Game 126: Giants 5, Braves 3
August 25, 2012 at 1:54 am by David Lee under Atlanta Braves
Source: FanGraphs
Game MVP: Angel Pagan, .244
Least Valuable Giant: Brandon Crawford, -.163
Most Valuable Brave: Freddie Freeman, .143
Least Valuable Brave: Ben Sheets, 28 game score
Big plays:
1st – (ATL) Jason Heyward solo homer for a 1-0 Braves lead, .133
2nd – (ATL) Freddie Freeman solo homer for a 2-0 Braves lead, .115
2nd – (SF) Ryan Vogelsong inning-ending double play with bases loaded, -.174
3rd – (SF) Pablo Sandoval RBI double for 2-1 Braves lead, .100
3rd – (SF) Sandoval scored on a wild pitch to tie game at 2, .142
4th – (SF) Angel Pagan RBI triple for a 3-2 Giants lead, .175
4th – (SF) Marco Scutaro RBI single for a 4-2 Giants lead, .106
Trying to win on solo home runs doesn’t get you far in San Francisco. Despite two homers from Freddie Freeman and one by Jason Heyward, the Braves’ offensive struggles continued. Outside the three long balls, they managed three singles and reached second base once. The Braves had a .136 BABIP due in large part to a 56% fly ball rate and 35.7% infield fly ball rate as a team. It’s tough to get hits when you do these things.
Ben Sheets’ lack of strikeouts is beginning to take its toll. After suffering from three infield hits early in the game that led to nothing, he gave up two run-scoring extra-base hits and three total extra-base knocks in his four-plus innings of work. Sheets threw more changeups than curveballs in the game, a sign he didn’t trust his breaking pitch, and he had just three whiffs.
Sheets has 10 strikeouts in his last 23.2 innings. Good teams take advantage of pitchers lacking swing-and-miss stuff, and this is what will continue to happen with Sheets if he can’t regain his curveball.
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Scoring three runs on three homers is one of the cruel statistical jokes that the game plays on you, but Sheets was as frustrating tonight as Hanson was last night. His fairy tale comeback story was great while it lasted, but ultimately too good to be true. The Dodgers can apparently now go out and buy any player in the game, but we’re reduced to these kinds of scrap heap reclamation projects when we are unable to produce a homegrown phenom like Heyward, Freeman, or Simmons at any given position. It’s sickening to watch the Braves reduced to this, after the glory years when they could and would go out and acquire a McGriff or a Maddux.
Frustrating, in fact even the wins have been frustrating this month
Is it just me, or have the Braves’ hitters as a whole been hitting an abnormally high amount of pop-ups recently? Definitely not a good sign right now at least if that’s the case.
Ben Sheets did get hit hard but there were no less than 4 outs that were turned into 4 runs left on the field by sub-standard defense. Sheets pitched much better than Hanson did last night.
Hinske won’t be playing left anytime soon.
Lately, I’ve not been able to watch the Braves games with my schedule, but I’ve always checked in on this site to see if the Braves have won. I’ve been somewhat saddened by what I’ve seen these past few days.
Small sample size.. tough teams.. bad stretch.. blah blah.. I know. But over the last six games or so look remarkably like last years September team. Bad pitching, poor defense, and sub-par offense. We keep doing this win 1 lose 2 or 3, were gonna walk ourselves right out of the 2 wild card spots.
And it now appears that LA is the new NY and prefers to buy championships..
You can’t fault a team that has the resources for utilizing them.
If not for Hinske this is a very different game. I do not understand the logic of playing him in LF. If you are giving Janish a day off just play Pastornicky. At least he has the range the size of a quarter to Hinske’s dime. Then stick Prado back out in LF. Prado makes a lot of those plays Hinske wiffed on. Also you give the offense a better hitter.
Why does Janish need a day off anyways?
VERY frustrating stretch since the dodgers series. Offense has looked lost outside of the 2-3-4-5 hitters. Pitching has not looked solid outside of Medlen and Maholm Huddy has been eh and Minor has been an average #5. The infield popups and constant double plays are just killing us! I kinda liked having Ross and Pastornicky in the other night I felt like we had a chance of being on base. Defense has been just embarassing! Combine that with a lot of bad luck and you lose games :/
Frustrating games lately. But with that said….
How awesome is it going to be to watch Heyward and Freeman mature as players together? Quite the nucleus to build around including our young pitching talent; should keep us competitive for the short term at least.
Any offensive turnaround needs to start with Chipper. This is his farewell tour and I’d like to see him step up more in clutch situations. A couple nights ago he hit into a DP with runners on first and second and no outs. It’s time to lead by example.
I get the whole resting players to keep them fresh thing earlier in the season. But, this is the stretch-run, and we’re playing the best teams in the league right now. Isn’t this what they were being kept fresh for? Other than Chipper getting his days off, Freddie should be putting the best 9 out there every day against good teams. Rest players against the Padres.
They’re in a long stretch of games without a day off. This is why the 6-man rotation became a reality.
When the Braves learn to “just get hits” like the Giants, they can turn it around. Even Bourn has gotten HR happy since he hit a few. Perhaps the manager can tell them about this.
Agreed. Everybody looks like they’re trying to hit a 9-run homer every time up right now.
@Mike
I’m not faulting the Dodgers for using their resources, I’m faulting the Braves for not using theirs. Or for putting an artificial cap on theiir resources. Or for having entered into an idiotic TV deal that cripples their resources.
The day that Freeman and Heyward walk because we can’t afford to keep them may be the day I stop caring or watching.
Late August swoon… Cardinals on a run. Same situation as last year but an extra wild card to fall on.