Atlanta Braves News: The Morning Chop and Box Score 9/16
By Jeff Schafer
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Notes: Ervin Santana didn’t pitch horribly on Monday night as he gave up two runs on three hits and had six strikeouts. For the most part, he kept the Braves in the game and gave them a chance to beat the Nationals….but the offense flopped once more. Atlanta picked up nine hits on Monday compared to Washington’s six but the Braves hits weren’t timely. We would get a runner in scoring position and find a way to not get him across the plate.
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Philip Gosselin 2B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .281 | .319 | .360 | .679 |
| Andrelton Simmons SS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .244 | .287 | .335 | .622 |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | .293 | .389 | .475 | .865 |
| Joey Terdoslavich 1B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .333 | .333 | .667 | 1.000 |
| Justin Upton LF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .277 | .351 | .502 | .853 |
| Jason Heyward RF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .274 | .353 | .390 | .743 |
| Chris Johnson 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | .261 | .291 | .356 | .648 |
| Emilio Bonifacio PR | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .269 | .309 | .352 | .661 |
| Christian Bethancourt C | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .269 | .296 | .282 | .578 |
| B.J. Upton CF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .207 | .283 | .331 | .615 |
| Ervin Santana P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .100 | .129 | .100 | .229 |
| Jose Constanza PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Luis Avilan P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Juan Jaime P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Chasen Shreve P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Gus Schlosser P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 |
| Ryan Doumit PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .207 | .247 | .338 | .585 |
| James Russell P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Team Totals | 33 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 35 | .273 | .294 | .364 | .658 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ervin Santana, L (14-9) | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 3.74 |
| Luis Avilan | 0.2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.30 |
| Juan Jaime | 0.1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6.30 |
| Chasen Shreve | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1.08 |
| Gus Schlosser | 0.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5.02 |
| James Russell | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.47 |
| Team Totals | 9 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 4.00 |
Stephen Strasburg solves Braves as Nationals close in on NL East title
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Notes: The Atlanta Braves fall once again. After the weekend of being swept by the worst team in the league, Texas Rangers, the Braves lose the opening game to divisional rivals the Washington Nationals. Strasburg pitched on the caliber most thought he would the entire season on Monday night leading the Nats to a 4-2 win and one more step closer to winning the NL East.
"Strasburg pitched seven scoreless innings to end a long run of frustration against Atlanta, and the Nationals beat the struggling Braves 4-2 on Monday night to move to the verge of the NL East title.The Nationals can clinch the division by beating the defending champion Braves on Tuesday night.Strasburg said his team’s focus is on the much bigger picture.“It’s not just one win (Tuesday),” Strasburg said. “It might be to go to the playoffs, but that’s not our ultimate goal. We’ve got to keep playing good baseball.”"
Frustrated Braves fall 4-2 to Strasburg, Nationals
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Notes: The time is running out for the Atlanta Braves as they fall to 75-75 after Monday nights defeat. The Braves are now 11.5 games behind Washington for the NL East crown and 4.5 games out of the second NL Wildcard spot. The obvious frustrations are boiling over as you saw Freddie Freeman and Fredi Gonzalez being ejected from the game after a horrible called third strike.
"The frustration for the sagging Braves showed when Freddie Freeman was ejected for arguing following his strikeout to end the sixth. Freeman slammed his bat to the ground before leaving the field.“I didn’t say a word … not a word came out of my mouth,” Freeman said. “I guess I shouldn’t have slammed my bat.”Gonzalez took over the argument, kicked Freeman’s broken bat, and was tossed by home-plate umpire Tim Timmons.“I was just trying to get out there and keep him in the game,” Gonzalez said of Freeman."
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World Series odds – Central divisions in middle of playoff races
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Notes: For the below, I apologize….as the Braves are slipping away in the NL ocean so are the Braves fan’s hope in 2014. We all see the end to the season quickly approaching and the Braves finding themselves almost out of the playoff discussions. The Braves must start winning or we’ll be talking about the 2015 season soon.
2014 WORLD SERIES ODDS, SUPERBOOK (last week’s prices in parentheses)
DODGERS 9-2
NATIONALS 9-2
ANGELS 9-2
TIGERS 6-1 (12-1)
ORIOLES 6-1
CARDINALS 7-1 (6-1)
A’S 8-1
GIANTS 14-1 (13-1)
PIRATES 18-1 (30-1)
ROYALS 20-1 (10-1)
MARINERS 20-1 (16-1)
BREWERS 40-1
YANKEES 100-1
BRAVES 100-1 (30-1)
INDIANS 100-1 (40-1)
BLUE JAYS 100-1
MARLINS 2000-1 (300-1)
2014 NATIONAL LEAGUE PENNANT
DODGERS 9-5
NATIONALS 9-5
CARDINALS 3-1 (5-2)
GIANTS 6-1
PIRATES 7-1 (13-1)
BREWERS 18-1
BRAVES 45-1 (13-1)
MARLINS 1000-1 (150-1)