Section 435 An Atlanta Braves blog. From the upper deck at Turner Field.

Long, Hot Baseball Weekend

This turned out to be a pretty fantastic homestand. It’s one thing to sweep a pair of bottom-dwellers in six games like the last stand. It’s quite another to go 8-3 against three contenders. So, kudos. Maybe this time we’ll carry some of that mojo on the road.

Sunday’s Game

Arizona 9, Braves 3. The Braves marred their perfect record in the red, Sunday alternate home jersey (now 4-1). It looked like Tom Glavine was having a typical outing. Troubles in the first and shut-it-down the rest of the way. But things got out of hand in the 5th, and a grand slam put this one out of reach.

You know Bobby Cox has given up when Chris Resop comes in. I was actually sad to see that Resop got DFAed because I was working on an idea about a new stat I was going to call the Resop Delta. It would tell you in any situation how many runs down we’d need to be to bring Resop in. Oh well.

Monday’s Game

Atlanta 7, Arizona 3. I don’t know who this Brandon Webb kid Arizona had throwing was, but he wasn’t very good. He gave up 7 in 4.1. I don’t think we’ll be seeing much more of him.

But seriously, folks. I was expecting a pitcher’s duel with Webb and Jurrjens (who had a lower ERA going into the game than Webb.) Yet, neither pitcher made it out of the 5th. It would have been nice if Jair could have gotten a decision in this one, but an ND is better than an L.

Your Daily Kotsay

Kotsay’s back finally caught up with him and he was scratched from Monday’s game. It was the 8th start he’s missed this year, though he’s appeared in 47 games. Four of the missed starts have been on this homestand, though this is the first game he hasn’t appeared in.

Et Cetera

• A little research on my Chipper walk theory from the other day: Chipper had 6 walks in 36 appearances on the homestand (0.167), up from 19BB/167PA/0.113 for the rest of season.
• Tex made them pay for the walks on Monday. He hit .324 for the homestand, with 6 RBIs, though 4 were on Monday.
• Why is it that on the two hottest days of the year so far, the Braves and D-Backs seemed to go out of their way to drag these games on and on and on and… some of us were frickin’ roasting in the stands, yo! Let’s run it full on every batter. Let’s have a conference on the mound with 2 outs, top of the ninth, up by 4. Just throw it over the plate and trust the boys behind you.

You’re right about the heat. I was absolutely roasting out there. We actually ventured over to the SkyField for the last 4 innings of today’s game just to try and cool off. I’m definitely not ready for summer baseball yet. The conference on the mound with two outs in the ninth was a little over the line.

I’m glad we could help BWebb extend his record to 9-2 with today’s outing

Oh, I didn’t even think of the misters up there. Probably because my brain was melting. You’re a wiser man than I.

Well at least you’re up in 435 during those long day games and eventually there’s some shade.

There’s only shade in 435 in the early morning except way up in the rafters.

Yeah, JB, the sun sets opposite of us, so we’re in the sun until sunset.

The misters were a life saver.

[...] like the man himself will be joining the Braves Disabled List All Stars. As I mentioned yesterday, Mark Kotsay had been absent a little more than usual (well, if you don’t mean Oakland usual) over the homestand, and he sat again tonight in [...]