Archive for August, 2009

  San Diego — It can’t get much better than a day game in downtown San Diego, the sun shining and the ocean breezes blowing gently. Hello again, everybody, as our friend Skip Caray would say if he were here.
  Braves can — and need to — win a series today before they endure the brutal bus ride in rush-hour traffic up to L.A. later this afternoon for a four-game series against the Dodgers that starts tomorrow night at Chavez Ravine.
 Derek Lowe will be making his first start at Dodger Stadium since leaving after four seasons in Dodger Blue, but he ain’t expecting anything like the standing ovation he got when he returned to Boston earlier this season.
 After all, he never won a World Series with the Dodgers. And there’s the thing with the fan base, which is a bit different than Red Sox Nation.

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“They’ll boo me,” he said. “They boo …

Continue reading Hanson gets better SoCal reception than Lowe? »

 San Diego – Greetings from Southern California, where the weather’s beautiful again today and I’m fighting my first head cold in months, but still feel healthier than the Braves’ offense lately. Oy vey.

Slumping Bravos need big one tonight from ace

 Remember that 17-8 run the Braves went on, when they hit .293 with 30 homers while averaging nearly 5-1/2 runs per game? Well forget it. It’s over — that run and, if the Braves aren’t careful, soon their season itself. Sixth-place tie in the wild-card standings? Not good.
 They are 2-5 with a .223 batting average, a 4.99 ERA and a not-at-all-grand total of 18 runs in seven games beginning with the trip to Florida, where the grotesquely re-named Land Shark Stadium apparently corroded Braves bats.
  Or something like that.
  No, but seriously, the Bravos have scored three runs or fewer in five of their past seven games, and lost every one of them.
  They’re not scoring, and now they’re piling up more strikeouts than hits. No, …

Continue reading Braves need to snap out of it, or else »

  San Diego — Good afternoon to all from sunny San Diego, where the fish tacos are on the grill somewhere (and I’m about to go find them for a quick lunch), the scenery is oh-so-spectacular in every imaginable way, and the Braves have got to be a bit tired after losing (again) to the Dodgers on Sunday before taking a late-night flight across the country (thanks, ESPN).
  The Bravos could certainly benefit from a possible return from Yunel Escobar tonight, because they need to at least win this series and possibly sweep three from the Padres to get back some of the momentum and upbeat atmosphere they’ve lost during consecutive series defeats against the Marlins and Dodgers.

Braves need Escobar back yesterday, if not sooner

  With a four-game long-weekend series awaiting at Dodger Stadium, where it’ll be packed and the look-the-other-way residents of “Mannywood” (I cringe even typing that) will be in a noisy tizzy, the Braves can’t afford anything less than a series win at Petco …

Continue reading Braves need to stem this tide »

(Staff writer Carroll Rogers is filling in for David O’Brien today.)

    Once again, things come down to one game to either make or break the mood around the Braves right now. They beat the Dodgers tonight? And they can head out west knowing they just matched up with the team with the best record in baseball and took the series.

   Lose? And it’s back-to-back series losses at a critical time. And an even longer flight out to San Diego after the game tonight.

   Not that it is ever a bad thing to fly to San Diego, one of the great cities on the planet (and a place I used to visit frequently because Mr. Richmond used to be Mr. San Diego). But because ESPN wanted this game tonight and moved it to an 8 p.m. start, it’s going to be a rough night for both the Braves and Dodgers, both of whom fly west in the wee hours of the night, and both of whom play tomorrow.

   The team that takes the series gets to do it happy.

   The team that loses won’t have long for a little revenge. …

Continue reading JJ can take the series »