Braves 5, Phillies 3
May 14, 2011 at 4:12 pm by Ben Duronio under Atlanta Braves
Jair Jurrjens was perfect through 5.2 innings and the Braves first two hitters hit home runs to begin the bottom half of the first. Joe Blanton opposed Jurrjens and actually pitched well but only lasted five innings. He ended up with 5/1 K/BB and only allowed runs on the back-to-back homers.
Jurrjens performance through the first seven innings was tremendous. He had no walks to that point in the game and had only allowed two base runners, which came in the form of a Michael Martinez single and Jimmy Rollins double. Rollins attempted to run to third, changed his mind, and tried to draw Chipper into interfering with him. He was called out, and at that point it was 2-1 Braves.
In the bottom half of that inning, the sixth, the Braves scored two additional runs due to an Uggla walk, Freeman single, pitching change which brought in Kyle Kendrick, Gonzalez fly out, infield bunt single by Ross, Jurrjens walk, Prado single. Weird inning.
Jurrjens started to lose it in the eighth, as he issued his first walk of the game and a double. Both runners ended up scoring after Jurrjens left, leaving his line at 7.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 BB, 6 K. His control has been astonishing this season.
Craig Kimbrel struck out two and walked one as he saved his ninth game. Ryan Howard almost put runners on first and second with one out, but Chipper Jones – playing on the opposite side of second base in the shift – cut off a ball that was headed to centerfield and flipped it to Gonzalez for a force out. Uggla also made a great defensive play earlier in the game to keep the perfect game in tact. Jurrjens was hit with a line drive in his leg and Uggla was able to charge in and make a great barehanded play. Rubber game tomorrow with Halladay and Hudson starting should be interesting.
Edit: In the bottom of the seventh, for some reason, Charlie Manuel decided to intentionally walk Alex Gonzalez with men on second and third and two outs in order to face David Ross. It ended up working out for them as Ross grounded out to shortstop, but that is one of the poorer decisions I have seen a manager make this year.
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I saw in the espn recap that the Braves were recalling Proctor
Yep, coming up tomorrow.
Good win today after the bullpen blew a win last night. Needed this one with Big Roy coming up tomorrow. Maybe he’ll be off a little and the Braves can rock his world.
Uggla needs to do something to get going. If not, Fredi needs to move him down in the order. I saw somewhere that the #5 spot has come up w/RISP the most this year. So far, Uggla has not responded. That is why the Braves got him, to drive in those runs. It seems like he guesses fastball a lot and the pitchers are aware of that and are getting him out with offspeed stuff. He needs to get with Parrish and make some adjustments because the Braves really need for him and Heyward to get going.
@3
I was thinking about that earlier but frankly I’ve given up on Fredi doing anything useful at this point
In the last 5 games vs the Phills we’ve looked far superior, yet we’ve managed to lose 2 games. We should be routing this guys every game. Even today, bases loaded, no outs & failed to score, letting these guys hang around till the end. Uggla & Freeman have been the exact opposite of clutch, yet right in the heart of the order, hope they get it together soon. Anyways, great win, Halladay coming up, yikes!
Chipper’s also in a slump.
Excellent victory but it became a bit too close due to us leaving the usual amount of runners stranded, they may not be the team they were but the filthy phillies are tough and still good. JJ is a revelation and long may it continue. Don’t agree at all that chipper is in a slump! how the hell do you come to that conclusion? We just need Dan to click into gear and that will see us go on a roll as oppose to the win-lose-win-lose type of run we seem stuck on. Going to be a cracker tomorrow with the Doc against Tim, could go either way and can’t see many runs being scored unless the bullpens come in early and fall to bits.
Wondering if maybe we bat McLouth in leadoff and put Martin in the 5-hole. He’s tied with Chipper in RBIs which makes you wonder how many he would have with more opportunities. Not sure it would solve anything, but maybe we need to give Uggla a day off to rest his mind a bit.
Has anyone heard if Linebrink is heading down if Procter is coming up?
my guess is that they’ll disable Beachy until they need a fifth starter to delay the Linebrink decision, but the writing is on the wall. There’s no way they send down Martinez as he’s been amazing, and I think the front office knows that Gearrin is more valuable than Linebrink, but your guess is as good as mine. Should we expect to see Minor in a few days?
I know Martinez is a valuable asset out of the pen, but, he’s really proven himself and I think he should be given a shot to get Beachy’s spot in the rotation until he’s ready to return.
@6 – I’m not sure I’d characterize Chipper’s current performance at the plate as a “slump.” He has 10 hits in his last 10 games, and 39 hits in 39 games this season, so after starting fast and slumping a little to end April, I think he has basically leveled out. I suppose you could argue that his run production is down, but whatever “slump” you may think Chipper is experiencing isn’t even in the same ballpark as Uggla’s woes at the plate. Or most of the team, for that matter.
@Matt
I’ve enjoyed seeing him grow up from, as he was first dubbed by Peter, Christian “who the fuck is Christian Martinez” Martinez, to the now beloved and integral part of our bull-pen. But I don’t think we need to see any more growing from him. The Braves have three options in Gwinnet who would more than likely be able to produce at a higher level than him in a starting role. And for a team without a very good RHP in the pen after Kimbrel, his ability to pitch well form the right side, and for multiple innings if need be, is to valuable to give up.
I am expecting and hoping to see Minor but a small cynical part of me thinks we’ll bring Rodrigo Lopez up instead because of his “experience”.
Wow, a lot of people have a lot of terrible ideas about converting relievers into starters. Over at TC, it’s Jonny Venters, which makes considerably less sense than Martinez. Still, it ought to be said: converting a long man into a fifth starter is what you do when you don’t have a better option. We have 2 clearly superior options (Teheran, Minor), one possibly superior option (Rodrigo Lopez) and one maybe equivalent, maybe superior, currently injured option (KK).
Minor will get the call, and everyone else will keep their current roles. That’s as it should be. We don’t keep all this starting pitching depth around for fun.
Lopez isn’t on the 40 man, so I’d guess he’s the least likely to be called up.
Thats a bonus for today with Victorino out, the little shit loves to hurt us either with the bat and pulling out catches at the wall. Just need the Doc to take a hit on the shins in the first and we will be set. Go Braves! Chunky Eric to smash one deep to win the game.
also, i read somewhere that if lopez gets called up, they’ll have to pay him $1 million. if they wouldn’t do that for glavine with one superior option waiting in aaa, i doubt they’d do it for lopez with two of them. i’m betting they bring up minor just to let teheran stay down and work on his breaking ball.
In the bottom of the 7th, Braves were up 5-1 and had bases loaded with no outs. Failing to get runs in meant that Venters and Kimbrel had to pitch again.
Also: Fredi, I don’t care what he tells you, please don’t play Heyward today. You should have learned by now that you can’t trust Heyward to be honest about his injuries at this point in his career.
According to the AJC Minor is starting today at AAA, suggesting that the Braves will bring up either Teheran or Lopez….
Seems surprising to me.