Just a quick update about game one of a double header on Wednesday afternoon.  The Braves were hammered by the visiting Chicago Cubs by the score of 10-2.  The Braves had plenty of chances to score some runs in the game but they left 17 runners on base and could not get the big hits when they had runners on base.

Charlie Morton took the loss after only lasting 2 1/3 innings.  Morton gave up four hits and four runs while giving four walks.  Morton was getting hammered so the team had no choice and had to take him out early.  With the bullpen throwing so much I don’t expect good things out of the second game.  Vladimir Nunez was charged with four runs while Francisley Bueno gave up two more runs out of the bullpen.

Mark Kotsay and Omar Infante both had a rbi each for the Braves offense.  Hopefully the bats will come around and score more then two runs in the nightcap.  Stay tuned for our update this evening!

Braves Baseball

First off, sorry for the late update as I totally forgot I needed to update the Braves site this week while Bart is out of town and studying for his bar exam. Good luck with that Bart, and we can’t wait to have you back here at braveshomeplate!

So yeah, Monday night was a night that the Braves have probably already forgotten about.  They were manhandled by the St. Louis Cardinals by the score of 12-3.  The Cardinals scored nine runs in the first five innings and were quickly up 9-0 on the Braves.  Charlie Morton took the loss after giving up seven hits and eight runs in only 3 2/3 innings.  Morton is now 2-4 on the season.  Jeff Bennett went on to give up a run in relief of Morton and then Royce Ring was charged with three more runs in the eighth inning.  It sure wasn’t a good night to be a Braves pitcher that is for sure.

On the offensive side, the first two runs came in the sixth inning.  Yunel Escobar hit a rbi double that scored Gregor Blanco, and then Mark Kotsay singled in Blanco for the second run.  In the eighth inning, Mark Teixeira doubled to deep left center and Escobar scored the third and final run for the Braves.

It will be interesting to see how Teixeira plays the next few days as he has been rumored to be being shipped out of town before the deadline on Thursday night.  If you hear of any rumors, please leave a comment on a post here and we can talk about them.

I think the Braves will come out and play a better game on Tuesday night.  I mean, they pretty much can only improve from Monday nights butt kicking.

- Cliff

Tuesday night’s game was a microcosm of the Braves’ season.  They received good pitching from their rookie starter Charlie Morton, but the offense’s perpetual battle to come up with timely hits, or any hits at all for that matter, left the Braves on this night on the wrong end of a 4-0 shutout.

On Monday, it was the Braves who were able to take advantage of a brilliant pitching performance from pleasant surprise Jorge Campillo.  They also took advantage of runners in scoring position, something at which they have failed miserably this season.  So complete a team win was Monday night’s victory, Chipper Jones proclaimed it their best victory of the season.

Back to reality.  What has become indicative of Bobby Cox’s team during the last three seasons, the Braves’ inconsistency and lack of fundamental play manifested itself just one day after such an impressive win.  Whatever they did right Monday night, they did wrong Tuesday, starting with the deciding fourth frame.  The Braves began the fourth with three consecutive walks to the heart of the lineup.  Thing are looking pretty good, right?  Recently recalled Marlins starter Rick VandenHurk is reeling, and the Braves are poised to put a few runs on the board to provide their young starter a cushion.  Up steps Jeff Francoeur (cue the music when a game show contestant fails.  You know, “wah, wah, wah.”)   True to his terrible ‘08 form, Jeff swings at the only 4 pitches he sees and strikes out.  I’m nearly certain struggling pitchers view Francoeur walking to the plate as something akin to a sigh of relief. They’d rather see him step to the dish than the opposing pitcher, undoubtedly.  At least the pitcher would make a guy who had walked three straight hitters throw him a strike.

So, not so unpredictably, the Braves squander as promising a scoring opportunity as a team can get, as neither Kelly Johnson or Mark Kotsay could bail Francoeur out.  Move now to the bottom of the inning.  Morton allows free passes to two Marlins batters.  With two outs, he can get out of the inning unscathed and keep the game tied at zero.  Oh, but no.  Mike Jacobs hits a three-run bomb.  Game, set, match.

To this point, the Braves had not even managed a hit.  They finished the game with one, a measley single from Chipper, and the season in a snapshot is complete. The Braves squander great scoring opportunities, while their opponent takes advantage of lesser ones.  The Braves get good pitching, but their over-eager offense makes the opposing pitcher look like 2001 Randy Johnson.  Finally, the one single redeeming moment (no pun intended) is a basehit by their only stud — Chipper.

What else?

- Jeff Francoeur has 2 extra-base hits in his last 25 games.  You wonder.  If the Braves are sellers at the end of the month, what will happen to Jeff?  Will they try to move him?  Will they send him down for the rest of the season, since they are conceding the season anyway?  Or will they allow him to further devolve at the major league level?

- Rafael Soriano pitched a scoreless inning Tuesday night.  It was his first action since June 5th.  He struck out two after giving up a leadoff single to Hanley Ramirez (Ramirez was later thrown out attemting to steal second).  Soriano’s velocity was down a little bit, but the end result was obviously good.

- Kelly Johnson is batting .163 in 15 July contests.  He has one extra-base hit over that span.

The Atlanta Braves scored three runs in the eighth inning but their rally still fell short as they lost to teh Philadelphia Phillies by the score of 8-3.  The Braves were down 5-0 after just three innings and then held the Phillies down while they attempted to come back.

The Braves got three runs in the eighth as two runs scored on a Greg Norton double and then they got another run on a Mark Teixeira rbi ground out.  It’s too bad that those were the only runs that the Braves were able to score because they should have scored more then that in the game.

Charlie Morton was roughed up in only two innings of action as he took the loss to drop his record to 1-2 on the season.  Morton gave up eight hits and five runs in just those two innings of action.  Home runs by Pat Burrell and Shane Victorino really hurt Morton.

The Braves bullpen was probably the highlight of the night for the Braves.  Well I should say up until the ninth inning they were.  Four pitches combined to throw seven innings finish up the game.  Buddy Carlyle tossed three innings, Manny Acosta two innings, Will Ohman pitched the eighth inning and Blaine Boyer started the ninth inning before being pulled for Royce Ring.  Boyer gave up three runs in the ninth inning before Ring came in and recorded the final out. 

Braves will try to get em on Wednesday I guess.  Who knows what Braves team will show up.

Braves Blog

The Atlanta Braves just can’t get the bats going against the Milwaukee Brewers as they lost for the second night in a row by the score of 4-1.  This time it was Brewers starter Dave Bush limiting the Braves to only one run before the Braves scored two runs in the ninth inning.  The Braves did have four errors in the game and that sure didn’t help either.

Charlie Morton pitched six innings and gave up seven hits and four runs.  Only two of those four runs were earned however due to all the errors that the Braves defense had in the game.  Morton is now 1-1 on the season after taking the loss.

Manny Acosta pitched the seventh and eighth innings and did a wonderful job as he did not allow a hit while walking one batter and striking out one batter.  Blaine Boyer came in and pitched the ninth inning and struck out one batter.

Omar Infante had the first rbi for the Braves at the plate as he grounded out in the seventh inning against Bush and Mark Teixeira scored.  In the ninth inning the Braves scored twice as Teixeira hit a two run home run to bring the score to 4-3.  However the Braves weren’t able to score another run to tie the game and they ended up losing by the 4-3 score.  The Braves did have their chance to score the fourth run as they had runners on the corner with two outs but Corky Miller lined out to shortstop for the final out.

Now the Braves will have to win on Wednesday to avoid the three game sweep.  The way they are hitting right now, I don’t know if they will be able to pull it off.  What do you think?

Braves Blog

The Atlanta Braves were the come back kids once again as they scored two runs in the ninth inning to tie the game at 4-4 against the Texas Rangers.  However it was the Rangers coming right back with their own game winning run in the  bottom of the ninth inning to beat the Braves 5-4.  The Braves lost two out of three games against the Rangers as they continue to struggle on the road.

Blaine Boyer ended up getting the ninth inning run charged to him to take the loss.  Jeff Bennett was the pitcher that gave up the game winning hit when Michael Young scored Ian Kinsler for the game winning run.  Bennett simply just didn’t get the job done like he was called to do.

Braves starting pitcher Charlie Morton tossed the first five innings of the game and allowed five hits and three runs.  Morton did have some control issues as he walked four batters and that was kind of why he only lasted five innings.  Jeff Ridgway was the other Braves pitcher to give up a run which he gave up in the sixth inning on a three run home run.  Two of the three runs were charged to Morton however.

Kelly Johnson, Jeff Francoeur, and Omar Infante had the three rbi for the Braves.  The other run came in the third inning when Corky Miller grounded into a double play so he was not awarded an rbi.

The Braves will now start up a three game series with the Seattle Mariners on Friday.  Things should be really interesting because the Mariners just fired their manager today.

Braves Blog

The Atlanta Braves have sent Charlie Morton, Phil Stockman, Zach Schreiber, Matt DeSalvo, Jairo Cuevas, and J.C. Boscan down to minor league camp.  Just some moves to allow the regular players to get more innings and at bats here towards the end of spring training as opening day will be here in a few weeks.

One player that got sent down you just might see back in the Braves bullpen later in the season.  Charlie Morton is highly regarded in the Braves organization and should be in the big league bullpen later in the year.

Braves Blog