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

An Amazing Victory

Atlanta 7, Houston 6 (17 fucking innings). Of the official crowd of 24,000 this afternoon, maybe two thirds waited out the two hour rain delay before this game started. Plenty of people left after Kyle Davies Charlie Morton gave up a grand slam that gave the Astros a 5-1 lead. And as each inning of free baseball ticked by, the crowd shed hundreds more souls, so that by the time Gregor Blanco led off the bottom of the 17th for the Braves, even the lower level was sparsely populated. But you couldn’t tell by the noise when Mark Teixeira hit a bases-loaded single to end the longest game in Turner Field history with a win.

I know there will be the temptation to view this as a turning point, a game changer for a thus far disappointing season. Coming back from a four-run deficit, winning a marathon one-run game in extra innings. Doing what we’ve seemingly been unable to do all season. But we’re still a long way out, and I for one intend to just enjoy the moment for what it was rather than to try to imbue it with some deep meaning. It was grueling and mentally exhausting, but I’m truly priveleged to have been able to witness this game from start to finish.

What Was Ugly

Kyle Davies Charlie Morton gave up 6 runs in 6 innings, including a grand slam. I’ve found the kid unimpressive so far and I hope his trouncings over the last couple of games don’t contribute to the kind of mental blocks that have so obviously hurt a number of young pitchers that we’ve rushed to the majors. He’s obviously not ready to be here yet. Nonetheless, Morton’s forgettable performance was forgotten by the end of the game.

What Was Amazing

After Morton came out, we got 11 innings from the bullpen. Over those 11 innings, the Astros were unable to score another run. Everyone in the bullpen was fantastic. Extra special props go to Buddy Carlyle. he seems to have found himself in the bullpen this year and is quietly having a great season. He went 3 scoreless, striking out 4, and dropping his ERA to 1.38. Mike Gonzales was also outstanding in his two innings, striking out 4, and looking untouchable.

What Was Fascinating

• Brian McCann and Mark Kotsay both got the day off and both ended up playing almost full games worth of innings. Jason Perry didn’t get the start, but played 15 innings after coming into the game early for an injured Omar Infante.
• Manny Acosta pitched 3 innings and had two plate appearance, trying to bunt a runner over both times. Acosta turned out to be the worst bunter ever, striking out the first time by fouling a third strike bunt on an eye-level pitch. The second time, he bunted it straight back to the pitcher who made the out at second. Acosta hustled to beat out the double play but injured himself stretching for the bag and had to come out of the game.
• Jeff Bennett was the only reliever who didn’t pitch. He was in the dugout the whole game. [Ed. - DLed]
• In the bottom of the 17th, with the bases loaded, nobody out, and Mark Teixeira at the plate, the Astros brought their left fielder into the infield, playing with three five infielders. Perhaps this is the baseball equivalent of pulling the goalie. It didn’t matter though, as Tex drove a base hit to deep center for the win.

On Francoeur, Low Notes, and High Notes

So I’m a little bit behind after early bedtimes and early rising the last couple of days for my second Peachtree Road Race and other Patriotic Hat Day festivities. A lot has been going on with the Braves in the meantime.

On Francoeur

I salute Bobby Cox and Frank Wren for their decision to send Francoeur down in spite of whatever bad blood it might cause. Francoeur’s reaction was incredibly childish, so let’s hope it was just a reaction and he sees the wisdom of the move. (Seems like he might be coming around to that.)

Frankly, it’s incredibly selfish of him if he thinks the Braves owe him the opportunity to sort out his struggles with the big club. If the Braves weren’t 5 games under .500 and 7 games back – all but out of contention for the second half – it would be one thing. If Francoeur’s struggles weren’t a big contributing factor to the team’s underachievement this season, he might have a case. Even a handful more clutch hits from Francoeur would have been enough to keep us in the hunt.

And up to this point, Francoeur is a superstar in marketing only. He’s a very good player who has yet to live up to his full potential. Does he have it in him to be great? Absolutely. But he’s not there yet. And until he is, he should get the deference his performance – not his hype – affords him.

On High Notes

Fourth of July: Atlanta 6, Houston 2. After a crushing sweep at the hands of the Phillies, it was great to see some excitement again at the Ted. The first sellout of the season watched the Braves win one the right way. Tim Hudson pitched a gem. Jason Perry, up from Richmond to fill in for Francoeur, hit a triple in his first major league at bat. Kotsay had a single, an RBI, and a defensive gem. And KJ went deep. What was particularly satisfying about this one was the 6 runs on 8 hits. We haven’t seen that kind of efficiency in a while.

On Low Notes

Thursday Night: Philadelphia 4, Atlanta 1. I was going to write a post on Thursday about how we can’t give up the season yet. About how the 1991 Braves were 9.5 games back on July 7 and came back to win the division. But then the Phillies completed their sweep, and took my remaining optimism with them. Now, the 1991 Braves reeled off wins in 9 of their next 11 games to bring them back within 2.5, and we’ll need the same kind of streak. And we’ll need Frenchy to come back from Mississippi with his head on straight to drive in some runs for us.

In the past, I’ve contended that the Phillies’ putrid starting rotation is going to sink them before the season is up. But damn, those guys can hit. We’ll need some help from the Phillies, too, if we’re to make a run in the second half.

Picking the Wrong Time to Swoon

Tuesday: Philadelphia 8, Atlanta 3. Wednesday: Philadelphia 7, Atlanta 3. The Braves have gone 2-6 over their last 8 games, losing the first two to the Phillies at a point when we could have pulled back within striking distance. The only thing worse tonight than the game itself was being completely surrounded by shrill, pre-teen girls.

Some notes on the ugly:

• Mark Kotsay has thrown up an 0-fer since rejoining the grown-up squad. Doesn’t look like anything to be concerned about, yet, and he looked spry bounding out into center starting the game this evening.
• Our reinvigorated, re-healthy lineup has had a hard time with the Phillies starting pitching which has been putrid for most of the season.
• The Braves were 0-3 on Wednesday night with the bases loaded. Jeff Francoeur got our only bases-loaded RBI by grounding into a double play.
• Ryan Howard has more hits than RBIs this season. He has 71 RBIs. He has 70 hits (all of them home runs). Of course, when Campillo pitched around Chase Utley to get to Howard, Howard made him pay with a 3-run bomb.
• Chipper is definitely not 100%. He barely even made an effort to run to first when he hit into a routine groundout. Frankly, we can lose 8-3 without Chipper. I’d rather see him take a few more days to completely heal.

Your 2008 Atlanta Braves All Stars

The All Star game is just around the corner and balloting is coming to a close on Wednesday. Let’s take a look at who’s going for the Braves and who should be going.

Chipper Jones

Chipper will be the Braves’ only starter (you know, if he can play). He’s crushing the competition and that’s how it should be. He’s having a monster year, leading the league in average, chasing .400, hitting his 400th HR, and getting on base almost every other plate appearance.

Brian McCann

Due to the fact that Cubs fans are generally bad, foul-smelling people, Brian McCann won’t get the start that he deserves, but you can expect him to show up as a backup backstop. McCann and Soto are fairly close statistically otherwise, but McCann has 15 points on Soto in average.

On the other hand, the baseball gods may take this one away from him in retribution for his undeserved appearance last season.

Jair Jurrjens

JJ is fifth in the NL in ERA among starters with a 2.94, ahead of folks like Brandon Webb, Johan Santana, Carlos Zambrano, and Adam Wainwright. He’s tied for the team lead with 8 wins. He’s having the best season on the NL’s best starting rotation.

Your Also Rans

Those three are a pretty sure bet and that makes a pretty good contingent from the ATL. Here are a few more guys who deserve at least a look:

• Jorge Campillo – Campillo has been more than a pleasant surprise. Aside from one appearance, he was completely unhittable in the bullpen. He has 12 BBs to 53 Ks. As a starter, he’s second on the team in ERA behind Jair Jurrjens
• John Smoltz – Smoltz obviously won’t be able to play, but nobody in baseball was pitching as well as Smoltz before he got knocked out for the season. Love to see him get a nod.
• Yunel Escobar – Yunel’s playing some quality ball this year and will get overlooked because the NL is stocked with shortstops.
• Tim Hudson – Huddy’s 11th in ERA among starters, owns 8 wins including a complete game shutout. Hudson’s downfall this year has been inconsistency. He’s probably had a few too many forgettable starts to go along with a number of brilliant starts to make the All Star squad.

Homestand Kinda Salvaged

Atlanta 4, Milwaukee 2. Apparently the winning team was required to score exactly 4 runs in this series and the Bravos were on the 4 side today. Jorge Campillo had another strong outing: 4H, 2ER, 6K, 0BB in 7 innings.

Can we take Campillo seriously yet? I’ll say it again: his BB/K ratio (12/53 in 67.1) is a pretty good sign that he hasn’t just been lucky. I like watching him pitch.

Campillo also went 2-3 today to raise his average to a Francoeur-crushing .267. Jorge Campillo is our Full Throttle Energy Drink Player of the Game.

Our musical chairs injury list added Yunel Escobar today who strained a hamstring while getting beat down by Bobby Cox for his poor play and temper tantrum yesterday. Omar Infante stumbled pretty visibly rounding first and limped into second on a double in the second inning. Brent Lillibridge took over and (finally) got his first major league hit today, a double down the left field line.

On the other end, Mike Gonzales made his third appearance since returning from Tommy John surgery and got his second save of the season. He’s looking as good as you can expect from someone in his position. Hopefully, he’ll add some stability to the back end of our rotation.

Brandon Jones’s defense in left the last couple of days is making me long for Greg Norton. He may not know where to throw the ball after he catches it, but at least he has the good sense to keep the ball in front of him.

Bullpen

One highlight of this otherwise unfortunate series with the Brew Crew was the bullpen. Here’s the line for the whole bullpen for the series:

Your Daily Kotsay

Mark Kotsay was in the lineup as DH for the MIssissippi Braves last night, going 0-4 but feeling fine.

Pre-Ordained

Milwaukee 4, Atlanta 3. A game in which we couldn’t get out of the first inning without committing three errors seemed pre-ordained from the get-go and your Atlanta Braves played like it. The boys ended up with four errors on the night (plus a defensive miscue in left by Brandon Jones that probably should have been) and a wild pitch.

Yunel got tossed for throwing his helmet in anger arguing a play in which he was obviously out. That came back to haunt us in the 9th when the tying and winning runs were on base and the only “bat” we had left on the bench to pinch “hit” for the pitcher’s spot was Corky Miller.

On the plus side, Tex had another good game, scoring the first run and driving in the second and third on a line drive home run that was crushed.

And Francoeur is probably having his best stretch of baseball this season. Take a look at his recent numbers: over his last 1 game, he’s batting a whopping .500. Astounding! Welcome back, Francoeur.

Aww, Sheets

Milwaukee 4, Atlanta 1. The Bravos continue to put up an 0-fer in that all-important category: games on this homestand which I have attended. After missing both of our victories over the Marinators this weekend for a Knoxville wedding (yes, they played Rocky Top at the reception), Ben Sheets Jo-Jo Reyes got the best of the Braves in 4-1 loss on Monday night.

Jo-Jo’s string of good work came to an abrupt end tonight. Bobby mercifully pulled the plug after 4 runs in 2.1. Buddy “My Buddy” Carlyle put out a bases loaded threat and put in an excellent long relief appearance. The 4 runs on Reyes were all she wrote for the Brew Crew, but it would be all they would need.

Buddy Carlyle is quietly having a really good season in the pen.

Jeff Bennett actually had a decent outing for the first time since sooner than it feels like.

(Hey, here’s an idea! Put Buddy Carlyle in sometimes when you would have put Jeff Bennett in, that way you spread out the workload and let poor Jeff Bennett get some rest. Bobby? Bobby? Bobby Cox? Are you listening?)

Jeff Francoeur’s new contact lens (singular) did not help tonight as he went 0-3, his average creeping down towards Andruw Jones territory.

Your Daily Kotsay

Kotsay’s on his way back! Soooooon!

More on Jeff Francoeur

Kenny Doyle put together a nice analysis of the reasons for Jeff Francoeur’s struggles this year at Dugout Central. Unfortunately, his conclusion for how to deal with the problem is essentially grin and bear it until Frenchy figures it out.

While Josh Anderson or Brandon Jones probably wouldn’t do better than Francoeur over the course of 162, they’ve both doing significantly better than Francoeur over the course of the half-dozen or so games they’ve been allowed to play. Sitting Frenchy for a few days, letting him work with Terry Pendleton on his swing, getting out of the public eye, might help break the vicious cycle of frustration that these bad at-bats are causing. Obviously, just stringing together more bad at bats is not doing the job.

Also, remember that a more disciplined approach helped him last year. Though his power numbers dropped off, his batting average put on 30 points. Coming in to this season with some additional muscle and his approach from last year should have primed Francoeur for an even bigger season this year.

Rather than dropping him in the order, another option that might help Francoeur this year would be to move him to the two hole. He’s hitting .230 with runners in scoring position and .105 with the bases loaded. So moving him to a slot in the order where we’re not so dependent on him to drive in runs would have the benefit of taking the pressure off of him while also giving someone who’s a little bit more clutch this year the opportunity to drive in some runs in key situations. After all, it’s not the .250 batting average that’s killing us, it’s the bases loaded double plays.

Tomahawk Cow

Seattle 10, Atlanta 2. Tonight, the Atlanta Braves welcomed the newest addition to Turner Field, the highly anticipated Tomahawk Cow.

We at Section 435 dot com are pleased to present the first, exclusive* video footage of the Tomahawk Cow:

*Unless there’s more, which there probably is.

Note that the video is in normal speed. I tried to adopt the new, slow tomahawk chop style, though there wasn’ t much to rally about tonight. Still, I hope slow-mo tomahawk chopping catches on.

• Jorge Campillo was solid again. I wonder how many more solid starts it will take from him before he gets any respect.
• Omar Infante had a great night, making a spectacular catch to rob Adrian Beltre of a home run in the second and driving in half of our runs. You know, half of our two runs.
• The bullpen is really beginning to show the wear and tear that short starts and poor bullpen management will cause. Jeff Bennett and Will Ohman both got seriously tagged. My theory is that Bobby wants to get guys out there immediately after a bad appearance to show that he still has confidence. So it takes at least two bad appearances in a row to get a couple days rest (see Manny Acosta… or, you know, don’t see Manny Acosta because he’s getting some rest). Hopefully, at least Jeff Bennett earned a few days off with tonight’s suckfest. Sorry, Will Ohman, you’re going to have blow tomorrow night, too, if you’re getting tired.

• Good thing we have quality pitchers like Phil Stockman who can pick up the slack. Wait? What, Phil Stockman got sent down? Are you fucking kidding me?

The Natives are Getting Restless

Atlanta fans get a bad rap for not being passionate enough, but I really think a lot of that is that we’re just a bit more positive, patient, and accomodating than other fans. Maybe we’re following Bobby Cox’s example in that. Nonetheless, I got the sense tonight that the patience of the Braves fans is wearing thin this year.

To be fair, tonight I was surrounded by complete and total morons (surprise). Nattering nabobs of negativitsm, as the man once said. Still, this Braves team is not meeting expectations, and it’s beginning to be hard for even the most positive among us to find excuses.

Time to Bench Francoeur, Yet? Please?

No, Francoeur should not have caught any of those balls that he didn’t catch tonight. But he did ground into another bases loaded double play to kill a rally. He’s hitting a lofty .250 this season, and .237 in his last ten games. Coming into tonight’s game he was hitting .222 late and close and .111 with the bases loaded.

The kid is talented beyond belief and this is all in his head. Maybe Frenchy needs to talk to John Smoltz’s head shrinker. It worked for Smotlzie in ‘91.

Now, your head is probably lodged somewhere dark and uncomfortable if you think sending back to the minors is an option. But, he is not much more than a dead weight right now. It’s definitely time to give Brandon Jones a look for a few days while Francoeur spends some time with Terry Pendleton, his priest, Jack Daniels, or whoever he needs to consult to sort this out.

Quick Hits

I know, I have been in absentia lately due to drinking obligations. Here we go:

• My mantra tonight watching the game: “Jo-Jo is pitching. We’ve got this one in the can.” Man, something has switched on in this youngster. It’s a bit exciting to watch. Keep it up, young Jo-Jo.
• (Also, apparently badjojo is a porn site. I’ve been getting a lot of traffic to this post for people looking for some hot booby action.)
• Why all the hate for Tex lately? He’s only leading the team in RBIs. Is Bing Rs I no longer important in baseball or is that still the whole point of the game?
• Helluva welcome back for Mike Gonzales. And none to soon. When Soriano’s elbow heals again, I swear he’s going to find the lights out and the locks changed at the stadium.