Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: a Wild Game, plus Back to Baseball!
Mississippi Braves’ Trustmark Park; photo credit Ken Lund via Flickr.com.
A Wild One in Pearl Last Night
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Hitters feasted; pitchers reeled.
Just to get you back in the mood for baseball, which starts up again tonight vs. the Cubs, we have this: a bizarre game last night between the Jacksonville Suns (Marlins) and the Mississippi Braves in AA Southern League action last night.
New acquisition Andrew Barbosa was absolutely torched: 9 hits, seven earned runs and a walk while only managing to get 5 batters out. Bryton Trepagnier followed, but didn’t fare well either: 4 outs and 3 earned runs while giving up 5 hits of his own. It’s a good thing that some of those were hit at people.
So after the top of the third inning, the Braves were losing by a count of 10-0, and people in the stands (yes, there were some left… after all, in was a Thirsty Thursday, and the local patrons were just getting warmed up!) were starting to wonder whether there was a mercy rule in the Southern League (no).
Then Mississippi put 10 runs of their own on the board. Yeah: it’s now 10-10 after 3 innings.
What Does a 10-run inning look like?
Well, here’s what happened, according to the play-by-play chart from milb.com:
- Trepagnier (yes, he was still in the game then) singled
- Matt Lipka reached on a blown FC/double play attempt – all runners safe.
- Eric Garcia singled – bases loaded.
- K.D. Kang singled – everybody moves up one base. 1 run.
- Kevin Ahrens walked – everybody moves up one base. 2 runs.
- Rio Ruiz singled, scoring 2. 4 runs.
- David Rohm walked, re-loading the bases. Still nobody out and it’s really getting interesting now.
- Levi Hyams singled toward the first baseman – – everybody moves up one base. 5 runs.
- Pitching change… after an error, 2 walks, and 5 singles. Starter Austin Brice is out; Blake Logan comes in.
- Steve Rodriguez makes the first out, but on a sacrifice fly to CF. 6 runs.
- Now a pinch-hitter for Trepagnier: Sean Godfrey, who of course grounds out. Both runners advance, but now it looks like Jacksonville can get out of it with 2 outs. However….
- Matt Likpa is back and lines a single to center… scoring both runners. 8 runs.
- Eric Garcia then puts a cherry on top of this cake: homer to score Lipka. 10 runs.
- K.D. Kang popped out to third to end it.
10 runs, 1 homer (the only extra base hit), 7 hits, 2 walks, and 1 error. And we’re tied.
Order was more-or-less restored after this outburst… for a while… as Francisco Rondon and Jason Hursh came in and shut down the Suns over the next 4 innings.
Meanwhile, the Braves ground out three more runs in the bottom of the seventh, helped along (again) by the Jacksonville defense. So a 13-10 lead is safe, right?
Um… no.
Andrew Robinson couldn’t hold them down, and after he left the mound in the 8th (walk, triple, homer), the game was tied again… 13 all.
But Wait, There’s More!
Mississippi then pushed another run across as Steve Rodriguez doubled in Levi Hyams… and we take a 14-13 lead to the ninth inning… only to see Jacksonville tie it again against David Peterson, partly thanks to his own throwing error, though the Braves did trade the tying run for a double play that dampened the threat.
So now it’s free baseball… but this is a AA league, so most of it is reduced-cost anyway.
Top of the tenth: Peterson gets Suns out… despite two base-runners.
Bottom of the tenth: yet another error by the Suns (4th of the night) puts David Rohm on base… where he eventually comes around to score the winning run on a walk-off single by catcher Steve Rodriguez.
Final score: 15-14 Braves. 29 runs, 33 hits, 13 walks, 5 errors. 4 hours and 6 minutes for a game that started with a reported temperature of 96 degrees. Garcia went 4 for 6 and Steve Rodriguez was 3 for 5 on the night.
You just can’t beat fun at the old ballyard!
Next: John Hart Doesn't Sleep - He Waits
Braves Baseball Operations chief John Hart. From an mlb.com video.
http://mediadownloads.mlb.com/mlbam/2014/12/10/images/mlbf_37040379_th_45.jpg
John Hart Talks With Jeff Schultz
[ Ed. note – this is an absolutely fascinating interview between the AJC’s resident pessimist and John Hart… you should hit the link above and read it all. ]
I [Schultz] recently had two extended conversations with Braves president of baseball operations John Hart over the state of the team, the impending trade deadline and the future of manager Fredi Gonzalez. Here’s a transcript of those conversations, edited down for publication.
Q: So you gave up this wonderful semi-retired life of golf and broadcasting for what’s probably been an exhausting season. Are you sorry you did this?
A: Let me show you something. (Hart picks up his cellphone and shows a text message he sent to former Brave Fred McGriff that he sent at 4:11 a.m.) “We’re having a pitching meeting tomorrow from 10 to 1. You’re invited but mostly minor-league guys.” Fred responded later in the morning, “Sorry, I can’t attend. But why are you doing up at 4:11 a.m.?” I answered, “Hey, can’t ever sleep when the club has any issues.” So, yeah. But in all seriousness, the biggest thing I had to come to grips with was related to the personal lifestyle I had carved out. I had to make sure this was something I wanted to get my arms around. John (Schuerholz) said, “Let’s find a way to make this work.”
Q: If you didn’t take over after Frank Wren’s firing, do you think the next general manager would’ve gone the same route as you?
A: I do. They looked up and said, “We’ve got (Julio) Teheran and (Alex) Wood and we’ve got (Mike) Minor hurt. We’re losing (Ervin) Santana and (Aaron) Harang.” If you’re playing to win, you need three starters. It’s a precarious position for a general manager. We had to rebuild the pitching staff.
Much, much more at the link… lots about the trades made, trades hoped for, philosophy coming into the next two weeks before the trade deadline, and the rest of the year.
Next: Smoltz picks... the Mets
Atlanta Braves former pitcher John Smoltz (left) during MLB Winter Meetings at Manchester Grand Hyatt. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports
John Smoltz: Mets rotation is better than 1990’s Atlanta Braves of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz
Hyperbole or not, Hall-of-Fame elect John Smoltz paid the Mets rotation a huge compliment Thursday. He said their current collection of starter is better than the Braves vintage of the 1990s. You know, the one that had Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine.
“They’re way better,” Smoltz told the New York Daily News. “They’ve got more talent than we could ever have.”
Now, let’s take a step back. It’s obviously a very flattering compliment. Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, Steven Matz (and Zack Wheeler next year when he returns from Tommy John surgery) are all highly talented young arms. Immensely talented. Hugely talented.
But let’s take a step back and recognize the semantics game at work too. The Mets may very well have more talent but they still have a ways to go to match the production. Maddux once won four consecutive Cy Young awards. Glavine has two of his own. Smoltz has one too. They’ll all have homes in Cooperstown in a few weeks.
[ Ed. note: I’ll just let y’all chew on this for yourselves in the comments below ]