Atlanta Braves News: Morning Chop
The Atlanta Braves were fortunate, frankly, to have split the four game series against the Colorado Rockies, having been outscored by 8 runs overall. It would have been much worse if not for a 13 run 2nd game of the series. Check out the box scores courtesy of Baseball Reference, and ask yourself if reality has started to set in for you yet. Never mind how ugly it got last night – things are starting to get ugly, period.
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | Pit | Str | PO | A | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jason Heyward RF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .254 | .333 | .379 | .712 | 16 | 10 | 2 | 0 | |
| B.J. Upton CF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .210 | .282 | .349 | .632 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 1 | HR |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .275 | .366 | .482 | .848 | 19 | 9 | 8 | 0 | |
| Chris Johnson 3B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | .267 | .286 | .337 | .623 | 20 | 13 | 2 | 1 | |
| Tommy La Stella 2B | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .378 | .429 | .400 | .829 | 15 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 2B |
| Andrelton Simmons SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .254 | .290 | .388 | .678 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 6 | GDP |
| Gerald Laird C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | .243 | .329 | .300 | .629 | 11 | 6 | 8 | 1 | |
| Evan Gattis C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .279 | .332 | .558 | .890 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | HBP |
| Jordan Schafer LF | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .186 | .239 | .256 | .495 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ervin Santana P | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .103 | .103 | .103 | .207 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | |
| Jordan Walden P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Ryan Doumit PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .191 | .225 | .265 | .490 | 4 | 2 | |||
| David Carpenter P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Anthony Varvaro P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||
| Team Totals | 30 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 35 | .133 | .257 | .267 | .524 | 125 | 77 | 24 | 11 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | BF | Pit | Str | Ctct | StS | StL | GB | FB | LD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ervin Santana, L (5-3) | 6.1 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 4.09 | 26 | 90 | 57 | 24 | 17 | 16 | 7 | 9 | 6 |
| Jordan Walden | 0.2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.73 | 5 | 13 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| David Carpenter | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.62 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Anthony Varvaro | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.18 | 7 | 21 | 14 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Team Totals | 8 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 11.25 | 39 | 129 | 81 | 41 | 21 | 19 | 12 | 13 | 9 |
Martin Gandy, featured columnist for the Bleacher Report shares his thoughts on three relievers he feels the Atlanta Braves should focus on trying to get to help, as he says, fix the bullpen. Check out Martin’s picks.
3 Relievers the Braves Should Target to Help Fix the Bullpen
"As the Braves seek to acquire another reliable setup man, fresh in the mind of the Atlanta front office is the predicament the team found itself in at the end of last season when Jordan Walden went down in mid-September. While he returned for the playoffs, he was rusty and ineffective, essentially leaving the Braves without their top setup man."
Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sport’s Hardball Talk embarrasses himself (in my opinion) by saying that if you don’t agree with him, you should be embarrassed, regarding David Carpenter‘s plunking of Corey Dickerson. Read Craig’s thoughts, and stick to whatever your guns are. For the record, I believe it was intentional as well, but I get a little tired of people making announcements even before any proof is offered, such as a confession.
The Braves are policing imaginary offenses again
"Brian McCann is gone, but the Braves Decorum Police are still on the beat.In yesterday’s game David Carpenter threw a pitch at Rockies hitter Corey Dickerson. I invite Braves fans to try to argue it wasn’t intentional, but it so clearly was that you’re embarrassing yourself if you claim otherwise. Watch it here."
David Miller of Rant Sports shares this thoughts on how fortunate the Atlanta Braves were to have gotten out of Colorado with two of the four games. I agree, so check out David’s thoughts.
Atlanta Braves Should be Pleased With Split vs Colorado Rockies
"With another tough loss against the Colorado Rockies, the Atlanta Braves not only fell to a series split with the mile-high team but also missed a chance to pull even with the Washington Nationals in the N.L. East. While this could seem like a bad thing, the series split in Colorado was actually a very good thing. Some good stuff happened and if you think of it, the only bad things that really happened were to the pitching staff. Bad days for pitchers are far from rare at Coors Field."
Brad Rowland of our FanSided Network’s sister site, ATL All Day, takes a look at the upcoming series pitting the Atlanta Braves against the Los Angeles Angels.
Los Angeles Angels at Atlanta Braves preview: Hello, Turner Field
"It has been more than two weeks since the Atlanta Braves hosted a “full” series at Turner Field, but with the arrival of the Los Angeles Angels to town on Friday, that trend has been broken. The Angels are playing much improved baseball this season, and with two nationally televised contests over the weekend, there will be many extra eyes on these two clubs."