s place next time?
June 16th, 2012 at 7:28 pm55 — He pitched 6 innings his last start in Gwinnett, so I would think so.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:29 pmThis is disgusting. We go from a no hitter to this.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:30 pmIncredible. They found someone who’s actually a downgrade from Livan.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:31 pmOkay, I’ve seen, rather heard, enough of Varvaro. Is it too late to reconcile with Livan?
June 16th, 2012 at 7:31 pmBill Ripkin is a moron…why can’t we clone Vin Scully and just let his clones handle all games?
June 16th, 2012 at 7:35 pm@57- There’s still a distinct possibility of a no-hitter here, just not one we’re gonna like…
June 16th, 2012 at 7:37 pm@61 More than distinct, with JV players at first and third.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:38 pmDo we have two Vavaros?
June 16th, 2012 at 7:42 pm@61: 67 pitches through 6, and it’s looking pretty likely for a no-no right now.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:50 pmUgh.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:51 pmI believe the Braves are trying to answer the question: how much soul-crushingness can we fit into one single game?
June 16th, 2012 at 7:52 pmI’m done.
June 16th, 2012 at 7:59 pmGod bless my pitiful Braves and all Braves Jounal folk. I’ll see you tomorrow.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:00 pmVenters, EOF, Chipper, Freeman, Beachy, Jurrjens….too much to overcome.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:01 pmTime to switch over to South Carolina-Florida
June 16th, 2012 at 8:03 pmMaybe during the stretch now, Wren will give us the coup de grace and install Fredi as GM.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:05 pmKenny Albert’s voice is f__king irritating.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:13 pmDignity somewhat maintained.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:14 pmWalks kill you…no no-no today. Is that a bright spot? 1 hit? That’s all we got, 1 g*d**n hit?
June 16th, 2012 at 8:15 pmHinske is done.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:16 pmThe team couldn’t have anticipated all the pieces we had that worked so well last year to completely implode this year. Martinez, Venters, Hinske, JJ, Minor… And that’s not counting the Freeman injury and the fact that Chipper never plays.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:23 pm@74 – You can’t say that.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:23 pmYeah. Hinske’s never been this bad. He’s just not elevating the ball and has totally lost his power.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:24 pmHinske’s bat looks like it’s decelerating through the zone. He looks real bad. Can’t Diaz play 1B?
June 16th, 2012 at 8:35 pmMediocre team, injuries out the wazoo, terrible manager, terrible ownership, nondescript front office. Ladies and gentlemen, your Atlanta Braves.
June 16th, 2012 at 8:46 pm@76,
But that’s the point. Wren always puts the team together on the assumption that everything will go right-and they never do. Maybe he has no choice but even though you can’t anticipate specific things that will go wrong, you can be pretty sure something will. The Braves act as if everything will work the way they want.
June 16th, 2012 at 9:10 pm@80 ..Amen … too many bad things happening now … bench not strong enought o overcome .. Henske is not an everyday player which he is proving , we see why Franscisco was expendable .. we could sure use JJ Hoover about now .. Prado needs to stay at 3b since Chipper is still walking wounded , go ahead and play Diaz in LF, whew !! Its bad .. Beachy probably out for a while now … did I over look anyhting .. I did mentio puss Freeman didnt I
June 16th, 2012 at 9:13 pm@81 We don’t have the payroll to plan for anything else.
June 16th, 2012 at 9:14 pmThis team has about 4 or 5 guys who are gamers … Bourn, Prado and ??? well maybe just 2 then
June 16th, 2012 at 9:14 pmListening to one of the guys who called Don Larsen’s perfect game on MLB network.
June 16th, 2012 at 10:04 pmDidn’t mind missing tonight’s game, but Beachy’s exit seems fairly ominous.
June 16th, 2012 at 11:13 pm@81. Our payroll does not allow us to act otherwise. The only area we have a little depth is starting pitching, but seems like we need every single bit of the depth we have there. We never expected Jonny would struggle this bad and Freddie will miss this much time. Honestly, I think having EOF and Jonny struggling hurt this team the most.
June 17th, 2012 at 1:46 amWe’re going through a bit of a power outage too. I guess a lot of it has to do with Freeman’s trials and tribulations. We’ve been getting no power from the corner IF or anywhere in the OF. Teams are just pitching around Uggla now. Kudos to him for taking the walks, but walks don’t mean anything when the guys behind you are scuffling.
June 17th, 2012 at 6:45 am@76, I’m not sure I agree. Yes, too much has gone wrong thus far, but much of it was predictable.
I don’t know about other folks, but at the end of the day Venters and EOF (and Kimbrel) are bullpen arms, and you have to know they’re going to be volatile and get injured. Relievers don’t even pitch a statistically significant sample size over the course of a season, so how could you bank on them? And with their workloads, you just can’t say this wasn’t predictable. Venters and EOF’s declines — plus, let’s not forget Arodys’ injury and the lack of a guy like Moylan — hurts, and while perhaps Durbin has fought his way back to respectability, it turns out Livan wasn’t at all what we needed. Martinez is exactly what he was last year…just an arm to throw some innings.
Going into the season, we knew we had starting pitching depth, but it was riddled with question marks, between unproven players and ones returning from injury. Every baseball fan with a SABR background has been waiting for Jurrjens to decline sharply, and here we are. Minor has never not sucked, but if you look under the hood, he could become basically what Delgado already is this season, a usable back-end starter. It is a borderline tragedy to me that Tommy Hanson may never be able to get back on the trajectory towards acehood that he was on, pre-injury. It’s a shame. Huddy can still be a decent #2 or #3, but he’s turning 37 in a few weeks.
Freeman’s injuries certainly weren’t foreseeable, but some decline was. He’s young and is not the most patient hitter. And you can’t take a short early-season hot streak to mean much either way. Hinske is 35 and shouldn’t be playing everyday even in good years. But Freeman being out may turn out to be the trade-related blessing in disguise we’ve been waiting for.
I don’t expect much of anything from Chipper at this point. I am overjoyed to have seen his whole career.
@81, Sort of. This team has shown it can win without everything being right, but right now, too much is wrong. All teams have flaws, and we’re just overexposed right now. We need Heyward, McCann, Prado, Bourn, and Uggla to carry us, for Hudson and Hanson to be at their best, and for Delgado and Minor to keep us in it. Until Wren can get something done. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
And if the Braves keep Medlen in the ‘pen now, that means it’s likely Teheran time. I don’t think we’re going to see Jurrjens again.
June 17th, 2012 at 7:28 amI vote we see what Medlin can do up to the All Star break, then make a move.
June 17th, 2012 at 7:46 am@89 Venters was a top 10 reliever in all of baseball for two years running, no one would predict he would completely fall off the wagon (without an injury!) this year. Wren clearly saw the need for more bullpen arms, and while Durbin is actually working out after the rough start, Livan’s acquisition was the right idea but the wrong guy. Minor went from being incredible early this season to completely falling apart and pitching far worse than he ever has in his career. Medlen can’t even get a chance at starting because of the bullpen woes, and Delgado has been serviceable. Teheran still isn’t ready.
The starting pitching completely imploding is the biggest issue we’ve had. We had 7, 8 guys who theoretically could have been in the rotation, and more than half of them are hurt or playing poorly. You don’t plan for that.
Freeman’s hot streak wasn’t all THAT short, he was on pace for 140 RBIs at one point.
June 17th, 2012 at 7:54 amThe thing that was most predictable this past off-season was that Chipper would probably play about half the games at best, so priority one should have been to find a decent hitting LF so we could play Prado at 3B. We made no moves, and now we’re dependent on Chipper being both healthy and effective. I don’t like those odds.
I think we’re a better team at the moment with Prado at 3B and Diaz in LF every day. Francisco can’t play 3B or hit, but I guess we’re keeping him around for…well…no idea. Hinske seems done. Ross can’t PH because of the irrational fear of playing 15 innings and not having a 3rd catcher. Not sure how we fix any of this without making a trade.
June 17th, 2012 at 8:20 amWillingham it is!
June 17th, 2012 at 8:32 amWe obtained a guy like Francisco because, while we knew we would need a fill-in for Chipper while he was injured, we had no way of knowing (and still don’t) how often Chipper would be out of the lineup, or for how long. The role of Chipper’s 2012 injury caddy (whether directly, or in LF with Prado moving to 3B) isn’t one too many established major league players (or their agents) would willingly sign up for, because it’s basically volunteering to be jerked around for a year. So we went with a scrub with one major league talent (hitting for power), hoping to catch lightning in a bottle, along with a loyal foot soldier with nowhere else to turn (Diaz).
Hopefully the equation now changes. Playing 2/3 of the time for a contender (again, hopefully) over half a season beats playing out the string for a team going nowhere, so maybe we’re a more attractive destination for a guy like Willingham.
June 17th, 2012 at 8:55 amI don’t see the Braves bidding on a popular target, and I imagine Willingham will be popular.
Maybe more like Carlos Lee or something.
June 17th, 2012 at 9:19 amThey DL’d Beachy. Didn’t wait for the MRI.
June 17th, 2012 at 9:20 amSurprisingly, they called up Redmond. Wonder if he’ll get a couple starts, or if they’re eyeballing him for Livan duty. Maybe he’ll get two starts to try out for holding down Livan duty for the remainder.
June 17th, 2012 at 9:22 amMy guess is Redmon’s start dates line up well with Beachy’s. I figure Medlen will end up stretching out and starting.
June 17th, 2012 at 9:28 amRecapped.
June 17th, 2012 at 10:40 am