Braves 6, Rockies 2
ESPN.com - MLB - Box Score - Braves at Rockies
John Smoltz got off to a really shaky start. He walked the leadoff batter, then allowed a home run. The next two hitters hit long fly outs, then he allowed a double, before getting out of it with a groundout. Then he settled down. He didn't walk anyone else, and he struck out eight; while he allowed seven more hits he scattered them over six innings, and you're going to allow a few hits in this dump.
The Braves' offense also got off to a slow start, the first seven men producing only one walk. But Langerhans hit a routine grounder which the shortstop dropped (the nitwits in the booth pretended there was some question but it was an obvious error). Smoltz bunted him to second. KJ and Renteria walked to load the bases and Chipper singled home two. Andruw followed with a sac fly to give the Braves the lead.
Francoeur homered leading off the fourth, and with two out KJ tripled home Langerhans (who had walked -- of course he was 0-3, he's always 0-3 or 0-4, and now hitting .049) to make it 5-2. It stayed there for a long time. Smoltz left after seven. Gonzalez allowed a leadoff double in the eighth but got out of it with a popup, strikeout, and groundout.
Renteria hit a homer with two out in the ninth. Soriano got the first two in the bottom of the inning, then Renteria dropped the third out, but Soriano got the next guy easily.
The Braves had only six hits, but walked five times. Nobody had more than one hit; McCann (who's fighting it a little, but did hit a long drive that almost made the wall for a double) and Thorman both went 0-4.
posted by Mac @ 4/28/2007 09:45:00 PM
22 Comments
22 Comments:
Rouse to the packers!
Great win...
ROUSE TO THE PACKERS!!!...YES!
Just think how good our offense will be if Langerhans can turn it around and we get atleast decent output from our first basemen. I'm really pulling for Langerhans right now; he's really playing hard, and they look like decent at-bats, and he's playing great defense. He deserved to get a hit in the 9th but Jamie Walker made a nice play. The guy just can't buy a hit right now.
And like I mentioned on the game thread, I'm glad they put Soriano in in the 9th. Wickman looked pretty bad last night, and he pretty much took himself out.
You know what gets me about Langerhans? When I did my "whipping boy" poll before the season, he wasn't a popular pick at all and I think one or two people said he shouldn't have been included. But he's obviously the whipping boy now.
Well, nobody could have thought Langerhans would be hitting .049 at the end of April...
finally, after more than 11 hours, the first day of the draft is over.
I live blogged the whole thing, check it out if you want.
http://my-sport-talk.blogspot.com
All right the solution to left field and the 4th spot in the rotation is this: Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Steve Colyer to the Rockies for LF Matt Holliday and SP Jason Hirsh. Jason looked good and sharp. Move Diaz to platoon at first with Scott Thorman. Great win for vintage Smoltz. Go Braves.
Nice win and good to see the relief come up big.
Re: NFL Draft.
Another example of the SEC's talent superiority--11 of the first 30 picks were from the SEC.
Now let me get back to chewing my fingernails off--my Devils are in double OT with Ottawa.
OK, hearing a lot about this Mets guy that got nailed and the 1999 Mets. Just a few observations about that team:
1) Robin Ventura had a career year in a pitcher's park. He hit .301/.379/.529, all career highs. He also hit the 2nd most amount of home runs in a season. He was 31. Maybe he was in his prime, maybe not.
2) Benny Agbayani. Two greats years in '99 and '00. Next year, his SLG percentage plummeted almost 100 points. Then, pretty much never heard from again.
3) Roger Cedeno hit 40 points above his career BA line. Only one other time where he had a OPS+ higher than 100. Dunno about him though.
4) Since steroids and amphetamines are said to help you rebound faster, the bullpen is pretty crazy. Armando Benitez sets a career high in innings, Dennis Cook a career high in games, and Pat Mahomes has pretty much his only good year in 11 years in the pros.
I dunno, these could all be circumstantial and every team probably has something like this (a ton of career years from players; especially one that went to the NLCS), but I dunno.
Oh, and I hope Joe Torre doesn't get fired now. I would love to have him in Atlanta, and Bobby just signed a one year extension. A part of me wishes they didn't re-sign Bobby and they could pick Joe Torre up at the end of the season. But, I like Bobby a lot.
I guess it'll be good for another MLB team looking for a manager that the Yankees are so stupid...
I'm pulling for Langy too, and I hate that Cox has to consider releasing him at some point. The problem is that it seems like Hans isn't really a streak hitter. He has never been able to carry a team for a week or two like AJ or even Frenchy - even KJ for that matter. It has also been pointed out that Langy's downfall has been going on since early in last season.
Before the season started he was a borderline hitter and I don't see him turning it around to hit much above .200. I hope I'm wrong, but I just can't see him staying very far into May.
I don't think Torre's a great manager if he doesn't have 200 million dollars worth of talent backing him up. He's a mediocre strategic manager, and he plays favorites even more than Bobby.
tanto, did Torre put Mussina on the DL, did he trade Sheffield, is he playing every night and hitting hr's. No. So how can you blame him. The team would play the same even if you put Joe Girardi to manage the game.
It doesn't have anything to do with how the Yankees are playing now. I've thought that for several years.
Bobby has his faults, but he's much better at getting something from nothing than Torre (or just about anyone else, really). Torre's much more likely to get nothing from something.
Until recently, Torre's biggest talent has been keeping the general Steinbrenner insanity out of his clubhouse.
I also believe you judge managers by their results. It's true that Torre has had resources that nobody has ever had, but it's still hard to do better than Torre has during his time in The Bronx.
Benny Agbanayi still looked like a pastry during 99-00. I guess he hit well enough, but I'm pretty sure if you squeezed him, jelly came out, not steroids. I can see Ventura and maybe Alfonzo.
I like the idea of trading for Holiday, but they really need a lefthanded bat to balance things out a bit. But how 'bout Salty/Prado for Holliday, surely that would be an upgrade over Torrealba and Carrol for the Rockies.
Rey Ordonez was the big culprit on the '99 Mets.
With the Red Sox's loss today, the Braves are now tied with Boston for the best record in baseball.
I am also pulling for Langerhans and believe that he will come around. Now I don't see him as more than a 4th outfielder, but that would be fine at this point. Players go through slumps and I think that probably the only way out is for a player to literally play their way out of it. I assume that Cox will stay with Langerhans until this happens. While a slump is frustrating for a player, team and fans, it does remined the rest of the team that thier manager is patient and will not give up on them. This episode (I trust that it will soon be over) illustrates one of the reasons why players like to play for Bobby.
The fact that Langerhans is so bad right now is actually some comfort--he's obviously not this bad and at some point he will get some hits. I think Bobby is doing the right thing by not burying him on the bench in April and eliminating any possibility of getting any production at all. I agree that he is no more than a fourth outfielder but no team has stars at all nine positions. It's unrealistic to think the Braves can be strong everywhere given the payroll. All these trades seem like fantasy to me and I don't see why everyone is in such a hurry to get rid of Salty. Let's see how the season plays out. Everybody talks about all the big trades and few actually happen.
I thought Torre was a very good manager when he was here--talk about getting something out of nothing. He won a division title and almost won another with a pitching staff anchored, in part, by Rick Mahler. That should say something about him.
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