We’re LIVE from Braves, as Lowe tries to make statement
If Derek Lowe wants to start games in the postseason, he needs to win games like these.
Welcome to the Braves’ series finale against the Florida Marlins.
It’s “Bark in The Park” day, so there are several dogs in the stadium, although I’m not sure at this time if Bob Wickman has been invited back to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
(Thank you. I’m here all game.)
The Braves, coming off Saturday’s 12-3 win over the Marlins, will try to win consecutive games for the first time since winning four straight Aug. 15-18 (two over Los Angeles, two over Washington). That was followed by a 6-2 loss to the Nationals and a stretch of six losses in eight games before Saturday’s 12-3 win over Florida.
A few subplots in today’s game:
♦ Derrek Lee suffered a strained in his right side Saturday night and is out of the lineup today (Eric Hinske starts at first). The injury is believed to be minor and Lee could be back Monday night against the New York Mets.
♦ If pitcher Derek Lowe (11-12, 4.33) wants to make a statement that he should be a postseason starter, he needs to win games like today’s and start stringing together some impressive games. He was tagged early in his last outing at Colorado, though he ended up allowing only three runs in six innings in a 5-2 loss to the Rockies. The Braves have won only one of Lowe’s last seven starts (Lowe in that span: 1-4, two no decisions, 4.17 ERA).
♦ The Braves are 45-18 at home this season and 17-1-2 in home series (trying to make it 18-1-2 today). Their only home series loss of the season came to Philadelphia back in April.
♦ Omar Infante, who went 2-for-4 with a double Saturday, is batting .344 — 18 points higher than National League batting leader Joey Votto (.326). Infante, however, doesn’t qualify for the batting title. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Infante needs 146 plate appearances in the Braves’ final 33 games (4.42 per game) to qualify.
That’s it for now. Here’s the question of the day (and a possible subject of my column later): How important do you think it is for Lowe to have an impressive performance, going into the postseason (should the Braves make it)?
♦
DID YOU MISS . . .
♦ College football special: Predicting Georgia Tech’s season
♦ College football special: Richt says Georgia is poised for bounce-back season
♦ Contest announcement: Here’s your chance to pick winners and ‘Sack Schultz’
♦
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656 comments Add your comment
TTTT-Thumbody Thed Thats Thupid!
August 29th, 2010
3:20 pm
JS, you should be ashamed. Even Joe Simpson on TV was just talking about Infante taking an 0-fer! I agree with him. Infante is in a good position to win it unless he folds up. Using the example you gave, and taking an 0-22 at the end of the year to get to 502 would only knock him down by about .014 so that’s not bad. I used an easy example of him batting 160 for 480 as batting .333 and just added the 22 to get a .319 average. That felt good, been a long time since I used my old cost accounting skills.
POAD
August 29th, 2010
3:21 pm
What Jeff no DOG jumped from the stands to cahse the TOOLS. Glad I ddn’t thake my Afita because he would be going crazy watching those tools run.
Jeff Schultz
August 29th, 2010
3:21 pm
Peter — Braves entered today with the third-most errors in baseball (99), behind only the Cubs (104) and Nationals (101). Their fielding percentage (.980) is fourth worst.
Kentavo
August 29th, 2010
3:22 pm
And Booby will start Lowe in the playoffs – IF the Braves make it.
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:22 pm
Jeff I know that….but I never see a writer saying anything about it……
WHY ?
DaveinNEPA
August 29th, 2010
3:24 pm
It’s only a matter of time before this team gives up 1st place in the dvision. There are just waaayyyy too many weak links on this team.
On a day when we needed our $15mil man to come up big, he didn’t.
We aren’t good enough folks, and the big contributors appear to be running out of gas. We probably still get the WC but anyone who expects this team to go deep into the playoffs isn’t looking at things in the proper perspective.
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
August 29th, 2010
3:24 pm
TTTT,
What are your new cost accounting skills?
roja
August 29th, 2010
3:26 pm
the only statement Lowe has made recently is “hey, guys, I forgot how to pitch!”
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:26 pm
Hey DaveinNEPA …….. there is the possibility we get HOT…… but so can the Phillies, Giants, and or Rockies.
If the Brave’s implode, and it will really be Wren’s fault for the product on the field.
Al Gore
August 29th, 2010
3:27 pm
And “it sure is hot out here.”
TTTT-Thumbody Thed Thats Thupid!
August 29th, 2010
3:27 pm
POAD, agree with you on LLWS! Find it ironic with these 2 teams and all that happened with Pearl Harbor. Hope no animosity carries over(just kidding). Hope my intuition carries over to NCAA final brackets as these are the two teams I predicted would end up in it. Even had the final 2 for the US and the foreign teams, from the beginning. Would have been much better if my GA boys had made it, but they’ll be back. Just didn’t have the pitching this year.
Don
August 29th, 2010
3:28 pm
Watch the fatty run if he doesn’t strike out
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:28 pm
In the 90’s the Braves were a “Second Half Team “…. and I think mostly because the contributors were moistly young…… today we see and older tired out team……
Example Lowe…..
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:29 pm
Henski has the perfect softball body !
Don
August 29th, 2010
3:29 pm
Nice tats fatty. I am sure you’re a real hotty in a bathing suit! Wonder if the fat rolls have tats.
roja
August 29th, 2010
3:29 pm
Even the Braves announcers recognized after two batters that Lowe didn’t have it today. They probably would have picked up on that fact during his bull pen warmup had they been there. WIth one great starter, one pretty good one and one Minor leaguer, we won’t go far into the post season
Don
August 29th, 2010
3:30 pm
Now if you were in shape, that wouldn’t happen now would it fatty.
brad
August 29th, 2010
3:31 pm
LETS GO PADRES! but hey the bravos are comeback kids! if we can get to there pen we got a chance.
Don
August 29th, 2010
3:31 pm
The bat crossed over the plate. It’s a strike. He went. Duh.
Jeff Schultz
August 29th, 2010
3:31 pm
Bobby made pretty good time from the dugout to third base ump. Anybody have a watch on that?
Tyler
August 29th, 2010
3:32 pm
the question should be why was he even swinging at such a awful pitch?
Don
August 29th, 2010
3:32 pm
He was faster than Hinske running to first JS.
J-Man
August 29th, 2010
3:33 pm
How lame
J
August 29th, 2010
3:34 pm
If the Braves lose and nobody is left to witness it, does it still count?
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:34 pm
Henski went……come on now !
Skeezix
August 29th, 2010
3:34 pm
Braves pitching has given up a ton of runs over the last 4 games. I don’t like the way things are trending for the Braves right now (ERA up, too many left on base, fielding errors). There are still a lot of games left and the Braves keep opening the door wide for the Phillies. The Marlins are swinging the bats well right now, but Lowe really stunk it up today. Still can’t believe what Wren paid for him. Right now it seems like we can only count on Hudson.
J-Man
August 29th, 2010
3:34 pm
I’d rather Minor pitch in a play-off game than Hanson or Lowe and maybe Jurrgens especially since he can’t hold a 10-1 lead
markie mark
August 29th, 2010
3:35 pm
whew….I think I am glad to be called in to work today….even watching this on “gamecast” is awful…..
Jesse Stone
August 29th, 2010
3:35 pm
Can we send Lowe to Gwinnett to learn to play 3rd base?
TTTT-Thumbody Thed Thats Thupid!
August 29th, 2010
3:35 pm
TO: Theres’s no place……127 My old accounting skills involved fingers and toes. For a taste of “new” cost accounting skills, one only has to look at “Obamanomics”.
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:36 pm
This is the major problem with professional sports……guys get paid if the produce or not.
Jesse Stone
August 29th, 2010
3:37 pm
Maybe Lowe can hook up with another female Fox sports reporter and demand a trade somwhere else.
Jesse Stone
August 29th, 2010
3:39 pm
Will we see another Josh Johnson-Derek Lowe matchup Friday?
SG10
August 29th, 2010
3:39 pm
Jeff,
How about Bobby giving few starts to Conrad so that Prado can rest his finger once in a while? Irrespective of what happens this season, I think Bobby Cox has done his best managerial job in years. Last year was his worst with too many episodes of ‘Remember the Nortons’
MitchC
August 29th, 2010
3:39 pm
Jeff, anyone who thinks this team is making the playoffs is fooling themselves. A loss today would be five out of the last six. While we know Philly is on a West Coast trip that may be tough for them, they have already won two games in a row in San Diego.
As much as I hate to say it: I predict a September fade, and that we will finish out of the playoffs, behind not only the Phillies, but also, a team like the Cardinals, who will probably win the wild card. This team has played terribly this week.
Matchmaker
August 29th, 2010
3:39 pm
I hear Shelly Smith is available…
Jesse Stone
August 29th, 2010
3:41 pm
Shelly Smith will remain available until she invests in P90X
Jeff Schultz
August 29th, 2010
3:41 pm
Jesse Stone — You’ve got the line of the day.
TTTT-Thumbody Thed Thats Thupid!
August 29th, 2010
3:42 pm
Peter, you just sung the “Union song” without even realizing it. The players do have a union you know.
jhpm
August 29th, 2010
3:42 pm
Lowe made a statement. “I suck”.
Bobby
August 29th, 2010
3:42 pm
“Our guys were just hitting the daylights out of the ball today. Just wasn’t falling. Gotta hand it to those Marlins. They’ve got a good ballclub.”
SG10
August 29th, 2010
3:44 pm
Phillies have not turned it around..they are still barely hanging in with their starters stepping up…it seems our starters have gone in the opposite direction.
Jesse Stone
August 29th, 2010
3:44 pm
Tommy Hutton’s whining has begun about Adrian Jihnson’s strikezone.
POAD
August 29th, 2010
3:45 pm
Japan up 1 -0 man on 3rd with 1 out. in the top of the 2nd. Hawaii is the HOME Team.
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:45 pm
When less people show up then maybe the message gets sent ?
MitchC
August 29th, 2010
3:46 pm
Bobby is lucky he’s retiring, because if he wasn’t, my call would be that if we end up blowing a seven game division lead, and not even making the wild card, he should be fired.
For the record, the Braves only blew a large division lead one time. My first year as a fan of this team, 1983. They had a 6 1-2 lead in mid August, and then Bob Horner injured his wrist. They finished three games out. I see a similar situation this year, without us making the wild card.
Jesse Stone
August 29th, 2010
3:46 pm
Why would less people show up? We are a first place team that is overachieving
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:47 pm
Hey SG10……..yes this has been Bobby’s best managing job in years……so when was the last time the Braves were in the playoffs ?
Bring Me the Head of Deforest Kelley
August 29th, 2010
3:47 pm
“And he’s just a better than average pitcher (usually), not an ace.”
How is Lowe considered better than average, or even average at this stage in his career? His ERA as a Brave is comfortably around 4.50. For a starter, that kind of ERA is below average.
Peter
August 29th, 2010
3:48 pm
Jesse….the economy and the product.