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Thursday, April 5, 2007
In-game blog: Braves going for a sweep
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The wind is howling, the fans are bundled up like it’s a Falcon-Eagles game on a raw day here in Philly that feels like November. But the sun is poking through the clouds and we’re playing some ‘ball, folks.
They’ve just finished playing their Jay-Z “Show Me What You Got” introduction video montage and now Adam Eaton is throwing the first pitch.
Braves are going for a sweep today with Chuck James toeing the slab. The lefty hates day games (as he said after each one in spring training), but we’ll see if he can get the juices going for his season debut (if not, then we’ll know for certain that the famously oblivious James, he of the “uncluttered mind” as my man Joe Simpson puts it, is operating on another mental plane than most of us).
OK, hot dog wrappers, napkins and other garbage just flew from the stands. Like I said, the wind is howling.
Ohhhh, but now a ball just flew from the hand of first baseman Ryan Howard, whose throw to second base on a Chipper fielder’s choice was just a bit high and wide of the base. Throwing error puts runners at first and second with one out for the Braves.
And we’re off. It’d be a good time for Andruw Jones to join the party about now, huh? He brings a .100 average (1-for-10) to the plate…. He just swung through a 3-1 pitch to go to a full count…. And now he’s walked.
Bases loaded for hot-hitting Brian McCann.
And he delivers yet again. Two-run single to the left-field corner. Another opposite-field hit from The Man of the Braves’ young season. It’s 2-0 Braves.
Now Francoeur has grounded into an inning-ending double play. Headed to the bottom of the first. Someone wake Chuck and tell him it’s time to pitch.
Keep it going here, folks. I’ll chat with you as the game moves along.
TOP OF THE THIRD
Well, Chuck doesn’t appear to have had had any difficulties getting up and into this one. The lefty looks tough so far. Gave up a leadoff walk in the first inning, but the nothing else in the inning _ sacrifice, fly ball, fly ball.
And in the second inning he started out with two strikeouts of Pat “The Bat … With the Hole In It” Burrell and ex-Bravo Wes Helms. Rowand singled before a groundout by Barajas.
Braves got the two-run single by McCann in the first, but only a walk and a single since. Eaton’s got a couple of double-play grounders from Francoeur in the first and Chipper in the third, Chipper’s coming after an Edgar Renteria leadoff single.
Edgar’s got two singles in his first two at-bats, after going 4-for-10 with two homers in the first two games.
At the other extreme, Andruw just struck out to end the third inning. He came in 1-for-10 and has drawn a walk and a strikeout in his two times up today. He can look so bad and then so good, the nature of a streak hitter, of which he most definitely is one. So far, he’s not looked very good. But we all know how quickly it can change with him.
BOTTOM OF FOURTH
Chuck J is in a bit of a bind here. After a leadoff double by Utley, he got a home-run-in-an-elevator high popup to Thorman, but Burrell hit a sinker liner to left and Langerhans tried a diving catch that didn’t work out well at all.
The ball landed a few inches in front of his outstretched glove, and Burrell had an RBI double. Helms followed with a single, but Burrell isn’t fast and held at third.
OK, Chuck, as Jay-Z said, show us what you got:
And Chuck does. Strikes out Rowand, then gets an inning-ending fly by Barajas.
He’s Chuck James, beey…
TOP OF FIFTH
For those already writing off Kelly Johnson, that two-run homer on an 0-2 pitch to trigger a six-run fifth inning is a big reason the Braves believe he’ll do just fine this season as their second baseman and leadoff man.
I hope that Jimmy Rollins is getting his answers ready for the postgame interviews, when the hard-bitten Philly scribes are going to ask him if he still thinks the Phillies are the team to beat in the NL East, as he’s said so often the past few months.
The Braves just put it to them in a fifth inning that’s got the boo-birds out in force here at corporate-bank field, where a stunned audience is watching the Braves put the finishing touches on a three-game series sweep to start the season.
The Braves chased Adam Eaton from the game in the fifth, when they totaled five hits including doubles by Andruw Jones and Scott Thorman. The big rookie laced a two-run double and was caught in a rundown between second and third to end the inning.
TOP OF SEVENTH
Villarreal gave up a run in the sixth after Chuck James finished off a solid debut.
Strong work from James, who gave up six hits and one run in five innings and made big pitches in several big situations. There were two on in the fourth when he struck out Aaron Rowand and induced a Rod Barajas to get out of the inning.
And there were two Phillies aboard when he struck out big Ryan Howard to end the inning. Good stuff from the country-boy lefty from Mableton. An encouraging performance, especially for those wondering if a sophomore jinx might await.
BOTTOM OF NINTH
The wind chill is below freezing now, and we’ve had some very light snow flurries, believe it or not. Macay McBride is in to close this out, but he’s faced four batters and given up three walks. Yikes.
And that’s it for him. Paronto’s getting the call. I tell you what, McBride just doesn’t seem to respond when he’s used in anything other than his role, which he excels in _ situational lefty, getting out lefty hitters in big situations. But not pitching whole innings in games that aren’t close, and not facing right-handers in general.
At least that’s my take on the situation, after watching him for a couple of seasons.
OK, Paronto just walked Helms to bring in a run. This is getting ridiculous. I know it’s cold and all, but….
Paronto strikes out Rowand. Two outs. Bases still loaded.
Soon as he puts the Phillies out of their misery, I’ll head downstairs and see what the fellas have to say about facing the Mets. Before the game no one wanted to talk about it much, and Bobby said he honestly hadn’t given the Mets a moment’s thought to that point.
Which is good, considering they still had a game to play against “the team to beat” (OK, enough piling on Jimmy Rollins. I don’t blame the guy for having confidence and trying to get his teammates to believe this is their year. But I’d be willing to wager it’s not, if I were a betting man.)…
Wait, I’m still here. Was about ready to head downstairs when Paronto issued another walk. Unbelievable. That’s seven batters, five walks, two runs in the inning. Bobby’s seen enough. Calls on Soriano. First-pitch swing, Carlos Ruiz popup.
Game is mercifully over.
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Chipper on McCann: ‘You can tell when a guy gets it’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m starting to believe this local kid McCann might just be a keeper.
But seriously, just when you want to restrain yourself a bit, and not go completely over the top with career projections and praise for a guy who’s only in his second April in the majors, Brian McCann makes you say damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. Let the projections fly.
Blog interruption. This just in: They want me to blog in-game again, so I’m going to post every couple innings or whenever something jumps out at me. Can’t do it every half-inning like Monday, however, because I have to write a state-edition game story (this is a 3:05 game, not 1:05 like Monday’s) that must be filed as soon as the game’s over and before I go down to the clubhouse. Can’t score the game, write a game story and blog constantly during the game. Love you guys, but I have only two hands and one modest brain. But we’ll do some in-game blogging again, again tacking on the updates at the end of this original blog, not in the comments below. ONE MORE INTERRUPTION: Ok, disregard the above notice. I’ve just been told they want a separate in-game blog. So hopefully that doesn’t throw people off or whatever, but they want me to do a separate blog with the in-game stuff. So that’s what I’m going to do. It’ll be up shortly. This one will stay up, so keep posting here and there.
Ok, back to McCann….
The guy is simply a terrific hitter, and that six-year, $26.8 million contract the Braves gave him last month might be the best investment the team ever made — and a huge bargain even if he hits all the escalator clauses and the team picks up his seventh year option, making the deal worth more than $41 million.
For a player like this, $41 million for seven years is practically a steal.
All he’s done in the first two games of the season is go 5-for-9 with two crucial homers. All he’s done since July 15 is bat .332 with 20 doubles, 20 homers, 67 RBIs and a 1.043 OPS in 67 games.
Oh, and on the road since the All-Star break, he’s hit — are you read for this? — .352 with 14 homers, 44 RBIs and an 1.119 OPS. Seriously. Read those numbers again.
In his last six road games before today’s series finale in Philly, McCann has hit .500 (13-for-26) with five homers and 15 RBIs. He’s got four homers and nine RBIs in his past THREE road games, at Colorado Sept. 24 and the first two games in this series against Jimmy Rollins’ team-to-beat Phillies.
Are you kidding me? McCann is one of the nicest people I’ve ever encountered in pro sports, and he’s this good at this young an age (23)? It’s almost too much. I’m jealous. I want to be Brian McCann.
“He’s a good hitter,” Phillies closer Tom Gordon told Philly writers last night, after McCann hit his first-pitch curveball to the right-field seats for a tying two-run homer in the ninth to suck the life out of Citizens Bank Park.
“I thought the pitch was down. You throw your best pitch in those situations, and I felt my curveball was my best pitch.”
Gordon shouldn’t feel too terrible about it. McCann’s hit a lot of dudes’ best pitches in the last, oh, when was it that he arrived in the majors? June 2005? He started hitting good pitches about then.
But since last summer, he’s just taken it to a whole new level.
“You can tell when I guy just gets it, when it clicks for him,” Chipper Jones told me last night, when I asked him about McCann and mentioned to Hoss that the catcher had 20 homers and 67 RBIs in his last 67 games.
Chipper paused a moment and said he didn’t want to say anything to jinx McCann. Then he thought about it again and said McCann’s too good a hitter to jinx. Like I said, damn the torpedoes.
“He’s grasped the art of what a good hitter is supposed to be,” Chipper said.
Consider this: In 631 career at-bats, McCann has a .320 average with 42 doubles, 31 homers, 120 RBIs, 59 walks, just 81 strikeouts, a .378 OBP, .534 slugging percentage, and .912 OPS.
After Chipper Jones’ first 630 at-bats in the majors, he had a .267 average with 27 doubles, 26 homers, 105 RBIs, 87 walks, 119 strikeouts, a .353 OBP, .446 slugging percentage, and .899 OPS.
Today Chipper has a .304 career average with 383 doubles, 357 homers, 1,197 RBIs, a .402 OBP, .541 slugging percentage, and .953 career OPS. Oh, and perhaps an eventual spot in the Hall of Fame. The one in Cooperstown.
McCann is good. Really, really good. Enjoy the Duluth kid. He’ll be a Brave for a long time.
LaRoche off to familiar start: So Adam LaRoche is 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts for the Pirates, huh? Pittsburgh fans shouldn’t worry too much. He hit .200 with 28 strikeouts and four homers and 12 RBIs in 75 at-bats last April, and ended up having a pretty good season (.285-32-90, .915 OPS).
‘Ol Rochy has a .199 career average in April, 64 points lower than his average in any other month. He’s a .298 career hitter in July, .288 in August, .303 in September.
Hitting when it counts: So the Braves are barely hitting .200, but they’re 2-0. That’s what happens when you get good pitching, coupled with key hits in crunch time. The Braves were batting .333 with four homers in close-and-late situations. Pittsburgh (three) was the only other NL team with more than one homer in close-and-late situations before today.
The Braves were just 5-for-41 (.122) with one homer in the first through sixth innings of the first two games, but 12-for-39 (.308) with four homers in the seventh inning and later. Not a recipe you’d want to try to continue on a long-term basis, but it sure has pumped up the team confidence to come through with big hits in the first couple of games and win the way they have.
