The Chuck James Experiment
Atlanta 7, Miami Marlins of Miami 4. The Chuck James Experiment started for the Bravos tonight and yielded precisely the results you’d expect from him: 5 IP, 4 ER. Even a 5 run lead doesn’t feel safe when Chucky toes the rubber. Chucky has an aversion to throwing strikes which leads to high pitch counts and too many bases on balls. Of course, when he does throw strikes, they always seem to get hit hard, so I guess you can’t blame him too much.
The Braves did most of their damage early and the offense coasted the rest of the way. Chipper was hot on his birthday, but how many nights this year has he not been hot? Brian McCann had a triple on a ball off the right field wall. He must have thought Brian Snitker had a Twinkie waiting for him on third to leg it out like he did. Our crack research staff tells us that was the first of his career. (Triple, I mean, not Twinkie.)
Cox sat Kotsay again in favor of Gregor Blanco. Odd, as Badenhop throws right and Kotsay is hitting .405 against righties this year (.231 against lefties). Makes me wonder what kind of Bizarro world platoon Cox has in mind. Blanco did make his case in the field, though, making an Andruw-esque grab on fence in the first inning.
Bobby also debuted his new bullpen management strategy tonight, code named Don’t Use Four Guys Per Inning. Although the Chuck James Experiment only lasted 5 innings, we only needed two relievers, Jorge Campillo and Manny Acosta each going two scoreless. Bobby went so far as to let Acosta bat for himself in the 8th, resulting in hilarity. Acosta actually had a decent at bat for a reliever, fighting off a couple of pitches, but the fun happened when Waechter pitched out on a 1-2 count with Gregor Blanco on 1st. Good God, man, it’s the pitcher; just throw him a damn strike and let him K himself.
All in all, we had the successful homestand we needed, going 5-2 and pulling back to .500. The teams that will end up competing for the NL East this year (sorry, Fishies) are all within a half a game. Now that spring training is over, let’s take this roll on up into Queens and make some noise.
As for me, I’m glad the homestand is over. I was developing a repetitive stress injury from the all the tomahawk chopping. My arm gets a week’s rest and I won’t have to miss my next start against the Reds on May 2.
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