LIVE: Braves can clinch tonight (and it starts with Lowe)
The Braves will do more scoreboard watching tonight, and hope to have another banner to raise.
Amid all of the angst of the Braves’ collapse (10-18), the injured starters (Jair Jurrjens, Tommy Hanson), the slumping hitters (Martin Prado, Jason Heyward, Brian McCann) and the overused bullpen, guess what? The Braves can actually clinch the wild card tonight.
OK, for that to happen, the Braves need to hit a long-odds parlay: 1) The maligned starter, Derek Lowe, needs a strong outing to defeat the Phillies at Turner Field; 2) The St. Louis Cardinals need to lose for a second straight game in Houston. Those two developments would give the Braves the National League wild card spot for the second straight year, and render Wednesday’s regular-season finale against Philadelphia meaningless.
Few expected the Cards to lose to the Astros Monday night. It happened (5-4 in 10 innings). But the Braves’ postseason chances mostly hinge on Lowe. If he and the Braves win tonight, at worst the magic number is down to one, with Tim Hudson on the mound Wednesday against Joe Blanton (advantage: Braves).
What the Braves need is the Lowe of Sept. 2010, not 2011. Last season, he went 5-0 with a 1.17 ERA (29 strikeouts, three walks) in his final five regular season starts. But this has been the worst season of his career. He’s 9-16 with a 4.92 ERA. He’s 0-4 in his last four starts with an 8.24 ERA (though his last start at Florida was solid).
The other obvious issue for the Braves is a lack of offense. They lost 4-2 on Monday, have scored two or fewer runs in four of their last five games and three or fewer in six of their last 10. They’re also hitting only .239 in the month of September and .181 (32-for-177) with with runners in scoring position this month.
They’ll need to break out of that against the Phillies’ Roy Oswalt, who has been strong in two starts against the Braves this season (1-0, 2.08 in two starts) but in his career is only 1-3 with a 5.15 ERA.
As you prepare to scoreboard watch, your second favorite team, the Astros, will start Henry Sosa (3-5, 4.68) against the Cardinals’ Jake Westbrook (12-9, 4.48).
And with that, I turn it over to you. We wait to see what Lowe gives us.
Can this be an omen? There was a rainbow over Turner Field two hours before the Braves' game.
By Jeff Schultz
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1,258 comments Add your comment
braves fan
September 27th, 2011
9:50 pm
houston coming back,tim quit watching,we got this
Vino Fino
September 27th, 2011
9:50 pm
“can’t win at Busch”
Kimbrel rocks
September 27th, 2011
9:51 pm
ron gant is calling out parish as we speak. love it
Hit A Single
September 27th, 2011
9:51 pm
Bob – does your daughter play?
bulldogbubba
September 27th, 2011
9:51 pm
Play the bench players tomorrow.Make Sunny Clusters the honorary manager.Just remember no hugging or fanny patting!
Vain Jangling
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
Pitiful, Jed.
rally
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
Derek Lowe is a worse Braves pitcher than Denny McLain and Jim Bouton were.
bigmuddy
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
My oh my what a disaster. The Rays are fighting, Cardinals are fiighting, Red Sox are finally begining to fight while the Braves wet their pants and slip into the night to work on their home run swings for next year. Please don’t show up tomorrow — just stay home with momma and the kids. Forfeit the game. Don’t embarasss yourselves further..
braves
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
bob f u and the dream mlk is dead,idiot
Vino Fino
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
JBone- Actually, it’s a really good example of choking. One of the finest in history.
BaseballBuff
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
@IlliniBrave The Atlanta fan base is not pathetic. It is jaded, and I understand why. You have to have lived here since 1966 to understand. The only Atlanta fans I think are pathetic are a few yuppie types in the primo seats who want a living room atmosphere and give you looks if you make any noise.
FlaBrave695
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
Derek Lilliquist Cards pitching coach…WOW
jeff
September 27th, 2011
9:52 pm
http://www.baseballcardbust.com/2009/08/ron-gant-1994-topps-stadium-club.html
Hit A Single
September 27th, 2011
9:53 pm
We could have had Cy Young on the mound tonight and it wouldn’t have mattered.
Brian
September 27th, 2011
9:53 pm
What a heartless bunch of players this group is. With everything on the line, they go down 7 zip?!?!?!
Who woulda guessed that? Oh , yeah, anyone who has watched this team underachieve all year. As a 20 year season ticket holder, and 40 year fan, I say GO CARDS!!!
Maybe they can force some change in this organization. I just feel sick.
dogoneit
September 27th, 2011
9:53 pm
interestingly enough this game was not interesting
braves fan
September 27th, 2011
9:53 pm
we got this guys just relax
FlaBrave695
September 27th, 2011
9:54 pm
Maybe Jeff Dedman will start tomorrow…
Big Wally
September 27th, 2011
9:54 pm
Astros have the bases drunk……….
MLK said
September 27th, 2011
9:54 pm
This is where we are. Where do we go from here? First, we must massively assert our dignity and worth.
bostonbravo
September 27th, 2011
9:54 pm
you missed a good movie , Spartacus ended up escaping!….
what?
count_schemula
September 27th, 2011
9:55 pm
Parish should be called out. McCann’s brother fixed McCann. Chipper fixed Heyward for that one week. Chipper’s dad fixes Chipper.
In other news, Astros have bases loaded, no outs. Damn it. Just end our misery.
IlliniBrave
September 27th, 2011
9:55 pm
@Bluff: Yeah, I would agree. Lived here since ‘67 and have been through all of those sorry years in the 70s and 80s. Jaded is probably a better descriptor than pathetic. Now, pathetic might be the perfect word for the team’s performance over the past two weeks.
rugburn
September 27th, 2011
9:55 pm
the batting practice tee had a shutout for 45 minutes in the cage this afternoon
Hit A Single
September 27th, 2011
9:55 pm
I just knock the heads off everyone of my bobbleheads.
Schmitty
September 27th, 2011
9:55 pm
I don’t think the Braves want to be in the playoffs. They don’t deserve it. 8 1/2 game lead at the beginning of Sept. Brutal. I feel sorry for you true Braves fans. Do you really believe you can beat the Brewers in a five game series right now. Where are the fans in the seats? I saw a lot of red in those seats.
BRAVESFAN
September 27th, 2011
9:55 pm
I blame it all on Lady Ga Ga! No wait a minute she’s got lots of hits.
FlaBrave695
September 27th, 2011
9:56 pm
‘Stros lead 6-5
up north
September 27th, 2011
9:56 pm
Go Houston! Let’s take what we can get. It is out of our hands tonight, anyway!
jharris
September 27th, 2011
9:56 pm
It comes down to the last game of the season. I never should have gotten so confident back in July/August think the Braves were a sure lock for the playoffs. The Braves need to spend some money to get ummp in the line up. I would see the Braves go young fully at the corners. I hate to say it, but I’d put Chipper to the side get someone like Ryan Zimmerman or David Wright to play third. I wish that the NL would embrace the designated hitter so the AL wouldn’t have such a big advantage offensively. I’m tired of the Braves having a “player’s manager.” The need a mean cusp who wouldn’t put up with the failure to manufacture runs or swinging at dumb pitches and striking out.
perk
September 27th, 2011
9:56 pm
take off the ernie patch it is a curse from Milo
braves
September 27th, 2011
9:56 pm
houston up 6-5
IlliniBrave
September 27th, 2011
9:57 pm
There is a sort of warped twisted sadistic feel to this – almost like a death watch. Kinda hoping that Stros come back, kinda hoping that Cards sweep the next two. Kinda want the Braves season to be over, kinda want to give them another chance.
Big Wally
September 27th, 2011
9:57 pm
6-5 Stros.
braves
September 27th, 2011
9:57 pm
BALLGAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
rally
September 27th, 2011
9:57 pm
Come on Cardinals. Bear down and stop the Stros. We need you to mercifully put us to sleep.
rugburn
September 27th, 2011
9:57 pm
we’re braves fans.. we have no dignity
FlaBrave695
September 27th, 2011
9:58 pm
Gotta go make beer run …. later, guys…
Hit A Single
September 27th, 2011
9:58 pm
The bottom line is that we have depended on very average players and rookies to get it done. Acutally Fredi has done a heck of a job, especially with the injuries to our starting pitching.
hahaahahah
September 27th, 2011
9:58 pm
Freddy is an idiot for putting lowe out there!!! lowe is done. he sucks sooo bad. he needed to be dropped months ago
jonathan jones
September 27th, 2011
9:58 pm
I dont want to see anymore derek lowe, same ole crap everytime he gets out there…what a waste of money…plus u could put the ball on a tee and they couldnt hit it….
Boycott the Braves
September 27th, 2011
9:58 pm
The fans should protest by not showing up to the ballpark tomorrow. If this chokejob for the ages doesn’t embarrass them, maybe playing in an empty major league stadium would.
rugburn
September 27th, 2011
9:58 pm
didn’t cy young lose more games than anyone?
Rabid Dawg
September 27th, 2011
9:59 pm
Single…..I just tossed mine into the fire place and lit the match.
braves
September 27th, 2011
9:59 pm
LOOK WHERE THE STADIUM IS?IF NO ONE ASK YOU FOR MONEY ON THE WAY OR LEAVING THE PARK CONSIDER IT A MIRACLE.NAME THE STADIUM,WELCOME TO SLUMS,WHERE THE HOMELESS LIVE
Hit A Single
September 27th, 2011
9:59 pm
Yea but he won more.
Little Jimmy
September 27th, 2011
9:59 pm
Buncha freakin’ losers. WTF is wrong with Bourn?? At least Prado finally woke up….. of course it was meaningless as we were down by 7 in the bottom of the 9th. I’ve never seen such a pathetic team of supposedly professional players. Anyone who says losing JJ and Tommy is what caused this is crazy. This team hasn’t hit all freakin year outside of the month that Uggla was going ape$**t and Freeman was thinking about ROY.
cedrick
September 27th, 2011
10:00 pm
WOW!!!! Another Atlanta team FADES into oblivion!!
Gen Neyland
September 27th, 2011
10:00 pm
Braves to activate Dale Murphy, Felipe Alou, Bob Horner, Hank Aaron, Clete Boyer, Bob Uecker and Rico Carty for tomorrow nights game…
Big Wally
September 27th, 2011
10:00 pm
2012 needs. Hire Jeff Gillooly to take out Lowe. Get everyday LF, RF and SS. Get rid of Wren, Fredi cat, and Parrish.