Game 20: Braves 6, Pirates 1
April 27, 2012 at 11:18 pm by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Source: FanGraphs
Game MVP: Tommy Hanson, .192
Least Valuable Brave: Brian McCann, -.087
Most Valuable Pirate: Garrett Jones, .091
Least Valuable Pirate: Rod Barajas, -.248
Big swing: Rod Barajas grounded into a bases-loaded double play with the game tied in the fourth, -.182.
Brian McCann left the game in the fifth inning with a strained right intercostal muscle and is listed as day-to-day. You may recall he strained his oblique against the Pirates last July, but it was on the left side. Injuries such as these do not heal overnight, and it’s worth monitoring McCann going forward to see how he responds once he returns.
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Huh, I guess the whole reserving the backup catcher thing might not be that crazy after all.
Just kidding — it is still very much that crazy.
Nice to see Medlen lock down on the pirates and save the.short relievers. Also the Mac, Uggla, Chipper portion of the lineup seams to be generatinng the late runs by RBI, and should still do well even with Ross in the game. Personally Heyward should get the McCann slot with Ross in the seven hole to maintain middle order strength.
Heck, maybe Medlen can pinch-hit!
I like how Pastornicky is playing. He’s doing more than I expected from him, always seems to have good at-bats. Hopefully he’s done enough to not see so much of Wilson in the line-up.
What is the deal with the Braves suffering injuries against the Pirates? Remember 2007? Braves started the season 24-12 and then played the Pirates and Chipper had that baserunning collision with Jose Bautista who was playing 3B for the Pirates at the time. Chipper ended up badly bruising his thumbs and pretty much wasn’t the same the rest of the season. Last season the McCann injury and now this season another injury to McCann. Hoping it was just McCann and crew playing it safe by taking him out to not do worst damage to it.
Here’s an interesting stat I just came up with. Last season the Braves scored 6 or more runs in a game only 37 times or 23 percent of their games. This season they’ve already done that 9 times in just 20 games which is 45 percent of their games. If they keep doing that the wins will keep coming.
The last 2 games Dan Uggla has started driving the ball to RF. That’s a great sign. Means Dan is getting back to a good approach at the plate and not flying open too soon like he was earlier in the season.
Tyler Pastornicky has already done much more than I ever expected from him this season. I’m love watching Jason Heyward steal bases. My only concern is the head first slides. I can’t shake memories of Derek Jeter and Rafael Furcal both suffering major shoulder injuries doing that.
I finally figured out what I don’t like about Tommy Hanson. After watching what Mike Minor and Brandon Beachy have done I realize that Tommy Hanson doesn’t appear to pound the strike zone with his fastball nearly as much as Minor and Beachy do. I don’t know if it’s a confidence problem or what. He just seems to like to throw way too many breaking pitches in a row and it makes them less effective.
Tommy drives me nuts. If I’m taking a starter for 1 season regardless of age, I’d take Minor, Beachy, Medlen, and Hudson before I’d take Tommy. It could very well be personal bias, but Tommy just infuriates me. I can’t count how many 0-2 and 1-2 counts he reaches only to give up a hit or a walk. Or PAs like the first of the game where it takes him 8+ pitches to finish a guy off. I just keep waiting for him to live up to his billing and he just doesn’t. Again, it could just be my own bias and I could be way off-base.
Yep. That first at-bat of the game was an 11-pitch at-bat which featured 6 foul balls.
You know your team is playing well when the fan base complains about a pitcher who gave up 1 run over 6 innings.
Really, you are complaining about Hanson driving you nuts with the way Jurrjens pitched? Seems like you overstated his “deficiencies”.
I think the walk that Ross took in the 7th inning was the play of the game. A ground ball kills us there, and he approached the at-bat like a true pro. A younger player tries to play the hero, an experienced guy loads the bases. Nice to see nice things happen to guys who are true team players
Ross has really looked great at the plate this season thus far. Sample size is small for sure, but qualitatively speaking he just has a very patient approach so far and is very professional. He’s been very discerning so far, and his early numbers back it up. He’s drawn a walk each game he’s had an ab in so far except for his first game vrs Houston, and he went 2 for 4 that game.
Yeah if there is anything that can be called a bright side to McCann hurting himself again is it gives Ross some more time at the plate, which should help out on his stats a bit.
The 3rd ball should have been a K for Ross. The approach was fine, but the umpire wasn’t calling obvious strikes passing through the belt.