Brewers 8 Braves 4
A sloppy end to a successful and surprising first "half" of the season. The Braves got plenty of baserunners, highlighted by Furcal's career-high 5 hits, but were generally unable to mount sustained rallies due to three holes in the lineup: KJ had a rough time of it, unable to follow any of Furcal's hits with anything productive; Marte also was 0-5, and compounded his difficulty with 2 errors; and Andruw was not generally allowed to do much damage, 0-2 with 3 walks.
The pitching was pretty bad all around. Colon was Davies-like, unable to exhibit consistent control, and getting hit hard when he grooved a couple of pitches. The bullpen was terribly unimpressive, with the exception of Brower's 1-2-3 eighth -- the damage punctuated by Reitsma taking a ball off the ribcage and having to leave the game. X-rays were negative, so the All-Star break will hopefully obviate the need to plug Kolb back in at closer.
Young Master Francoeur impressed once again, hitting another homer and nailing Brady Clark at the plate. My earlier contention that his promotion was temporary....well, maybe not. I will say this, though -- the number of rookies we now have on the roster may make it difficult for them to get the individual instruction they would likely receive in the minors. I'm thinking specifically of Marte's fielding, but I'm also concerned about the development of Francoeur and McCann. Of these three, only Marte has had any time at AAA, they're very young, and they won't be playing every day.
That said, a 50-39 record is quite an accomplishment given all the injuries, and we have to consider ourselves well-positioned for the second half. The Nats are beginning to falter, as you would expect of the lowest-scoring team in the majors. The Marlins can't seem to translate a big-name roster into wins. The Mets, despite some good additions, still have too many fading veterans. And the Phillies, as we all know, are the Phillies, and are very likely to remain so. We must be considered the favorites.
The pitching was pretty bad all around. Colon was Davies-like, unable to exhibit consistent control, and getting hit hard when he grooved a couple of pitches. The bullpen was terribly unimpressive, with the exception of Brower's 1-2-3 eighth -- the damage punctuated by Reitsma taking a ball off the ribcage and having to leave the game. X-rays were negative, so the All-Star break will hopefully obviate the need to plug Kolb back in at closer.
Young Master Francoeur impressed once again, hitting another homer and nailing Brady Clark at the plate. My earlier contention that his promotion was temporary....well, maybe not. I will say this, though -- the number of rookies we now have on the roster may make it difficult for them to get the individual instruction they would likely receive in the minors. I'm thinking specifically of Marte's fielding, but I'm also concerned about the development of Francoeur and McCann. Of these three, only Marte has had any time at AAA, they're very young, and they won't be playing every day.
That said, a 50-39 record is quite an accomplishment given all the injuries, and we have to consider ourselves well-positioned for the second half. The Nats are beginning to falter, as you would expect of the lowest-scoring team in the majors. The Marlins can't seem to translate a big-name roster into wins. The Mets, despite some good additions, still have too many fading veterans. And the Phillies, as we all know, are the Phillies, and are very likely to remain so. We must be considered the favorites.
posted by Sam Bass | 4:57 PM
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