Braves 9, Mets 6
ESPN.com - MLB - Box Score - Braves at Mets
What an odd game this was. First-pitch leadoff homer, to pitchers' duel, to slugfest, all the while with the managers and players griping. Bobby, of course, got himself thrown out. He passes Leo Durocher for second on the all-time list and is just seven behind McGraw. he can do it this year, if he gives a real effort.
Kelly Johnson, meanwhile, continues to be a very odd player. He had something like two strikeouts in 55 PA entering yesterday's game only to earn the Platinum Sombrero with four of them. Then he hits a homer off of Glavine on the first pitch of today's game, later singles, then hits a three-run homer in the eighth to provide the winning margin. After the bad start, he's now hitting .297/.423/.547, .417/.533/.500 on the week; I'd guess he's a player of the week candidate.
Smoltz cruised through the first three innings, got in some trouble in the fourth, and allowed a homer to Shawn Green (Shawn Green : Braves pitching :: Oliver Perez : Braves hitting) in the fifth to tie it. The Braves got the lead back on a two-run single from Francoeur in the sixth, but Smoltz didn't get out of the sixth, allowing five runs to seemingly give the Mets control at 6-3.
But with two out in the seventh, Renteria hit a long opposite-field drive with Thorman and KJ aboard to make it 6-6. In the eighth, KJ hit a three-run two-out homer of his own to make it 9-6. Soriano had some trouble in the eighth but got through it, Wickman walked a guy but that was all in the ninth, striking out Beltran in an at-bat that lasted approximately 345 pitches.
I thought I'd link to the new version of my political/personal site. I'm thinking of using a version of the template I'm using there, but if anyone's in love with the old Braves Journal template I could stick with that.
Oh, and here is a great example of Mets fan maturity... Langerhans must be destroyed.
posted by Mac @ 4/22/2007 03:42:00 PM
38 Comments
38 Comments:
Great comeback win on a important away game.
I'm liking this Kelly kid, just like some of you have said, his hitting is nothing to worry about and it will come around. And it's definitely coming around and in a big way.
I never worried too much about Kelly batting wise. He always had that excellent plate discipline even when he was batting below the Mendoza Line early on.
All I was worried about was how he'd be at second base. And it looks like he's doing just fine. :D
Well, i put a few bucks down. I come here first, so it's not a bad investment in my happiness.
Also, mccann had better not be hurt. Can't believe bobby had the best hitter on the team bunting.
Well, i can believe it, but i don't like it.
Nobody out, runners first and second is the only situation where the run expectation rises with a successful sacrifice. It's a reasonable bunt situation, if you have a good bunter. Of course, McCann can do anything, but it's not his speciality.
Interesting notes: Craig Wilson in at 1B, Matt Diaz in at LF. Neither of them gave Bobby ANY reason to consider giving either of them any more platoon time. But at least Bobby gave 'em a chance. Here's hoping he'll give 'em more.
Mac, I was debating with myself about whether I not I would help since money is low right now, but I appreciate your work and Braves Journal as a whole, so I definitely had to help out.
This is your site, your content, your up-keep, and you're a great moderator of our sometimes volatile discussions. You pick the layout YOU want.
As for the Braves:
I absolutely love it that we're finding ways to win. Smoltz couldn't get through the 6th, but KJ had a big game, Soriano bridged the gap to Wickman, and Renteria came up big too. Good defense all around except for the ball Chipper kicked. Go Braves.
I missed most of the fireworks after the 5th inning because I was showering and had to get out of the house....but my fav. moment was Smoltz doing his best Omar Vizquel impression and gunning down Glavine at first.
What an athlete.
Salty homered again today for Mississippi, his 4th of the year. He is now hitting .373/.475/.686 with a 10/9 BB/K ratio.
That template seems fine, Mac. Thanks for all your hard work to get this BJ back up and running.
Kelly Johnson needs a fan club.
How about the "Long Johnson's"?
PS Thats Mets fan who sabotaged the game yesterday should be investigated, I want to know if the Mets org conspired to sabotage the Braves with illegal and immoral cheating...by blinding and distracting our players.
We need to trade Salty for a starter.....
4seam,
Why do we need another starter at the expense of Salty?
we need salty in left field, he looks to be a better athlete than willingham, and hopefully a better hitter..
BMac's finger x-rays are negative.
Also, dunno if anyone mentioned this in the past couple days, but our friend Willy Aybar apparently has a substance-abuse problem.
www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/04/21/0422aybar.html
Listening to the Met whinefest on WFAN right now is hysterical.
Let's keep this road trip hot.
salty is an extremely slow runner. He shouldn't play a position that involves a lot of running. I don't see salty shining at any position besides catcher or first base.
i do however feel like a lot of our minor leaguers are wasting away. anybody checked the stats at Richmond lately? The entire top half of the batting order is unstoppable! I'd love to see some of that with the big club but unfortunately we *have* to have the likes of Woodward, Wilson, Orr, and company on our roster.
Good point. Blanco is hitting .378 with a .465 OBP. He can't keep that up -- presumably -- and he still has no power, but how long can he keep hitting while Langerhans keeps doing whatever it is Langerhans thinks he's doing?
I sent you a little $$, Mac. I really enjoy Braves Journal and I'd rather spend money here than ESPN Insider, etc.
I think the NL East is going to be a great race this year.
Mac,
While have men on 2nd and 3rd with one out gives you a better chance of scoring than having men on 1st and 2nd with no out, you also have to consider the chances of your batter getting a hit should you let him swing away. For Christmas I was given a book (Baseball Between the Numbers, by the guys at Baseball Prospectus) that has a chapter that deals with the issue of when it is and isn’t a good idea to sacrifice. According to this book, with men on 1st and 2nd and no out, you should only sacrifice if the batter at the plate has a batting average below .218, an OBP below .253 or SLG below .266. They have a chart (on page 134 for those of you with copies at home) that shows “batter thresholds for sacrifices” for each sacrifice situation. Anyway, McCann obviously is above this threshold so it wasn’t a good idea to have him bunt, unless, knock on wood, there was concern about his ability to swing the bat with his sore hand.
To the anonymous at 6:55:
Look at last year's Richmond offense and you'll see that just a bit of skepticism is called for. Except for Thorman before he was called up, no one we had at Richmond hit at all.
Besides, better to have real prospects play every day than wait for two pinch-hitting appearances a week.
not trying to get off topic or anything, but the Red Sox just went back-to-back-to-back-to-back homeruns off of the Yanks. Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and then Jason Varitek. What makes it even more amazing is they were losing 3-0 before the 4 solo HR's.
Eh, I pay for ESPN Insider too. You get a lot of comprehensive sports writing, but Braves Journal has a lot more insightful Braves content. Chop-n-Change has good stuff, but I like this better.
Oh, and yeah, I saw the back-to-back-to-back-to-back jacks. I'm watching it with my girlfriend who is doing her HW and doesn't care about baseball, so when I was getting excited seeing all those bombs, I pretty much just looked like an idiot.
My ideal Red Sox-Yankees game: A-Rod hits a grand slam, accounting for all of New York's offense, but the Red Sox win 5-4. Rinse, lather, repeat for 19 games. I really don't like the Yankees, but I like A-Rod a lot. A part of me wonders if I would like A-Rod so much is he was appropriately appreciated, however.
Brian J,
I think some of that hitting might be less of a fluke than you think. True, the numbers are probably a little inflated due to small sample sizes. However some have proved they can hit in Spring Training, some proved they can hit in the AFL.
I'm not necessarily suggesting that we turn the richmond lineup into our bench. I just think that some of those guys would benefit this team better than some of its current players.
Rob,
Don't try to understand New York sports fans. You'll never get it. And that's not a bad thing.
Yankee fans, in particular, don't hope to win; they expect to win. If they don't, someone has to pay. And it's usually the guy who gags it up in the post-season.
So when A-Rod does something other than flame out miserably in the post-season, Yankee fans might love him. They can be a joyless bunch, that that's how they are.
Anytime you take two of three from the mets, it is a good weekend. I do think this will be an exciting race. The Mets will be tough because of the runs they will score. Oh yeah,and Oliver freakin Perez.
Speaking of joyless, I think Chip Caray has actually gotten worse as an announcer.
Hey Mac,
I just donated...it's not a lot but it's something.
OFF TOPIC:
ububba, Kyle S, & other music lovers,
Y'all familiar with Silversun Pickups? I saw them open at the OK Go/Snow Patrol show last month and have been somewhat obsessed ever since. They're very Smashing Pumpkins-esque...and from me, that's high, high praise.
I read that post and thought you were referring to guitar pickups of some kind. I am so not in touch with today's youth.
Also, just for fun, I thought I'd post the season stats for Vandy's David Price (the probable top pick in the upcoming amateur draft) so far:
82.1 IP
2.84 ERA
0.95 WHIP
122/21 K/BB
He's pretty good.
I've heard mention of Silversun Pickups a few times in recent days, which is odd because I don't think I'd ever heard of them before. Of course, I am not so much with the current music scene. I haven't really liked anything since 1991.
Stu,
That guy does sound a lot like Billy Corgan. They're kind of like SmashiPunki meets My Bloody Valentine/Sonic Youth. Poppy-catchy with a little noisy edge--a good combo in my book.
I liked SmashiPunki OK, but was never in love with them. I saw them a couple times at their peak & thought they were kind of boring live actually. Of course, by the time I saw them, I'd probably been to a few too many Butthole Surfers shows, so Billy Corgan was no match to that kind of psychedelic vaudeville.
But he's obviously a really talented guy. I always enjoyed his appearances on the "Regis & Kathy Lee Show." Fave SP song: "Perfect" from "Adore."
FWIW, my fave record right now: LCD Soundsystem's "Sound of Silver"
And I can't wait to go to the office tomorrow. When the Met fans see me, they'll scurry off to their offices/cubicles & leave me alone. If it were gonna be the other way around, they'd be waiting for me in my office. Ah, bliss...
Hi, it's Dan. Great game for the Braves.
Chip Caray must be destroyed (to borrow from Mac.) He is just horrid. He's cheering for the Mets after that triple, calling Reyes the unoriginal "most exciting player in baseball", talking about no-hitters in the third inning, having NO idea what pitches were thrown and raising his voice like a homer was hit on medium-depth fly balls. Ugh. It's like "MLB on TBS" never left. The worst is his clueless call of pitchers. He called a fastball a slider just two days ago. And sometime last year, I can't remember 100% which team in was but I think it was the Phillies with Tom Gordon pitching, he called a curveball a splitter. Is there a petition somewhere?
Kelly Johnson is great. The "Langerhans or Johnson" debate is over and I think the Prado fans have finally shut up.
Anyway, that's all. I'm looking forward to when blogspot is gone. I'd stay with the old look, but that's just me.
"I'd stay with the old look, but that's just me."
Never mind. I looked at that site, I like that style.
Chip must have called Reyes "the most exciting player in baseball" at lesat 3 or 4 times yesterday, not just after the triple. He also sounded pleased when Smoltzie started struggling. He is very bad.
I am usually pretty passive when I watch a game and rarely shout or talk to the TV, but I found myself yelling at Chip several times yesterday.
*I used to post under my initials, AMH, but this new page seems to have assigned me a name. How it knows me, I don't know.
I too prefer the previous set up because it seemed easier to get started posting on (i.e. I didn't have to enter my google account). That being said, if you stay here mac I'm not going anywhere. I'll get used to it. This is still the best braves community out there.
I think this is just temporary. I think Mac plans on having another place, with the layout being the old Braves Journal or his new Thomason Tracts site layout. Either way, they both look good. The Thomason Tracts one doesn't really look like a baseball site, but I still like it.
I hope to have a new Braves Journal site up later this week. The template will be something like Thomason Tracts, if that's available, but with a different image -- probably the old Braves Journal banner from the Movable Type days.
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