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Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Does Jo-Jo have some mojo?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Isn’t the great thing about baseball that you don’t have to wait a week for a clean slate? Just 24 hours. And tonight the Braves get one with Jo-Jo Reyes on the mound.
After what happened to Kyle Davies Monday night - let me rip the scab off that wound and repeat that he got pulled after facing only five batters in a 10-3 loss to the Reds - you have to think Reyes has got a real opportunity tonight.
He didn’t give the Braves much to go on in his first start (five runs in three innings vs. Padres), but he’s had a chance to catch his breath now, and things seem to be wide open with possibility at the moment.
As for Davies, that’s another story. He was asked after last night’s game if he was worried if Bobby Cox had lost confidence in him, or worried about his standing with the team. No, and no, he said, and he said nothing further. At least he was smart enough not to compound his problems I guess by saying something dumb.
But Cox’s actions spoke pretty loudly last night, pulling Davies so quickly. And so did his words. There were a couple of quotes, I couldn’t fit into my game story but here was Bobby after the game on:
Davies’ lack of consistency:
“He threw a pretty darn good game in San Diego, and everybody else has been pitching good and you would think you might feed off that kind of thing. But I don’t know what happened to him. He just couldn’t locate anything.”
And on whether Davies problems were mechanical:
“There’s nothing mechanical about it, just, he’s got to put it together back-to-back.”
Earlier in the interview Cox had said Davies was way, way off the mark with his pitches. Davies didn’t see it that way, exactly.
Davies said he was only six inches away on the four pitches to Adam Dunn on the bases loaded walk. And they were down, which is where you want to be if you’re going to miss. He was right on both counts. But the message I’m getting from Cox is when it’s time to throw a strike, he wants you to throw a strike. And that’s that.
For some reason Bruce Chen is coming to mind.
And did you know? Entering Monday night’s game, Kyle Davies and Chuck James had the same number of losses — seven? But James has twice the number of wins as Kyle with eight.
And how about Reyes with the bat last night, pinch hitting in the third inning? He worked the count like a hitter and singled with authority to left center field. That was good for his first major league hit. It was also the first time a pitcher collected his first major league hit as a pinch hitter since Michael Tejera with the Marlins on June 14, 2002.
And Reyes had obviously given Cox the peace of mind that he was good enough, and knew what he was doing at the plate well enough, not to get hit/hurt the night before he was supposed to be starting a game.
How did Cox know? A clue was that Reyes had hit .267 in Mississippi with four hits in 15 at-bats, including two doubles.
Last night the Braves lost another game to a lefty starter (Bobby Livingston of the Reds) to make their record 19-24 on the season vs. lefties. The Braves have faced lefty starters 43 times this season, well ahead of the second-place Reds (34) and nobody in the AL has faced more than 29.
Do I get kudos for personal service?….I got an e-mail from a Braves fan relieved to wake up this morning and find out the Mets lost to the Padres late, meaning the Braves lost no ground despite their loss to the Reds. He was curious how many times the Mets and Braves have lost on the same day this season. What the heck, I was a little curious too.
By my math, the Braves and Mets have lost on the same day 17 times this season. The Mets have won 20 times otherwise on days the Braves have lost (This is not including the series between the two clubs or when one team was off.) It has happened quite a bit recently though, with the Mets losing the same day four of the last five times the Braves have lost.
And with apologies to the home club, I think it’s just nice to see Ken Griffey Jr. with his groove back. He’s got the prettiest swing in the game. And we all got to see him move past Frank Robinson last night into sole possession of sixth-place on the all-time home run list with No. 587.
It’s going nowhere fast for Scott Thorman, who struck out twice in two at-bats off the bench Monday night to fall to 0-for-his-last-16. Since Craig Wilson was released on May 17, Thorman has hit only .171 (24-for-140). And I go with DOB on out of options.
Out of time now, will keep you abreast of scoop at the ballpark.
