Atlanta Braves vs. Milwaukee Brewers — Box Score — September 11, 2012 — ESPN
You see a pitching match-up featuring Tim Hudson and Marco Estrada, and you like your chances.
You are such a fool.
Huddy pitched admirably, giving up only one run on three hits over his first six innings before giving up three bogus runs in the seventh. (The first runner of the inning was out but ruled safe, and all three runs scored with two outs.) The offense, meanwhile, did what it has been wont to do over the past couple of weeks (read: nothing at all), and the Braves dropped their second straight game in Milwaukee.
You could point out that the Braves did hit several almost-homers over Cy Estrada’s last two or three innings of work, but it’s Marco F. Estrada and you really shouldn’t be trying to excuse a team for not scoring against him.
Related miscellany: Chip Caray continues to be unbearable; Brian McCann’s swing looks much, much better, to me; Lyle Overbay is, unfortunately, doing nothing to take Eric Hinske’s postseason roster spot; Andrelton Simmons is an absolute joy to watch; I miss Mac terribly.
Thanks for recapping this disgusting game, Stu. Losing was easier with Mac here to share the pain.
Our leadoff hitter’s 2nd half coming into tonight: .232/.328/.323
Tack on another 0 for 4 to that. He’s got good company in this lineup so I guess I shouldn’t single him out. But still…
18 innings 15 singles 1 run
HRs = wins. Lack of HRs = #$%@!
The offense has been absolutely putrid for at least two weeks now.
Again, we’re getting lucky- the Pirates and Dodgers have lost and the Cardinals are losing. This can’t go on much longer, or else the Phillies and Brewers will start to look like contenders.
It’s all my fault. My softball team won 5-0 tonite. We’re called the Brewers.
Thank you, Stu. What a horrendous affair.
Thank you Stu. I particularly love your last statement in the recap.
I think Bourn is trying hard to adjust his market value so that he can stay with the Braves.
Wow, the Phillies are just four games back from the Cards…I seriously did not notice that. I am sure they are now regretting the Victorino trade.
Agreed on all counts, Stu.
Chip: Simmons’ swing reminds me of Jeff Francoeur
Joe (thinks for a second, then staples his mouth closed): Hmph.
How can a team, that employs Mark Reynolds, Nate McLouth and Chris Davis as regulars be in 1st place in the AL East this late in the season. I mean, that’s about a thousand strikeouts right there. I’m routing for them, though.
@12 Watching the Yankees fans lose their minds has been quite entertaining.
Forgot to say this last night, but thanks for the awesome recap, Stu. Just the right amount of disgust.
Yes, this was a perfect game for a Stu recap.
This is exactly what our offense did last September.
Nice job, Stu. Nobody answered my question on the last thread: why do I continue to watch baseball and cause myself pain. (Though flipping over to the Red Sox-Yankees was fun.) Any suggestions?
It seems like this offense for the past 3-4 years has been like this. They put up runs at times, enough to even be in the top half of the league, but then are prone to these long droughts.
Can’t figure out why, but I think krussell is onto it with a lack of power,
Every time I think the Braves are safe, they come up with something like these last two games. I still don’t think they will collapse but the team seems constantly on the edge of doom. They have scored one or less runs in 7 of their last 13 games-yet are 7-6 in that period. Pretty amazing when you think about it. At least Kimbrel is well-rested.
As good as Bourn was the first half, he has been pretty bad the second half. Obviously, he is not the only problem,but it gives me pause about breaking the bank for him. I’m wondering if the home runs he hit earlier in the season caused him to start-unconsciously-swinging for power and it threw off his swing.
The offense was good in the first half, and has been below average in the second. The flip side is that our pitching has been pretty amazing so far in the second half. I would say that right now we’re roughly comparable to the Giants. We need great starting pitching and to scratch out a few runs here or there. We have no power on this team. The power is there on paper looking at past seasons, but it’s not there right now. Hope we can find it.
Washington only has 3 players slugging under .450. Morse .444, Espinosa .416, Suzuki .421.
Braves only have 3 over .450. Heyward .490, Chipper .482, Freeman .450
No one is really talking about it, but a likely scenario is the Braves vs Phils in a one game playoff to play Wash. One game playoff against any of Lee, Halladay, and Hamels doesnt look good.
I’d say that’s more “possible” than “likely.”
@20 I keep waiting for the Nats back to come back to earth, but they haven’t yet. Love to see that happen in October.
Let’s just get to the WC game (hopefully, played at The Ted), line up our best pitcher, & roll the dice with it. That’s all we can do at this point. The Nats ain’t blowing it & it’s hard to imagine the Braves playing .700+ ball or something down the stretch.
Re: WC Teams
They’d have to leapfrog both LA & PIT to catch STL, but the Phils and Brewers are both 71-71, 4 GB StL in the WC.
Interestingly, the Phils play 3 games vs ATL, 6 games vs WAS, but also 4 games vs MIA, 4 games vs HOU & 3 games vs NYM.
FWIW, the Brew Crew plays a little tougher schedule IMO: 1 game vs ATL, 4 vs WAS, 3 vs PIT, 3 vs CIN, 3 vs Hou & 3 vs SD.
I say, now’s the time to get hot Pirates! And pitch Burnett in the season finale.
Nice recap Stu. I find it interesting that I can miss someone I’ve never met as much as I miss Mac.
On another note, Sansho, you make me laugh out loud @ 11!
It doesn’t really matter where the WC game is played and it’s not as if the Braves are so dominant at home or that the crowd is particularly intimidating. Obviously, though, if it’s not at home, it means the Braves really struggled down the stretch.
“One game playoff against any of Lee, Halladay, and Hamels doesnt look good.”
Actually, I’d be more worried that the Phillies (or whomever) called up a soft-tossing lefty that has never pitched in the big leagues before. Braves would have no chance in that scenario.
The Braves 2013 Schedule is out. Couple of things:
Open with Philly at home followed by the Cubs but then are on the road from April 8-28 except for a 2 game series at home vs. KC. That trip is rough too, from ATL to Mia to Wash to Atl to Pit to Col to Det before finally returning home.
In May Minnesota comes to town for the first time since the 1991 Series and we also have the rare Home and Home with Tor where we play 2 in Tor and then immediately play 2 against the Jays in Atl (the teams could share a flight maybe).
The interleague slate seems much easier with only one AL East teams 3 vs. CLE, 2 and 2 with KC, 2 and two with TOR, 3 at Det and 3 vs. Min. Of course we also lose the Stros from the schedule.
Close the season with Philly at home for 4.
Edit: Sorry I missed the 3 @ CHW after the Break.
It’s going to be weird having interleague games throughout the season.
@16 – don’t feel bad. I’ve spent decades watching and caring about Kentucky Football.
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This Halloween will mark Nick Saban’s 62nd birthday. For some reason, I thought he was at least ten years younger than that.
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So which is the real Michael Bourn? First half he was MVP-worthy. Second half he’s Gregor Blanco. Posters may remember I’m a fan of Blanco, but not for the Borass money he’s going to command.
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And is there anyway we could pry Headley away from the Padres? He’s a UT grad, as I recall.
JonathanF @16:
That’s really the 9 bajillion dollar question, isn’t it?
Possibly, the answer can be found in the Book of Ecclesiastes.
I would refer you, too, to a scene from the movie “Bottlerockets”, where one of the characters discovers that his older brother–endlessly exasperated with the character’s (I think it’s the Owen Wilson character) incurable stupidity–still, despite many trials, feels an unshakable solidarity for him and expresses it thusly:
“You may be a f#@k-up, Dignan, but you’re still my brother.”
Long answer, I know, but it’s a complicated question.
The Braves may be bums, but they’re our bums.
Was I the only one who thought Segura was out at first when he hit the soft grounder to second to start the maybe-double play which would’ve got Hudson out of the inning? ‘Cause he sure looked out. But there wasn’t a replay of it in the condensed game, so I’m left wondering….
#26
I’d still prefer to have the last bat in an elimination game.
@34,
True, but I have always wondered if anyone has done any research on how often the home team wins tied games in the 9th or later. I have a feeling-without any empirical support whatsoever-that its not as much as one would suppose.
Re the pain of being a Braves fan. I understand that but I think a lot of fan bases would throw up if they read that comment-e.g, Pirates, Orioles, Nats (until this year), Cubs,etc. The Braves have two losing seasons since 1990; that’s pretty damn good. Really, it’s painful being a fan of any team-even the Yankees. And baseball is particularly tortuous because the long season makes for so many ups and downs and, even the best teams lose 35-40% of their games. Even when a team is playing well, it’s almost inevitable that a slump is around the corner. Collapses in baseball happen slowly day-by-day like the Chinese water torture. In football, at least, there is a week between games to recover.
Heyward, Bourn, Uggla, McCann, Freeman and Prado have played a lot of games this year. In the case of Bourn, he has played almost every game.
I wonder if that has anything to do with the bats cooling off.
Fredi has done a good job resting the pen, but some of these other guys could used a rest. I would sit Bourn, Chipper, McCann and Prado tonight and let them have two days off before we go to Washington.
Just a thought.
@35 – Regarding your first point, I would guess that would partly depend on the given manager’s feelings about whether to get his best pitcher in the game at that point, or not.
If the Braves do repeat last year’s collapse, there won’t be 5,000 per game next year.
#38 – Thats false
Anyone know why Simmons is out?
Bourn
Prado
Jhey
Chipper
Freeman
Uggla
Bmac
Janish
Maholm
BTW, there was a story on Milo Hamilton in The Hardball Times, with this being his last year as Astros announcer. I know a lot of people didn’t like him-and he certainly seemed to burn bridges wherever he went until Houston-but I thought he was a really good announcer and I always enjoyed he and Ernie Johnson together. Milo could easily wipe the floor with Chip Carey as an announcer.
According to DOB on Twitter, Simmons sprained his ankle sliding back into second last night feet first, which he did to avoid another hand injury. Wow. Fortunately it’s not a high ankle sprain, and with the off day tomorrow they’re hoping he can play Friday. Still, wow.
Good grief. And Prado hurt his hand again ON a headfirst slide.
#41
Hard to believe that Milo’s actually older than Vin Scully.
A RUN!
Nice play, Janish, but you’re not going to make us want you over Simmons.
Janish will make a play.
I liked Milo as a team with Ernie. In fact he’s largely responsible for this boy from central PA being a Braves fan.
Hit one, steal one, Jason.
Heckuva catch
Maybe we need to set aside some of the money.
Uggla with the “Braves RBI.”
Is that our next Glossary addition?
Cant we just give Bourn Uggla’s money, and give all the rest of it to Jason?
We’re gonna need a bigger payroll.
Replace your divot, Michael.
I’m scared as hell someone will destroy an arm when they make/try those catches.
@57: Ken Griffey Jr. always seemed to do that.
The Phillies won’t catch the Braves, but in a way them getting in would be nice; it would mean the Cardinals had happen to them this year what they did to the Braves in 2011. That would be sweet karma.
Man, Weeks is killing us.
Maholm will give up a home run, and the Braves have already scored their allotted runs for the evening. We’re DOOMED.
Chipper looks like a 40 year old defensively.
Chipper won’t win a gold glove off tonight’s showing.
Chipper and Maholm lost it awfully suddenly tonight.
Maholm throws like 70 mph. I can’t understand how he gets anyone out. Gonna have to swing the bats tonight boys.
Well, that took only three batters too many.
Good job Fredi, let him only give up seven runs in one-third of an inning before you remove him.
Maybe the Phillies will catch the Braves. Lead went from 11.5 to 8.5 in record time.
typical Freddie … worst mgr in all of baseball …. let a pitcher give up 7 runs ..with all those pitchers on bench …. Freddie has no clue ….. PLEASE BOBBY come back PLEASE !!! Freddie is a goofus !!!
Goofus?
I would think that manager with his ass on the line would be inclined to over-manage, but perhaps Fredi’s tact is to put it all on the players shoulders.
Earth to Joe and Chip: the only reason the Brewers and Phillies are in it, is because of the second wild card. In any other season prior to this, they’d be going no where fast. Please stop pretending that a 72-71 team is great.
@69, Gallant’s pal.
Get the collapse over with already.
We suck right now (except for when we play the Mets).
Braves are 7-3 coming into tonight.
Fredi is often quick with the hook. He certainly is with Hanson. He generally hadn’t needed to be with Maholm. But this is basically the on-the-fly regression to the mean from Maholm, who is a slightly-better-than-league-average lefty who pitched like a freaking ace for us in his first month since the trade. He ain’t an ace. Now his ERA looks more like it should.
The way it’s going now, we’ll never hit enough to deserve to win, so I’m not even willing to blame Fredi or Maholm. I’m going to keep blaming the offense.
But if it wasn’t for playing the Rockies and Mets, what would the record be? The Braves have been generally awful against good teams and the Brewers are a pretty good team now.
But this is a disgrace.
Everybody plays everybody. There are ups and downs over 162 games.
Yes, the Braves seem to have a worse record against better teams. They are 81-62 coming into tonight.
Yes, tonight has not gone well to this point, by any definition.
And Nate McLouth just won a game for the Orioles with a walk-off double (off Kyle Farnsworth).
Ok, so I have to ask…
Is this normal for a good team to be this streaky? I feel like the Braves over the last 3-4 years have been incredibly inconsistent. Is is just my (and this site’s) super fandom that has us blind or is this not normal baseball we’re seeing? The WE LOOK AMAZING to the WE ARE THE WORST TEAM IN BASEBALL is really working me. There doesn’t seem like there’s been just a “we’ll get ’em tomorrow” loss in quite a while.
#80
We have Medlen starting next. We win those games at a remarkable rate. Get ’em Friday.
Washington’s magic number is 11.
Are we on doomwatch yet?
We are. Three runs in three games, and only one RBI?
DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!
Dempster’s last four starts: 4-0, 1.73 ERA.
Smitty’s recap is up.