Astros embarrass Braves 8-3.

Posted: April 9, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Game Logs | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

There’s losing, then there’s losing like that. If the Braves were a high school baseball team, they’d still be running poles right now.

In what turned into an incredibly sloppy evening, the Astros embarrassed the Braves by a final count of 8-3.

4/9/12 Houston Astros

Beachy got no support from his team tonight.

The Braves took their first lead of the season in the second with a Tyler Pastornicky single that scored Matt Diaz, then Beachy dribbled one back to the pitcher JA Happ and scored Juan Francisco (who had just recorded his first hit as a Brave). McCann tacked on an RBI single in the third, and the Braves looked poised to have a night of Astro fun.

And then Juan Francisco happened.

With two outs in the bottom of the third, Beachy got a little too picky trying to pitch to Schaefer and issued a walk. Jose Altuve reached on a throwing error by Francisco that allowed Schaefer to take third. Then Francisco made two errors in one play (impressive, right?). What followed was a play so stupid I can’t quite describe it in words, but the result was a Travis Buck double that drove in Altuve and Schaefer and ended with Buck standing on third after a bad throw by Pastornicky. Suddenly, the first Braves lead of the season was gone.

I had a hard time deciding how to describe just how bad Franciso played tonight, so I found a few choice tweets that I believe do it justice:

Atlanta Braves Juan Francisco

You hear that? "Conradian."

In the next inning, Beachy gave up an RBI single to opposing pitcher JA Happ, and suddenly the Braves found themselves losing to an Astro team filled with such household names as Marwin Gonzalez and Jose Altuve. Heard of them? Me neither.

Francisco was mercifully removed from the game in the sixth, as Livan Hernandez came on in relief of Beachy. He reminded everyone of his outstanding athletic ability by failing to get to first to cover a double play. You could tell he was poised to take revenge on the team that cut him just weeks ago by gasing 83 mph fastballs by their eyeballs and lobbing curveball after curveball after curveball in their general direction. Livan gave up two in two innings on four hits.

Oh yeah, then we brought in the soft-toss machine Chad Durbin in the eighth, and Justin Maxwell (who?) hit one 384 feet and trotted the bases like he does it all the time (trust me, he doesn’t). When the dust settled, it was 8-3 and we all just wanted to go home.

Losing three games to the Mets was bad. Losing tonight was embarassing. The Braves committed four errors (three by Francisco) and made many more mental mistakes en route to what was undoubtedly the worst loss of the young season. Time for Fredi to change some things around and try and get this team going, because until now he’s been a bit too casual for this fan’s liking.

On the bright side, Chipper is expected to return tomorrow, beating his own timeline for recovery. Let’s hope his presence (and Francisco’s absence) is the spark this team needs to get going.

The Braves look for their first win Tuesday at 8:05, as Tommy Hanson will battle Kyle Weiland. If we lose to Kyle Weiland, I suggest we give soccer a try.

Here’s one for the road:

Chad Durbin Atlanta Braves

Braves fall to Mets 1-0 in season opener

Posted: April 5, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Game Logs | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Today was the day we’ve all been waiting for. For fans around the league, it means baseball is back, and there’s a full season ahead of us. To the Braves, it means so much more: a clean slate, a fresh start, and the first step toward what fans hope will be a season of redemption.

I could go on and on with the narrative: the September collapse, the struggles down the stretch, Chipper’s retirement, spring training acquisitions….but we’ve heard it all before. Let’s just get down to baseball.

But first, a little music to set the mood:

The matchup pitted Tommy Hanson against Johan Santana in what was sure to be a pitchers’ duel, and they did not disappoint. Against Santana, Fredi alternated between left and right handed batters up and down the lineup, which featured Diaz in left and Prado at third to fit the scheme (Francisco would watch his first Braves game from the bench).

Hanson was in command early but ran into trouble in the bottom of the sixth, when David Wright broke the stalemate with an RBI single. Fredi gave Hanson the hook, and Kris Medlen came on to pitch with two on and nobody out. He hung tough, retiring the side and stranding his inherited runners (there was a brief scare when Jason Bay sent one out to deep left-center, but, in typical Jason Bay fashion, the shot fell just shy of the wall). Medlen was excellent in relief, allowing just one hit in two innings and completely shutting down the rallying Mets. Expect to see more appearances like this one from guys like Medlen and Livan Hernandez. These multi-inning outings give Fredi the freedom to pull the starter when there’s trouble and not wear out the back half of the bullpen.

Fredi pulled Medlen in favor of Venters in the eighth, which I wasn’t too happy about. Medlen has the stamina to put in three innings of work and had looked sharp, whereas Venters had been complaining of soreness in his throwing arm and could have certainly used the rest. His command suffered, and he loaded the bases before striking out Lucas Duda to escape from trouble.

The determining factor in this one was the Braves’ inability to cash in with men on base. In typical 2011 fashion, the Braves stranded seven runners, failing to capitalize with the bases loaded in the fifth and a runner on third with one out in the seventh. They left the game scoreless and will have to wait until Saturday to get another chance to score the first run of the season.

It wasn’t the start to the season we hoped for, but it was good to see the Braves back in action, and, to be fair, it’s only game one out of one sixty-two.

In other news…

  • Heyward struck out in the second, ending his streak of Opening Day first at bat home runs (Remember this one and this one?). He finished the afternoon 0-4 with two strikeouts.
  • Tyler Pastornicky recorded his first major league hit, a triple off Ramon Ramirez in the seventh inning. Third was as far as he would get, as Tim Byrdak came in and struck out Constanza and Bourn.
  • Andres Torres came up limp after running down Pastornicky’s ball and was removed from the game. The Mets have an astonishing lack of depth at just about every position, and if Torres is down, the offense could suffer greatly.

Box score here. See y’all Saturday.