Gamethread: Braves @ Rockies, July 12, 2009 (88/162) LOSS

[sdp]

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/8112/asdfsop.png

Kris Medlen (2-3, 5.72) vs. Jason Hammel (5-4, 4.07)

[sdp]

STARTING LINEUP

Nate McLouth, CF
Martin Prado, 1B
Chipper Jones, 3B
Garret Anderson, LF
Ryan Church, RF
Brooks Conrad, 2B
David Ross, C
Diory Hernandez, SS
Kris Medlen, RHP

[Andy G.]

Three singles, a sac fly and a fielders choice and the Braves have two first inning runs.

[Andy G.]

Make that three runs. Brooks Conrad drilled the ball to left center and got an easy triple and an RBI.

[JanShan12]

Prado's single in the 2nd score McLouth after he doubled. 4-0 Braves!

[JanShan12]

Braves take a 5-1 lead on an infield single by D. Hernandez.

Rockies come back in the bottom half of the 3rd to score another. 5-2 Braves with 1 out.

[Middle Man]

Brad Hawped on one in the second to cut it to 4-1. The Braves scratched out another run in the 3rd - 5-1. Rockers score another in the bottom of the 3rd. 5-2 Braves headed to the 4th.

[JanShan12]

Brooks Conrad is making a case to keep himself in the every day lineup. Too bad he or Prado can't play SS while Escobar is out.

[JanShan12]

Braves waste a leadoff walk to McLouth, even with him advancing to scoring position on a wild pitch.

[Middle Man]

True. Diory's not exactly an MLB hitter. So who is the backup at SS if Escobar isn't available? Medlen's not too good today. Tuluwitxzaski with a HR; 5-3 Braves. It would be nice if Medlen could make it through 5 innings, but I won't bet on it.

[JanShan12]

Luckily today is a rare day our offense has spotted 5 runs. Hopefully more to come.

I would think Prado would move to SS and Conrad would stay at 2B if something were to happy to Hernandez.

Has anyone heard when Escobar will be back?

[Middle Man]

Church with his first Brave hit. First of many I hope.

[Middle Man]

Rockheads are using starters out of the pen today. Not helping them though. Brooks with a 2-run dinger.

[IkeWagner]

I'm really liking Conrad.

[Middle Man]

De La Rosa is yanked for Matt Daley, a rook with a 1.25 WHIP and .230 BAA.

[Hobbes]

I'm really liking Conrad.
Me too.

[Middle Man]

Daley mows 'em down 123. He's great against righties, terrible against lefties. It'll be interesting to see if they leave him in to face the top of the order next inning.

[IkeWagner]

Medlen needs to get it together here.

[Middle Man]

Dexter Fowler with a lead-off hit. I flipped on ESPN2 earlier, not realizing that the futures game was in rain delay. they were showing the 2008 game and some guy named Dexter Fowler was in CF making a nice catch. I was confused.

[IkeWagner]

Nevermind...Logan in.

[Middle Man]

Medlen needs to get it together here.

Too late. Not a good showing for the Med Man. That's too bad, because I thought he was starting to show some pretty good confidence out of the pen.

[Middle Man]

The double play has really been the Braves' friend lately.

[IkeWagner]

Is O'Flaherty still around or has Logan replaced him?

[IkeWagner]

According to gameday Logan is 94-95...for those watching the game, does it look like he has good life on his fastball?

[Hobbes]

Dexter Fowler with a lead-off hit. I flipped on ESPN2 earlier, not realizing that the futures game was in rain delay. they were showing the 2008 game and some guy named Dexter Fowler was in CF making a nice catch. I was confused.

Ah, that explains it. I saw Cahill on the mound and figured I wasn't seeing the game everybody else was seeing.

[IkeWagner]

I realized it was last year's game when I noticed that it was at Yankee stadium.

[Middle Man]

Is O'Flaherty still around or has Logan replaced him?

O'Flaherty has pitched the last 3 games heading into today.

[IkeWagner]

I've been out of it lately.

[Middle Man]

Anderson lines out to 1st to end the inning. GA is such a grumpy old man. I imagine that after the game, he goes and sits in a rocker and complains about stuff.

[Dreamscape]

Anderson tells Church to get off his lawn...and the new Brave is very confused.

[Hobbes]

Grrrr.

[Middle Man]

Sigh. I'll be pissed if we lose this game. Little league time for Grumpy Old Man and Acosta.

[Hobbes]

Too bad Acosta isn't a better pitcher. He's got the scowl of a top-notch closer.

[MSbravefan]

bull***** effort by Garret on that play, he was barely jogging in after the ball and then forced to make a wretched throw. If he was hustling from the get-go things go differently.

And Logan was cruising, not sure why Bobby took him out, especially to put in Acosta, who had worked in the previous 2 games.

[Dreamscape]

Seriously, this team never does anything easy.

[ATL2123]

Damn Moylan:wall:

[Dreamscape]

Moylan has absolutely sucked in Coors and Cox throws him out there. I know, the options may have not been plentiful, but man, this bullpen has a chance to be just as worrisome as the offense.

[ATL2123]

Honestly, you just had a feeling that the bullpen couldn't preserve the tie, bullpen has to be a concern going into the break

[MSbravefan]

once again Bobby absolutely butchers the use of the pen.. guess we should start thinking about being sellers and what trades we can make for next year

[Hobbes]

History has shown us, the Braves will not be sellers.

[Dreamscape]

You just can't lose games where you lead 7-3 in the seventh. You have to get outs and avoid the big knock. Braves couldn't do that. They put the guy they only called up for an arm in the pen in an impossible situation for his major league debut. As such, they lose the opportunity to get to .500.

Have to win those if you want to compete. All bullpens have meltdowns, but this one was killer.

[Wahoo]

And recent history suggest our management doesn't know jack.

[wordslayer©]

As the players left the stadium, you could hear our boys in the dugout yelling, "this one's for you, Jeff."

Kind of moved me.

[wordslayer©]

It's kind of nice, when hearing the colorado players doing their postgame interviews, and not having to hear that, "we had to give 100%" crap today.

[Middle Man]

Well, that was demoralizing. The pen is a concern. Other than Soriano, and maybe O'Flaherty, is there a guy in there that you can feel real good about right now?

They won't usually blow a 4 or 5 run lead, true. But it's also true that with our offense, they won't usually have a 4 or 5 run lead to work with. They'll usually be called on to preserve a 1 or 2 run lead - or get keep a small deficit small.

The combination of low-scoring offense and leaky bullpen does not bode well for the Braves this year.

[BraveFan]

According to Baseball Prospectus the Braves have a 19% chance at making the playoffs which is weird b/c that is three percentage points higher than the Marlins who have a better record then the Braves.
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/statistics/ps_odds.php

[sdp]

I want to blame Bobby and the bullpen, but Medlen could have stepped up to the plate and pitched at least 6.0 innings. Just sayin'...

[BraveFan]

I want to blame Bobby and the bullpen, but Medlen could have stepped up to the plate and pitched at least 6.0 innings. Just sayin'...

The only bad move Bobby made was going with Acosta against left handed hitters when he had Logan in the game. Can't blame Bobby for using Moylan b/c he had no options. When your starter only goes 4 innings and you don't have a long reliever then its hard to mix and match.