Atlanta Braves News: The Morning Chop, Box Score, Chipper on Dansby Swanson, Vizcaino Injured
By Jeff Schafer
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Atlanta Braves met the Colorado Rockies on Friday night, the first game back from the break. Colorado seemed to have been in mid-season form with their bats as they scored 11 runs off 10 hits. Before we knew it, the game was 7-0 Rockies in the 4th inning and then they politely dropped four more runs on us in the 9th inning. Adores Vizcaino came into the game in the 9th, a non-save inning, but only threw four pitches and had to be removed from the game because of an apparent right-side oblique strain. If he’s out for any period of time longer then day-to-day, it will drop his trade value even closer to the floor and leave us with a hole in our bullpen. Didn’t Jason Grilli get injured around the same time last year when we were about to trade him? Deja vu?
Braves lose 11-2
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gordon Beckham 2B-SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | .279 | .380 | .441 | .821 |
| Adonis Garcia 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .250 | .289 | .349 | .639 |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | .284 | .371 | .513 | .885 |
| Nick Markakis RF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .254 | .330 | .363 | .693 |
| Jeff Francoeur LF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | .262 | .303 | .396 | .699 |
| A.J. Pierzynski C | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .206 | .228 | .250 | .478 |
| Ender Inciarte CF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .232 | .297 | .313 | .610 |
| Erick Aybar SS | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .209 | .262 | .264 | .525 |
| Mauricio Cabrera P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Arodys Vizcaino P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Dario Alvarez P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Anthony Recker PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 |
| Lucas Harrell P | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Joel De La Cruz P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 | .250 | .250 | .500 |
| Brandon Snyder PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .231 | .259 | .654 | .913 |
| Ian Krol P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Jace Peterson 2B | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .282 | .351 | .409 | .761 |
| Team Totals | 33 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 37 | .273 | .351 | .333 | .685 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucas Harrell, L (1-1) | 3.2 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3.63 |
| Joel De La Cruz | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.91 |
| Ian Krol | 1.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2.39 |
| Mauricio Cabrera | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2.45 |
| Arodys Vizcaino | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.00 |
| Dario Alvarez | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2.53 |
| Team Totals | 9 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 8.00 |
Braves’ Arodys Vizcaino: Likely headed to disabled list
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Arodys Vizcaino has injured his right-side oblique and it may cost him some time on the DL. This happened on Friday night in an extremely uncompetitive 9th inning. Vizzy will most likely miss at least 15 games and it could be longer. The oblique strains are usually a pain in the a** and stick around for a while. I’m guessing it could be September until we see him on the mound again. As I mentioned above, former Braves closer Jason Grilli was injured last year around the same time – July 11th – right when we were about to trade him.
"Vizcaino is dealing with an oblique injury, and manager Brian Snitker indicated the setback will land Vizcaino on the disabled list, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports.The Braves will not know the full extent of Vizcaino’s setback until Saturday, but he has been diagnosed with an oblique injury, and that type of setback typically requires several weeks to come back from. Jim Johnson would be the favorite to serve as the Braves’ closer if Vizcaino lands on the disabled list as expected."
ATLANTA BRAVES: Braves overwhelmed by Rockies
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Let’s put the first game back from after the All-Star game behind us and start the 2nd half of the season today. The Braves came out flat and the Rockies were hot. By the 4th inning, the score was 7-0 after D.J. LeMahieu hit an RBI triple and then scored on a wild pitch from Lucas Harrell. In 3 2/3 innings, Harrell gave up seven hits and seven runs, five runs were earned runs. For a full recap, check out Alan’s post from last night.
"Colorado scored four runs in the third inning and pinch-hitter Ryan Raburn capped a big offensive performance for the Rockies with a ninth-inning grand slam in an 11-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Friday night.After averaging 2.7 runs in its last seven road games at San Francisco and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado took advantage of baseball’s worst team.Dropping to 13-35 at home and 31-59 overall, the Braves rank last in the majors in runs scored and homers. They put some poor pitching and fielding on display, too."
Chipper on Dansby: “He’s a winner, Braves are lucky to have him”
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: From one of our greatest to (hopefully) a future great — Chipper Jones had a few kind words to say about the Braves young shortstop. It’s been documented about Swanson’s recent struggles at the plate, but who doesn’t go through a slump? Dansby will figure it out because as Chipper says in the AJC article he’s a “smart kid”. The Mississippi Braves take on the Jackson Generals in a Saturday through Monday series at Jackson.
"That’s one of the intangibles that Swanson has — the personality and natural leadership qualities, that perhaps set him apart from so many other highly skilled young players. Teams want to, need to. feel good about the players they are building around, the ones they view as franchise cornerstones, and with Swanson, 22, the Braves are very comfortable in that regard. Whenever they determine he’s ready physically for the big leagues, they are confident he will be ready mentally.“Maturity’s not going to be an issue,” said retired Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, a future Hall of Famer and Braves special assistant in baseball operations, and another guy that no one in the organization ever worried about as far as confidence was concerned. “When his time comes, you’re not going to have to worry about that. They’re not gonna have to worry about if he’s overmatched; he’s not going to get himself into a mental funk. Seems like he has his head on right.”Chipper spent time with Swanson on several occasions during spring training, both when Swanson and fellow top prospect and double-play partner Ozzie Albies were still in major league camp and after the two got sent down together to minor league camp."