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DEL.ICIO.USErrors extend home misery
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
When Nick Johnson hits a groundball to Braves first baseman Adam LaRoche, bad things tend to happen.
Errors by LaRoche and Marcus Giles figured prominently in a five-run sixth inning that continued the Braves’ homestand from hell and sent the Washington Nationals to a 5-4 win Monday night at Turner Field.
The Braves are 1-7 on a 10-game homestand and mired in a five-game losing streak, their longest at Turner Field since a six-game skid in August 2001.
“We’ve hit a small rut,” Giles said, “and we are pressing a bit. We just need to take a deep breath and play.”
LaRoche had a shot at redemption in the ninth inning, after the Braves loaded the bases against closer Chad Cordero on a two-out Edgar Renteria double and walks by Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones. LaRoche hit a hard grounder to second baseman Jose Vidro to end the game.
“It couldn’t have gone five feet to the left or right,” LaRoche said. “That would have made too much sense.”
“That’s the way old Lady Luck has been looking down on us lately,” said manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves have lost 15 of their majors-leading 25 one-run games and have their second five-game skid of the season.
“It seems like we’ve been just good enough to lose in some of these games,” said Braves starter Tim Hudson (5-4), an evaluation that somehow made sense.
The Nationals are going the other way, winning five consecutive games and 11 of 15. They’re only two behind third-place Atlanta (28-30) in the NL East.
Livan Hernandez (5-5) snapped his 16-start winless streak against the Braves.
“We played a good game except for that inning,” said Braves right fielder Jeff Francoeur, who hit a two-run homer in the sixth to trim the lead to 5-4.
The Braves had runners at first and second with one out in the eighth, but pinch-hitter Matt Diaz popped out on the first pitch from reliever Jon Rauch and Todd Pratt flied out.
In the end, the sixth inning proved to be the Braves’ undoing.
They led 2-0 before that inning, when the Nationals capitalized on mistakes and batted around against Hudson before he was pulled with two outs.
The inning began with a Johnson grounder that bounced past LaRoche, who tried to field it to his right side as he came in toward first base.
On May 14, LaRoche made an error on a Johnson grounder that opened the door for four unearned runs in the fifth inning of an 8-1 Nationals win.
Giles’ error was complicit in the five-run inning Monday, as was center fielder Andruw Jones overthrowing a cutoff man.
“Roche just misplayed that ball,” Cox said, “then Gilly made a great play, but tried to make two great out of one.”
After Brian Schneider’s two-run double and a Damian Jackson single, Hernandez hit a hard grounder that Giles hustled to stop to his left. Instead of getting the sure out at first, he scrambled and tried for the out at home.
A perfect throw probably wouldn’t have gotten Schneider, and Giles’ throw was an errant one-hopper that skipped past Todd Pratt. Two runs scored on the play.
“Just trying to make a play I wasn’t capable of making,” Giles said. “We like to see aggressive play, but that might have been going over the borderline of being stupid. It added fuel to the fire instead of putting water on it.”
Jose Vidro added an RBI double before reliever Macay McBride replaced Hudson.
Only two of five runs were earned against Hudson in his first loss since May 6. He gave up eight hits and three walks and threw 112 pitches in 5 2/3 innings.
Hernandez was 0-11 with a 5.95 ERA in his last 15 against the Braves before Monday, when he yielded four runs and six hits in six innings. He’s 3-14 in 22 regular-season starts against them, and 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA in three playoff games.
The Braves still liked their chances trailing by a run before the ninth, considering how they’ve treated Cordero.
He had a 10.24 ERA, three blown saves and six homers allowed in his past 10 appearances against the Braves before Monday, when he nearly blew another before recording his 10th save.
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