6.18.2005
Paying a Visit to the Slump-Killers
This Game Report feels necessary because, for a Braves fan, this has been one of the most perversely-hyped games of the year. Tonight we see a struggling Atlanta team beginning to turn it around due to the fortuitous arrival on the schedule of the Cincinnati Reds, the stumbling, bumbling Cincinnati Reds, losers of five in a row and dwellers of the dreaded 15-games-under-.500 area.
I say this game is "perversely-hyped" because of the explosive potential of Reds starter Eric Milton, a notorious flyball pitcher who signed a notorious three-year contract in the offseason, and now sports a notorious 3-8 record and 7.97 ERA, with an even more notorious 22 HR allowed coming into the game. I put Andy Marte into all of my fantasy starting lineups specifically because he would be batting against Milton (He ended up going 1-for-4 with a double). Milton's contract (he makes 5 1/3 million dollars this season, a total that will increase in the next two years) explains why the Reds have kept giving him chances in the rotation, so struggling offenses everywhere shouldn't get too stressed out, because sooner or later Eric Milton is coming to your town. Here I shall credit the ever-savvy fans at alt.sports.baseball.atlanta-braves: they saw this opportunity coming well in advance.
Will these impossibly bad trends continue for Milton and the Reds? We find our answer by the end of the first inning. Julio Franco, batting third in a prominent display of the dilapidated state of Atlanta's lineup, launches one 382 feet to make it 1-0. You can feel the Cincinnati crowd groaning, here we go again. Andruw Jones ends the inning with a fly ball to the warning track that doesn't exactly abate their worries.
The Braves owe their recent struggles to their overcrowded DL, exemplified tonight because Jorge Sosa not only has to start on the mound tonight, but he has to do it on three days' rest. (Also, and perhaps even more damning of the latter-day Braves in general, the WGST radio promos that once were read by luminaries like Smoltz and Glavine are now coming from Chris Reistma. Shudder.) Sosa promptly gives the run back to Cincinnati in the bottom of the first. We could be in for quite the slugfest tonight.
Sosa, however, doesn't exactly roll over. He pops the mitt repeatedly at 96 mph and strikes out Ken Griffey Jr. in a tight situation with a nasty slider in the third. Sosa, who was acquired from Tampa Bay for Nick Green to shore up the bullpen before the season, even singles to right in a two-on, one-out situation when everyone was looking bunt: his first major league hit.
For the Reds, nothing is going right. Paul Wilson, who was supposed to hold the rotation together, is instead out for the year. Skip Caray, with not much prodding needed from his co-broadcaster and son Chip, spares no one in the Reds organization. "It's pretty obvious they're not going to win anything with this group." On GM Jim Bowden's defiant statement that the Reds are not trading-deadline sellers yet: "To me, that's a pretty singularly stupid statement. If you can make a trade and improve your team today, why not do it?" [That was Caray referring to Bowden as Reds GM; Bowden has in reality moved on to Washington and been replaced by Dan O'Brien.] On our starter tonight: "Eric Milton would have to pitch 25 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings to get his ERA below 6. That's scary." "Why would you pay a flyball pitcher to come here? You're defeating your own purpose."
Two innings later, Franco does the unthinkable and homers again. Father Time, as he has come to be known, is only a couple of months away from having the chance to become the oldest player to homer in MLB history. Andruw Jones adds another bomb in the fourth, the 25th dinger allowed by Milton on the season and the 19th for Jones, making him the new NL leader.
(Random thought while listening to ads between innings: Since every one of these ads seems to recur ad nauseam all season, every season, why not make one of these a parable of Dickensian complexity, one that would take approximately 100 listenings to make the full amount of sense? It would be ridiculed at first, but would eventually draw rave reviews, and might go on to positively impact all of American culture. People's attention spans would grow longer, and soon we would have a middle brow rejuvenated. Think big.)
Interestingly, Sosa is abruptly removed with one out in the fifth inning, two batters shy of qualifying for a win (the Braves are up 4-1 at this point). You can hear the surprise in the Carays' voices, and they can see the surprise in Sosa's reaction. He was pitching well, with only one walk and 75 pitches thrown. What prompted this? Skip theorizes that he "hit a wall" in the fifth, but c'mon. Sosa will have trouble seeing this as anything other than a slap in the face, or perhaps punishment for some unseen behind-the-scenes transgression. Time may tell, or it may not.
Adam Bernero comes in to face Sean Casey, who is 2-2 so far. Casey rockets one out of the park to right, but foul. Two pitches later, he rockets another one out, but foul again. Then he singles to right, keeping the inning going. For a moment, things look ominous -- "you don't like the way things are shaping up," Skip laments, noting that Griffey, Randa and Dunn are coming up -- but fortunately Griffey bails out Cox and Bernero with an easy ground ball double play. Inning over.
The Braves' bullpen, which has had its share of fits and starts in '05, seems to have calmed down a bit, with Reistma, John Foster, and Adam Bernero settling into roles. Blaine Boyer, who Bobby Cox thinks has "truly superior stuff" according to Skip, comes in to escape a seventh-inning jam. Celebrated relief acquisition Jim Brower pitches a scoreless eighth, and Reitsma closes out the game uneventfully.
Estrada jacks another two-run homer in the eighth, this one off Ryan Wagner. It is Cincinnati's 103rd longball allowed already. To make matters worse, catcher Jason Larue hurts his knee rounding first in the eighth and has to exit the game. Sometimes you're having a bad day, maybe a little down in the dumps, maybe getting an unjust speeding ticket or spilling your soy latte all over your dress shirt, and then you happen to encounter a homeless man walking in the street, his bare feet cracked and swollen, and you suddenly remember that you have it pretty good, all things considered. The Braves may not take the NL East in 2005, but they've got a good fighting chance, and anyway it's heartening to see the rookies getting the experience to help ensure that 2006 and beyond will be in good hands. Meanwhile, the chances of contention waved bye-bye to the Reds a long time ago, and they're basically playing out the string already in late June.
Division rivals Washington, Philadelphia and Florida all lost today, making this an all-around cakewalk of a night. Kelly Johnson is coming around, Sosa and Kyle Davies have earned their temporary starting assignments, and with the bullpen shored up we might finally have a competitive team on our hands. Tomorrow the Braves will attempt to complete a four-game sweep of the Reds, making this weekend an expected but still much-needed confidence booster, and just in time for the Florida series next week. It's been a more trying season than the small sample of Game Reports on this site thus far might have you believe, but this is one weekend where order appears to be restored. We'll know in a couple of weeks if this was a mirage or not. Final: 6-1 Braves.
I say this game is "perversely-hyped" because of the explosive potential of Reds starter Eric Milton, a notorious flyball pitcher who signed a notorious three-year contract in the offseason, and now sports a notorious 3-8 record and 7.97 ERA, with an even more notorious 22 HR allowed coming into the game. I put Andy Marte into all of my fantasy starting lineups specifically because he would be batting against Milton (He ended up going 1-for-4 with a double). Milton's contract (he makes 5 1/3 million dollars this season, a total that will increase in the next two years) explains why the Reds have kept giving him chances in the rotation, so struggling offenses everywhere shouldn't get too stressed out, because sooner or later Eric Milton is coming to your town. Here I shall credit the ever-savvy fans at alt.sports.baseball.atlanta-braves: they saw this opportunity coming well in advance.
Will these impossibly bad trends continue for Milton and the Reds? We find our answer by the end of the first inning. Julio Franco, batting third in a prominent display of the dilapidated state of Atlanta's lineup, launches one 382 feet to make it 1-0. You can feel the Cincinnati crowd groaning, here we go again. Andruw Jones ends the inning with a fly ball to the warning track that doesn't exactly abate their worries.
The Braves owe their recent struggles to their overcrowded DL, exemplified tonight because Jorge Sosa not only has to start on the mound tonight, but he has to do it on three days' rest. (Also, and perhaps even more damning of the latter-day Braves in general, the WGST radio promos that once were read by luminaries like Smoltz and Glavine are now coming from Chris Reistma. Shudder.) Sosa promptly gives the run back to Cincinnati in the bottom of the first. We could be in for quite the slugfest tonight.
Sosa, however, doesn't exactly roll over. He pops the mitt repeatedly at 96 mph and strikes out Ken Griffey Jr. in a tight situation with a nasty slider in the third. Sosa, who was acquired from Tampa Bay for Nick Green to shore up the bullpen before the season, even singles to right in a two-on, one-out situation when everyone was looking bunt: his first major league hit.
For the Reds, nothing is going right. Paul Wilson, who was supposed to hold the rotation together, is instead out for the year. Skip Caray, with not much prodding needed from his co-broadcaster and son Chip, spares no one in the Reds organization. "It's pretty obvious they're not going to win anything with this group." On GM Jim Bowden's defiant statement that the Reds are not trading-deadline sellers yet: "To me, that's a pretty singularly stupid statement. If you can make a trade and improve your team today, why not do it?" [That was Caray referring to Bowden as Reds GM; Bowden has in reality moved on to Washington and been replaced by Dan O'Brien.] On our starter tonight: "Eric Milton would have to pitch 25 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings to get his ERA below 6. That's scary." "Why would you pay a flyball pitcher to come here? You're defeating your own purpose."
Two innings later, Franco does the unthinkable and homers again. Father Time, as he has come to be known, is only a couple of months away from having the chance to become the oldest player to homer in MLB history. Andruw Jones adds another bomb in the fourth, the 25th dinger allowed by Milton on the season and the 19th for Jones, making him the new NL leader.
(Random thought while listening to ads between innings: Since every one of these ads seems to recur ad nauseam all season, every season, why not make one of these a parable of Dickensian complexity, one that would take approximately 100 listenings to make the full amount of sense? It would be ridiculed at first, but would eventually draw rave reviews, and might go on to positively impact all of American culture. People's attention spans would grow longer, and soon we would have a middle brow rejuvenated. Think big.)
Interestingly, Sosa is abruptly removed with one out in the fifth inning, two batters shy of qualifying for a win (the Braves are up 4-1 at this point). You can hear the surprise in the Carays' voices, and they can see the surprise in Sosa's reaction. He was pitching well, with only one walk and 75 pitches thrown. What prompted this? Skip theorizes that he "hit a wall" in the fifth, but c'mon. Sosa will have trouble seeing this as anything other than a slap in the face, or perhaps punishment for some unseen behind-the-scenes transgression. Time may tell, or it may not.
Adam Bernero comes in to face Sean Casey, who is 2-2 so far. Casey rockets one out of the park to right, but foul. Two pitches later, he rockets another one out, but foul again. Then he singles to right, keeping the inning going. For a moment, things look ominous -- "you don't like the way things are shaping up," Skip laments, noting that Griffey, Randa and Dunn are coming up -- but fortunately Griffey bails out Cox and Bernero with an easy ground ball double play. Inning over.
The Braves' bullpen, which has had its share of fits and starts in '05, seems to have calmed down a bit, with Reistma, John Foster, and Adam Bernero settling into roles. Blaine Boyer, who Bobby Cox thinks has "truly superior stuff" according to Skip, comes in to escape a seventh-inning jam. Celebrated relief acquisition Jim Brower pitches a scoreless eighth, and Reitsma closes out the game uneventfully.
Estrada jacks another two-run homer in the eighth, this one off Ryan Wagner. It is Cincinnati's 103rd longball allowed already. To make matters worse, catcher Jason Larue hurts his knee rounding first in the eighth and has to exit the game. Sometimes you're having a bad day, maybe a little down in the dumps, maybe getting an unjust speeding ticket or spilling your soy latte all over your dress shirt, and then you happen to encounter a homeless man walking in the street, his bare feet cracked and swollen, and you suddenly remember that you have it pretty good, all things considered. The Braves may not take the NL East in 2005, but they've got a good fighting chance, and anyway it's heartening to see the rookies getting the experience to help ensure that 2006 and beyond will be in good hands. Meanwhile, the chances of contention waved bye-bye to the Reds a long time ago, and they're basically playing out the string already in late June.
Division rivals Washington, Philadelphia and Florida all lost today, making this an all-around cakewalk of a night. Kelly Johnson is coming around, Sosa and Kyle Davies have earned their temporary starting assignments, and with the bullpen shored up we might finally have a competitive team on our hands. Tomorrow the Braves will attempt to complete a four-game sweep of the Reds, making this weekend an expected but still much-needed confidence booster, and just in time for the Florida series next week. It's been a more trying season than the small sample of Game Reports on this site thus far might have you believe, but this is one weekend where order appears to be restored. We'll know in a couple of weeks if this was a mirage or not. Final: 6-1 Braves.
