AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > July > 04
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Braves need win, with Penny waiting in finale
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Greetings to the denizens and a happy Fourth and all that. Hope most of you folks don’t have to work on this holiday, but if you do, I hope you at least dig your jobs.
It’s smokin’ hot out here — the weather I’m talking about — at least by L.A. standards. You wouldn’t believe the complaints you hear from spoiled Angelenos when their temperature reaches 90.
Anyway, hopefully there’s enough of you out there to flood this blog and make it worthwhile to do one on the holiday. I debated whether to kick back and not post one (it wasn’t required), so let’s see if we can show how strong this corner of Braves Nation is, even when some aren’t blogging at their workplaces.
I’ll keep it brief, since the clubhouse opens shortly and I don’t want to miss Smoltz, who might know today whether he’s going to skip a start (and the All-Star Game; the latter you can bet on) or what to deal with the sore shoulder.
The Braves obviously can’t afford to go long without him, especially if they don’t add a starter soon. And after talking to some folks today, I’m getting the impression that they might not be able to add one until closer to the July 31 trade deadline.
Seems like some teams the Braves were talking to have kind of cooled their heels, for now, and will wait to see if they can get more in trade that is currently being offered.
But anyway, for the hear and now, the Braves had better win tonight against 6-foot-9 lefty Mark Hendrickson, because if they don’t they’ll have to hope Tim Hudson can beat Brad Penny tomorrow just to avoid being swept in a four-game series. And getting swept in a four-game series ain’t good.
Did we mention Penny is about the hottest pitcher going, in either league? Huddy’s looked real good in is last two starts, but Penny has looked real good all year. Let me tell you, he’s a far, far different pitcher than the one I covered in Florida during Penny’s first few seasons in the majors.
The dude is 5-0 with a 1.45 ERA in his past eight starts, including five consecutive games in which he’s allowed only one run in seven or more innings, with no homers and seven or fewer hits in each of those games.
At home, Penny is 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA in nine starts, and hasn’t allowed a homer at Dodger Stadium all season.
As I said, the Braves had best beat the mediocre stick-figure lefty tonight.
Kyle Davies … oh my: It wasn’t pretty, as any of you who stayed up last night can attest. Kyle Davies laid an egg late Tuesday, again.
Given a 3-1 lead in the second inning, he blew it. Given a 6-3 lead in the third, he blew it. Or rather, the Braves believed he blew it. Or rather, manager Bobby Cox was fairly sure he was going to blow it.
So the manager pulled Davies after he faced two batters in the third inning and retired neither. Both would score on Wilson Betemit’s two-run double off Oscar Villarreal (this after Betemit hit a two-run homer off Davies in the second inning, his third consecutive homer in as many at-bats vs. the Braves, two of them off Davies).
Bobby had what, for him, as as harsh a postgame assessment as I’ve heard, of Davies’ performance and the team’s failure to win in the first two games of the series on nights when the Mets lost.
“It p—es you off, to be honest with you,” he said. “You get six runs in the first three innings, you’ve got to win.”
Ouch.
Davies was charged with five runs, six hits and two walks while recording six outs, sending his seasonal ERA to 5.85, although he did manage to avoid what would have been his fifth consecutive loss. He’s 0-4 with an 8.06 ERA in his past five starts.
OK, here’s where we are with the right-hander from Stockbridge. Make sure you’re seated, and don’t take another drink of that beverage for a moment (wouldn’t want you to spit it up).
Davies is 3-7 in 15 starts this season, and 12-18 with a 6.04 ERA in 43 career starts.
Throw in his 1-2 record and 9.00 ERA in seven relief appearances, and his major league stats read 13-20 with a 6.19 ERA — the highest ERA of any active pitcher who’s made at least 40 starts.
He made a big splash initially in 2005, when he came up from the minors and seemed wonderfully oblivious to the pressure and expectations and went 2-1 with an 0.77 ERA in his first four starts.
But since then, Davies has been a mess more often than not. Injuries, shaken confidence, injuries, changing approaches, injuries … it’s been a litany of reasons/excuses with the bottom line being, failure to meet expectations. Big time.
He’s still very young, so it’s too early to give up on him. But wow, has he struggled.
After those first four starts, he’s gone 11-19 with a 6.80 ERA in 46 games (39 starts) with a .296 opponents’ average on 252 hits (34 homers) in 207-2/3 innings. With 110 walks and 145 strikeouts.
OK, have a sip now. The worst is past.
Oh, wait. On the road since that initial success, Davies has posted a 7.49 ERA in his past 23 games (21 starts). The Braves are 6-17 in those games.
“He couldn’t get anything going,” Cox said last night. “Fastball wasn’t going, for location or velocity. He tried to throw Betemit a changeup after missing up high, and he hits it out. Just one of those nights where he didn’t have it.”
Unfortunately, there have been a lot of those nights.
Betemit makes ‘em pay: His overall performance for the Dodgers hasn’t been enough to keep a starting job, but Wilson Betemit has punished the Braves.
After going 0-for-3 with three strikeouts this year in his first game against the team that traded him last July, Betemit has gone 5-for-6 with three homers and seven RBIs in his past three against the Braves.
He had two pinch-hit homers against them May 5-6, then went 3-for-4 with a two-run double and two-run homer Tuesday.
This after hitting .185 (10-for-54) with four homers, seven RBIs and 20 strikeouts in 35 games from May 19 through Sunday (he didn’t play Monday’s series opener).
They’re still hitting: The Braves have lost three in a row heading into tonight’s Fourth of July game, but they are still hitting like they did during the five-game winning streak that came before this skid.
In their past eight games, the Braves have hit .320 and scored 54 runs, including five games with six or more runs and five games with 11 or more hits.
They’ve lost two one-run games during the three-game slid, 6-5 at Florida on Sunday and 7-6 last night, with the bullpen blowing leads and taking losses in both games.
Nevertheless, the ‘pen still has only seven blown saves in 31 opportunities this season, after leading the NL with 29 blown saves (in 67 opps) last season.
Detroit, by the way, has blown 14 saves this season.
Now, som more L.A.-related tuneage. And if you haven’t heard of this guy, you should check him out. Great songwriter, great singer.
”CAMERA ONE” by Josh Joplin
The sandy haired son of Hollywood/Lost his faith in all that’s good
Closed the curtain, unplugged the clock/Hung his clothes on the shower rod
But he never got undressed/And no, he never made a mess
It’s funny how life turns out/The odds of faith in the face of doubt
Camera One closes in/The soundtrack starts
The scene begins
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
Take a bow
Take a bow
The trophy wife from Palisades/Whose yearbook beauty never fades
Sits and watches the sea fold in/And wonders what might have been
If she could ever have the chance/Would she do it all again?
It’s funny how life turns out/The odds of faith in the face of doubt
Camera One closes in/The soundtrack starts
The scene begins
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
Take a bow
Take a bow
On the corner/By his streets
He sits in his lawnchair/In the heat
Sightseers see /What they want
They’re selling star-maps /To the sun
The sunny-haired son of Hollywood/Lost his faith in all that’s good
Closed the curtain, unplugged the clock/Hung his clothes on the shower rod
But he didn’t get undressed/And no, he didn’t seem depressed
It’s funny how life turns out/The odds of faith in the face of doubt
Camera One closes in/The soundtrack starts
The scene begins
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
You’re playing you now
Take a bow
Take a bow
Take a bow
Take a bow
Hey, I didn’ say it was uplifting. HAPPY FOURTH!
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