Bad news: Evan Gattis is on the DL with an oblique strain. Tyler Pastornicky, hitting .309 with a .780 OPS, gets the call from Gwinnett.
As for today, getting one game in will be a challenge. Good thing the Bravos are 7-1/2 ahead of the Nats.
Game 1 line-up:
Schafer 8, RJohnson 7, Heyward 9, Freeman 3, CJohnson 5, Laird 2, Uggla 4, Simmons 6, Wood 1
Can’t help but remember this:
Hell ya, Fan Uggla’s on the bench tonight.
1. Simmons SS 2. Heyward RF 3. J Upton LF 4. Freeman 1B 5. B Upton CF 6. McCann C 7. C Johnson 3B 8. Pena 2B 9. Teheran P
Apparently Fredi has forgotten about Jordan Schafer. He has started one game in June and, despite the team’s offensive struggles, he’s on the bench again this afternoon.
Last night’s game showed why I don’t have much confidence in the Bravos running the table. Good pitchers often have their way with this strikeout-prone line-up, which has been shut out 9 times this year — tied for most in the majors.
They’re facing journeyman Chad Gaudin today, who has a 7.78 ERA in 19 career appearances vs. the Braves. That’s a pointless stat, since these Braves are much different from past teams, but it’ll be interesting to see how he fares today.
Fortunately Mike Minor is toiling for the Bravos, as the ‘pen will be short a reliever. Brandon Beachy’s return has been pushed back — how long, we don’t yet know — due to a tender elbow. Alex Wood is likely to start in his place.
As disappointing as the road trip was, there were some good signs. Jay Hey is raking, B.J. is crawling out of the abyss and his brother appears ready to bust out. Kris Medlen may be pitching for his spot in the rotation tonight, and I hope the Braves keep him there.
Here’s what I’d do: Start Beachy in the ‘pen, letting him build back his arm strength. Odds are good someone will get injured or Julio T. will tire. Teheran has never thrown more than 144 innings in a season, and he’s already more than halfway there.
Here’s tonight’s line-up:
1. Simmons SS 2. Heyward RF 3. J Upton LF 4. Freeman 1B 5. McCann C 6. B Upton CF 7. Uggla 2B 8. C Johnson 3B 9. Medlen P
At this point in the 1988 season the Braves were already 20 games under .500 and 15 games behind the division leaders.
But they were about to begin what would be their longest winning streak of the season — 3 games. That’s right, the ’88 Braves never won more than 3 in a row. They did it twice in June, sandwiched, of course by a 4-game losing streak.
The second of those streaks started in Los Angeles, against one Don Sutton. Braves ace Rick Mahler did most of the work, collecting two hits, driving in two and going the distance for his 8th victory. He had accounted for 1/3 of the team’s wins at that point, but he would win just 2 more games in a Braves uniform.
The first came nine starts later, an ugly 8-5 defeat of the Giants. His final win came three years later, in the second game of a doubleheader sweep vs. Pittsburgh. Mahler, signed off the scrap heap after he was released by Montreal, held the mighty Pirates to two runs in 6 IP — a most unlikely victory that moved the Braves to within 4.5 of the division lead.
Francisco Cabrera made a rare start at catcher that night, and in the 8th inning he provided a preview of the greatest moment in franchise history, homering to left for what turned out to be the game-winning run. On the mound for the Bucs: Stan Belinda.
Dale Murphy, the Atlanta Braves outfielder, may not be William Bendix, but he has apparently borrowed a page from the Babe Ruth legend. The way they’re telling it in Atlanta, Murphy paid a call at a local hospital a while back to help cheer up Elizabeth Smith, a 6-year-old girl who had lost her arms and legs in a power-line accident.
On Sunday, Elizabeth was taken by a nurse to an Atlanta game against the Giants, and when Murphy stopped by to give her a T-shirt and cap, the nurse suggested that he hit a home run for his young friend. Murphy, evidently embarrassed by the request, mumbled, ”Well, O.K.” But, as he explained later, ”I wish that I could hit home runs on request, but I can’t.” He hit two that day.
Murph’s 16th and 17th homers accounted for all 3 Braves runs. The Giants only managed two off Pascual Perez, who improved to 8-1.
Last night was a positive loss, if there is such a thing. Jay Hey clubbed two homers, while the Uptons had two hits apiece (including a near-miss HR by B.J., who has a .937 OPS in his last nine games). Heyward is now hitting above .200 and Fan Uggla is up to .195.
Tonight’s line-up:
Simmons 6, Heyward 9, JUpton 7, Freeman 3, McCann 2, Uggla 4 BUpton 8, Pena 5, Hudson 1
Julio T. will attempt to maintain a pretty amazing streak tonight, as Braves starters have allowed 2 ER or fewer in 9 consecutive games. The last time that happened: 2001, when the team’s three best starters (Maddux, Glavine and John Burkett) were each 35 or older.
A member of that Braves squad, Jason Marquis, toils for the Friars tonight. In 9 starts against his former team the Staten Island native has a 7.69 ERA and 1.792 WHIP.
1. Simmons SS 2. Heyward RF 3. J Upton LF 4. Freeman 1B 5. McCann C 6. Uggla 2B 7. C. Johnson 3B 8. B. Upton CF 9. Teheran
‘The Sheriff’
Last night Kris Medlen made an enviable decision even tougher, pitching beautifully for the second start in a row. Are you going to move him to the bullpen?
It’s got to be Beachy. And maybe that’s what the Braves are thinking. Just because they’ve announced he’ll start in the doubleheader against the Mets doesn’t mean he’s back in the rotation. If Beachy was unavailable then I assume Sean Gilmartin or someone like him would be called up for the game.
Rookie right-hander Matt Magill, who walked 9 and allowed 4 HRs in his last start, toils for the Dodgers today. Hopefully that means Fan Uggla sits (don’t expect me to be impressed by his homer last night off a hanging curve). Line-ups haven’t been posted yet, so we’ll see.
The 2013 Braves are a much more talented version of the ’80 squad, the streakiest Braves team of them all.
Despite coming off yet another last-place finish, there was reason for optimism entering the season, Bobby’s third as Braves manager. Oft-maligned GM John Mullen had pulled off two shrewd deals, acquiring Doyle Alexander from Texas and Chris Chambliss from Toronto. I was thrilled by the Chambliss acquisition — a guy with World Series rings was actually going to play for the Braves.
The offseason’s best move was switching Murph to the outfield from 1B, where he had committed 35 errors in 206 games. He was even worse as a catcher. Murph’s comfort in the OF translated to a breakout season at the plate, hitting 33 homers with an .858 OPS.
Teammate Bob Horner led the team with 35 homers, giving him 91 before his 23rd birthday. Glenn Hubbard and Bruce Benedict also showed promise, with Gary Matthews and Jeff Burroughs providing veteran ballast.
So, for the first time in nearly a decade, the Braves entered a season with hope. That lasted about a week.
The Braves didn’t score their first run in 1980 until the 7th inning of the third game. That’s a 25-inning streak of futility. The Braves had their first lead of the season, 4-1, heading to the bottom of the 7th in Cincy. The Reds scored 2 off Gene Garber but the good guys still led by 1 entering the bottom of the 9th.
Al Hrabosky, signed to a huge contract in the offseason despite struggling the previous year with the Royals, promptly blew his first save opportunity, thanks to a Dave Concepcion two-run, walk-off homer. The next day, the Braves were shut out for the third time in four games.
Two losses in Houston followed. The Braves returned to Atlanta 0-6, having been outscored 36-10 on the road trip. Only 15,742 attended the home opener, a 4-1 loss to Cincy. Rick Matula’s only career shutout gave the Braves their first win in 8 tries, but they would lose the next two games to the Reds, dropping 8.5 games behind the division leaders after 10 games.
Bobby’s boys maintained an uninspiring pace over the next three months. A 5-3 loss to the Dodgers on Aug. 4 dropped them to a season-worst 12 games below .500. But what appeared to be another lost year took a most unexpected turn.
Over the next three weeks the Braves would score 7 or more runs 9 times, and on Aug. 27 they reached the .500 mark for the first time. Shortly thereafter they rolled off a season-best 7-game win streak, followed by a three-game sweep at the hands of the Reds, who would go 16-2 vs. the Braves that year.
The local nine rebounded to win four in a row, and a 2-1 victory over the Dodgers on Sept. 16 — their 30th win in 40 games — moved the Braves to within 6 of the division lead, at 76-68.
Alas, the faint whiff of a pennant race soon dissipated, as the Braves lost 11 of their last 15. The season would end as it started, with the Reds shutting out the local nine at Riverfront, leaving the Braves 81-80.
Damn stubborn Fredi. Even with a RH pitcher on the mound, he persists in playing Fan Uggla. Why not Pena?
Simmons 6, Heyward 9, JUpton 7, Freeman 3, McCann 2, CJohnson 5, Uggla 4, BUpton ,8 Medlen 1
The excitement over Yasiel Puig hasn’t quite reached the heights of Fernandomania, but it’s getting there.
Of more concern to the Braves is another pudgy southpaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu, who has quietly developed into on the NL’s better starters, posting a 2.89 ERA and 67/22 K/BB ratio in 71 1/3 IP. His control deserted him in his start against the Braves a few weeks back, so hopefully the Braves can work some deep counts tonight, as the Dodgers bullpen is shaky.
The good news for Ryu: Fan Uggla is in the line-up At least Fredi doesn’t have him batting ahead of Chris Johnson. Gattis gets the start behind the plate, hitting 5th.
“In the 1980s, the home team could have imported Mike Schmidt and Terry Forster would’ve fallen on him and broken his leg.”
–CD, summing up a decade filled with woe for Braves fans.
Composing a team of the worst players from that decade is no easy task, so we yield the floor. Here’s the rules:
Top of the 7th, Braves down 1-0, runners at 1st and 3rd, no outs. Infield back, willing to concede a run. Make contact and the game is tied.
But that’s asking too much of Fan Uggla, who surprised no one by striking out. He now has four times as many strikeouts (16) than hits (4) in 38 AB with RISP. Ramiro Pena has five hits in half the ABs with RISP.
Uggla saves his worst for medium-to-high leverage situations, striking out 42 times in 94 ABs.
Not that he’s good in other situations. He has 2 doubles this year. Two. At his current rate, Fan will finish with two strikeouts for every hit, and if he remains in the line-up he’s a sure bet to surpass 200 K’s.
Which begs the question: Why does he remain in the line-up? It ain’t for his glove, as he’s on pace for 25 errors.
It’s time to Kawakami him, big contract and all.
Signed for 5 years by Dodgers in ’79, released after 1 season.
One day after placing Stephen Strasburg on the DL comes this headline outta D.C.:
Bryce Harper injury: Nationals OF to visit Dr. James Andrews Monday
The Braves lead the Nats by 8 games and the Phils by 7-1/2. Philly is playing to expectations — .500, give or a take a few games. They’re not a threat.
And while I’m not ready to dismiss the Nats, events seem to be conspiring against them. Perhaps hubris is to blame.
Meanwhile, everything’s going right for the Braves, who will face four Dodgers starters not named Clayton Kershaw this weekend. No Matt Kemp, either, but I am looking forward to seeing Yasiel Puig play.
And it’ll be nice to see our old pal Petah Moylan, now pitching out of L.A.’s pen. Lineups haven’t been posted yet but hopefully we’ll see Pena at 2B instead of Fan Uggla.
UPDATE: Pena gets the start, but at 3B. Fan is batting 6th.
Simmons 6, Heyward 9, JUpton 7, Freeman 3, McCann 2, Uggla 4, Pena 5, BUpton 8, Hudson 1
Last night John Mayberry Jr. became only the fifth big leaguer t o hit 2 homers in extra innings.
Ralph Garr did it for the Braves on May 17, 1971, with the first homer coming in the 10th off Tom Seaver with 2 outs and the good guys trailing 3-2. Two innings later, with the game still tied at 3, Garr won the game with another 2-out shot, this one off reliever Ron Taylor. He finished play with a .404 BA.
The Roadrunner was in his first season as a starter for the Braves. He’d go on to hit .343 with a .813 OPS, 30 SB and 15 assists. Garr played 800 games for Atlanta, hitting .317, before being traded following the ’75 season, with Sugar Bear Blanks, to the Pale Hose for Ken Henderson, Dick Ruthven and some guy named Ozzie Osborn.
A 10-cent mistake at the Mistake by the Lake: June 4, 1974
Aided by a poorly-considered purchase limit of six cups of beer at a time, many fans were already inebriated prior to first pitch, and a circus-like atmosphere prevailed. In the second inning, a woman jumped into the Indians’ on-deck circle and lifted her shirt. In the fourth, a completely naked man slid into second base while the Rangers’ Tom Grieve circled the bases after homering, and in the fifth, a father-son pair mooned the crowd after jumping over an outfield wall. Late in the game, fans climbed onto the field and pestered Rangers rightfielder Jeff Burroughs, some even shaking his hand.
Amid that chaos, Texas took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but Cleveland rallied for two runs via four consecutive hits off reliever Steve Foucault and a sacrifice fly. With two outs and two men still on base, Indians’ slugger Leron Lee (uncle of recent major leaguer Derrek Lee) never had a chance to drive in the winning run, because Cleveland fans pelted the field with golf balls, rocks and batteries, and some fan swiped Burroughs’ glove. When the rightfielder chased him back to the stands, people began swarming into the outfield, surrounding the Rangers’ star outfielder and ending any hope for the completion of the game.
Dodging several flying chairs, Texas manager Billy Martin grabbed a bat and led his team on a rescue mission to rightfield. “The bat showed up later and it was broken,” recalled Rangers player Mike Hargrove. Umpire Nestor Chylak, hit by both a chair and a rock, ruled that the game should be forfeited in favor of the Rangers. “They were just uncontrollable beasts,” said Chylak later of the crowd. “I’ve never seen anything like it except in a zoo.”
