JEFF SCHULTZ
(April 23 post)
Good outweighs bad
after strong start
The Braves are 21 games into the season. It’s a large enough sample size to form initial impressions, but too small to assume anything over the next … well, 141 games.
At 14-7, and winning six of seven series, the good has far outweighed the bad. But here’s an early progress/regress report.
Three things that haven’t been a problem:
Three things that have been a problem:
MARK BRADLEY
(April 18 post)
Braves pull plug
on Harang’s no-no
I know why Fredi Gonzalez did it. He’d gotten a fourth great start from Aaron Harang, who might not have a big-league job if the elbows of Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy hadn’t come unhinged on consecutive spring-training days, and Harang had labored through the seventh inning, recording the game’s 21st out with his 121st pitch. At the rate he was going, he’d have needed maybe 150 pitches to post the Atlanta Braves’ third one-man no-hitter, and that’s too many for anybody.
Yes, it would have been fun to see him try, but the Braves didn’t sign Harang — who arrived here with a career losing record and who was seen simply as a (slightly) cheaper version of Freddy Garcia, the journeyman’s journeyman — to provide one night’s worth of memories. They need him to eat innings. Trouble is, he’s eating innings with such dispatch that the Associated Press has had to break out the No-Hit Alert twice in his four starts.
That was the dilemma Gonzalez faced Friday in Queens, N.Y., though it really wasn’t much of a choice. If Harang had gotten through the eighth at 121 pitches, I’m pretty sure his manager would have given him the chance to complete his work. But he still needed two innings, and for a team that keeps losing pitchers — even Craig Kimbrel was rested this week with a sore shoulder — the lure of an historic Friday in Queens wasn’t enough to trump health and common sense.
Still, it was delicious while it lasted. The first Atlanta Brave to throw a solo no-hitter was Phil Niekro, which you’d have expected. The second was Kent Mercker, the fifth starter on perhaps the greatest rotation ever. Mercker is actually in the Braves’ record book twice for no-nos, having thrown six hitless innings in a spot start on Sept. 11, 1991, when the Braves needed every precious game to stay ahead of the hated Dodgers.
After Harang was lifted, the Braves had a chance to finish another combo platter, but Luis Avilan hung a breaking ball to David Wright, and the only real Mets hitter did what real hitters do with hanging breaking balls. It’s a bit of a shame such an overstuffed night — if not for Wright’s single, we’d be talking about the apparently incorrect out call at first base against Travis d’Arnaud in the second inning — ended with such a relative whimper, but still: Aaron Harang
DAVID O’BRIEN
(April 18 post)
Minor change makes
big difference for Gattis
NEW YORK – It wasn’t just Evan Gattis’ four-hit game Wednesday at Philly, or his three homers in two games, that caused Freddie Freeman to gush a bit over the catcher’s recent offensive performance.
“I guess he likes Philadelphia a little bit,” Freeman said, smiling. “But you could tell last week that he was starting to get the hang of things. He’s going up through the middle, his swing path’s through the zone a long time. So it’s no surprise what he’s doing.”
After going 0-for-4 in the March 31 opener at Milwaukee, Gattis is 14-for-33 (.424) with two doubles, four homers, seven RBIs and six strikeouts in nine April games. And in two-strike situations, where he really struggled as a rookie, he is 5-for-20 with three homers so far this season.
When I mentioned to him what Freeman had said about his swing path, Gattis nodded to confirm and then explained.
“It’s really just taking my hands directly to the ball,” he said, demonstrating how he holds the bat and moves his hands toward the ball as it approaches the plate. “I was doing it even during spring training, though the results weren’t there. I talked to Freddie a lot and to CJ (Chris Johnson) a lot. It’s really about what you try to do with the ball. I’m not trying to do too much. And lately it’s been a feel thing, trying to get finer and finer with that.
“But really, I’m just trying to take my hands to the ball. I’m not, like, guessing at pitchers or anything like that. Just trying to get a knock (hit), you know? Our first game (in Philadelphia), there was a change-up in, a two-strike change-up in. And I could just feel the bat head coming through.”
“(Facing Washington’s) Tanner Roark last week, sliders down, I didn’t bite on a couple of pitches.”
Asked if he felt better now than he has in the past, Gattis said yes, but…
“It’s still early,” he said. “But yeah.”
