A strange homestand yields a cold truth: More hitting needed
Roy Halladay at work Wednesday. Note goose eggs. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
Strange homestand. The Braves were shut out twice and no-hit once and beaten by a guy who has never won the Cy Young Award but who roomed with Cy Young. And yet they won three of six against two playoff-caliber opponents.
At the same time, the Braves conjured up two walk-off wins, one among the more improbable in team annals — Troy Glaus? Nate McLouth? Seriously? — and still managed to look feeble for long stretches. Strange, strange homestand.
But it’s the kind we’re apt to see often, at least until Glaus and McLouth and Melky Cabrera start to hit. (Or, more probably, until Frank Wren gets around to making another round of deals.) The Braves are good at pitching but not very good at hitting. They can keep most games close enough to have a chance at the end. But Jason Heyward can’t work a wonder every night.
Stat of the series just completed: The Braves didn’t score an earned run against a Philadelphia starting pitcher. Not against Kyle Kendrick, who entered Tuesday’s game with an ERA of 17.47 but who worked eight scorless innings; not against Roy Halladay, who’s great, and not against Jamie Moyer, who took his first big-league bow three years before the aforementioned Heyward made his debut on Earth.
The only runs the Braves mustered in six innings against Moyer on Thursday came courtesy of double plays flubbed by Chase Utley. They’re not the first team to lose to a guy who’d lose playing burnout with your Aunt Minnie, but it’s never an endorsement of a team’s offense when it gets hog-tied by a 47-year-old and his 82-mph fastball.
And that, sad to say, is the lesson of this homestand: There’s no endorsing this offense. The Braves scored 20 runs in six games, but nine of those came against Colorado last Friday, and seven of the nine were in one inning. They were shut out twice and nearly a third time, which takes us back to Tuesday’s epic rally.
At that moment McLouth’s home run landed in the right-field seats, you’d have figured the winning team would have been so emboldened it wouldn’t have lost for the next week if not the next calendar year. Instead the Braves mustered three runs (one earned) over the next 18 innings. This, see, is baseball, the sport in which momentum is tomorrow’s starting pitcher.
You can’t hit if the other pitcher won’t allow it. This concept worked against the Braves the past two nights, but there’s a bright side here. They can pitch, too. They’ll hold up their end more often than not. Tim Hudson threw a nice game Wednesday but lost to the best in the business. Derek Lowe wasn’t effective Thursday, but he’s an adequate No. 4 starter.
Pitching will keep the Braves afloat, but the holes in this batting order could sink the vessel. Counting Lowe, the Braves started five men Thursday hitting .200 or less. They entered the game batting .227 as a team, second-worst in the National League.
The patches affixed by Wren over the winter haven’t held. Except for one big swing with two out in the ninth Tuesday, the Glaus Experiment has been a fizzle. (He struck out three times Thursday.) Cabrera has been worse. (Francisco Cabrera had as many RBIs in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS as Melky Cabrera in his first 2 1/2 weeks as a Brave.) Indeed, the Braves’ back line of defense appears to consist of Heyward and three fourth outfielders.
Yes, it has been only 2 1/2 weeks, but you wonder how much longer this can go. We were here a year ago, and Wren did quick work — importing McLouth and Adam LaRoche, exporting Jordan Schafer, Jeff Francoeur and Casey Kotchman — to make the Braves competitive over the second half. The bad news: Such a flurry of dealing might again be required.
The good news: It’s easier to find hitting than pitching. The cold truth: More hitting is needed, and soon. The team the Braves just saw, the team the Braves hope to overhaul, is good at both.
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220 comments Add your comment
Liberty Media Accounting Office
April 24th, 2010
8:44 am
Please be advised that on future trips to the ballpark you will need to bring your own trashbags to clean the area around your seats. We will no longer be providing cleaning service for the stadium. This may change after we sell Heyward to the Yankees.
Thank You,
Liberty Media Accounting Office aka LMAO
BIG MAC
April 24th, 2010
9:16 am
Wren: Load up a package for Tampa Bay & trade for Carl Crawford.
Chief Pitchanono
April 24th, 2010
10:58 am
Yes I agree another bat would be great, but sometimes you just have to chalk it up to bad luck. There’s no guarantee that whoever they go and get is not going to go into a three week funk just as soon as they get here. Hitting is contagious and so are slumps if you have more that a couple of guys going threw bad spells it soon effects the whole team for various reasons. I think that all you can do for now is wait it out and hope that some of these guys will start hitting like they are capable. I like seeing heyward hitting higher in the lineup but when you have as many cold bats in the lineup as the braves do right now its just too easy for teams to pitch around the guys that are hitting. Again i really think escobar is the key, If you get him going alone this would help the team allot. Everyone talks about the leadoff spot and Glaus, but if escobar was hitting they would have one allot more games.
.
April 24th, 2010
12:02 pm
Can you believe..”The Damn Padres are better than the Braves!”
Time for Management changes. Clean house!
Chad
April 24th, 2010
2:04 pm
Johnny Damon would have been a nice addition to the top of the lineup.
PLEASE DON''T ATTACK ME OR MY POST!
April 24th, 2010
3:07 pm
The Braves have had hitting problems since the days of Clarence Jones and Don Baylor…but it’s not really the fault of the hitting coaches.
The overall culture of this franchise since at least 1991 has been that pitching rules. I guess even today the hitters still expect the pitchers to bail them out.
The Braves bad hitting in the biggest games and so forth will be Bobby Cox’s real legacy….Braves bad hitting soley rests on his shoulders…nowhere else.
NO MORE BOBBY
April 24th, 2010
3:08 pm
Why are you the only AJC writer that really gets it?
blake
April 24th, 2010
3:19 pm
Thier pitching sux too if you havent noticed. this whole team sux there is no way a couple of trades can make them decent.
tree rollins
April 24th, 2010
3:33 pm
The Braves should have gotten some hitting for Vasquez but they didn’t! Then they should have gotten some hitting for Franceour but they didn’t. Then they had some hitting from the 2nd half last year in LaRoche and they threw him back in the ocean. How many times do we need to watch this team jettison their hitters and then lean almost totally on Chipper (and now Heyward). Because of this Heyward will feel all the exact same pressures as Francouer and then eventually have to be moved to reach his potential.
tree rollins
April 24th, 2010
3:36 pm
One of the big problems of the Braves IS the hitting coach Pendleton. Franceour asked for his help and he walked away – this was widely reported. Chipper has to use his dad as a hitting coach. McCann also uses an outside hitting coach. Tell me who the Braves batter is that credits Pendleton for turning him into a great hitter (Heyward already had it before he got here). And look how disciplined Francouer looks now with a new hitting coach. HELLO!!
tree rollins
April 24th, 2010
3:40 pm
Terry Pendleton leans back and puts it all on cruise control and leans totally on his reputation as a player to gather his annual salary. Only a laid back coach like Bobby that is loyal to his assistants would put up with this because Bobby appreciates how TP helped him as a player.
MitchC
April 24th, 2010
4:16 pm
Two runs scored last night., one run scored today. Two straight losses to the less than intimidating Mets. Four losses in the last five games now.
The starting pitching has been doing its job, virtually every day. How can any team expect to win if it scores, none, one, or two runs a game? It isnt going to happen in the major leagues.
Wren, either get another hitter, or resign. If this keeps up, we may be one of the only teams in major league history with a low three ERA, and 90 losses.
MaryM
April 24th, 2010
4:17 pm
Would someone please remind me how many millions of dollars these loser bozos are being paid to stink up the field? I’ll bet they all bat 1000 when they’re picking up their paychecks.
And this Jurjenns guy or however he spells his name… pitiful.
MitchC
April 24th, 2010
4:18 pm
Again my post didn’t go up! GRRRR!
As I said in the other post: We scored two runs last night, only one run today. We’ve had two losses in a row to the less than intimidating Mets.
At the rate the Braves are going, we may end up being one of the only teams in major league history with a sub or low 3 ERA, and 90 losses.
Wren, either get us another hitter, or resign, now!
Legend of Len Barker
April 24th, 2010
4:25 pm
Can’t recall if it was on Bradley or Schultz, but I predicted it was time for Chipper to be injured again. Unfortunately, I win nothing but more frustration.
Ron Elgin
April 24th, 2010
4:53 pm
The Braves need to find some players that can hit first. Then they need to fire Terry Pendleton, because he cannot teach people how to hit like he could. Of course, when you make the big leagues, you are supposed to have some idea of what to do at the plate. It is going to be a long year for Bobby Cox. Good luck, maybe we can find some poeple after he leaves.
J.o.h.n.n.y C.r.u.n.c.h
April 24th, 2010
7:55 pm
We are in for a LONG YEAR.
All Spring, I heard how the players were going to play “all out” because they wanted Bobby Cox to go out a winner………..they must have meant going “all out” to SUCK A$$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This team looks like no one has ever coached them on the fundamentals. Silly errors, throwing to the wrong base, not hitting the cut-off man, letting pop flies drop, base running blunders……….are obvious signs that this team is fundamentally challenged. This team couldnt pull off a hit and run if the ball was on a tee. How many times have other teams put the hit and run on us……..and hit the ball to the hole that was created when the fielder went to cover the bag?
These guys cant hit. Sure, they can hit one out when the opposing pitcher leaves one hanging. However, this bunch has shown that they just cant put any pressure on the opposing pitcher to break him out of his rhythm. Once again, like last year, we’re making BUMS look like Cy Young.
It’s become obvious why players like Bobby Cox so much: His Spring Training routine and Regular Season practices must be like Club Med………because it’s been quite some team since the Braves have exhibited any signs of being coached on the fundamentals of the game.
Troy Glaus didnt come to the Braves because he’s always wanted to play for Bobby Cox. He came to Atlanta because the Braves were the only team STUPID enough to pay him $1.75 mil guaranteed, plus an assortment of bonuses that the Braves will probably end up paying him because Bobby will give him every opportunity to earn those bonuses………..despite it being obvious that he is a shadow of his former self.
J.o.h.n.n.y C.r.u.n.c.h
April 25th, 2010
1:37 am
Escobar made a boneheaded base running play. No doubt. However for Bobby Cox to use that as his “whipping post”…….is kind of pathetic.
To make Escobar’s mishap out to be “horrific”, while barely paying lip service to Chipper’s lack of concentration yesterday with his own boneheaded plays………..reeks of Bobby’s propensity to cover for “his boys” while taking his frustrations out on someone like Escobar who isnt one of “his boys”.
The Braves have $28 mil committed the next two years after his year to 2 players who are WAY PAST THEIR PRIME (Derek Lowe $15 mil, and Chipper at $13 mil). That’s $28 mil to two players who, if given playing time, will guarantee that the Braves will be also-rans until at least 2013 (just in time for Jason Heyward and Tommy Hanson to become eligible for salary arbitration).
Our 2010 offense is making the first 3 months of our offense in 2009 look like the 1927 Yankees……..when compared to each other.
J.o.h.n.n.y C.r.u.n.c.h
April 25th, 2010
8:11 pm
I hope that the Braves hire a manager after this season who will actually teach these guys some fundamentals………AND who will pick someone other than Yunel Escobar to yell at when in reality the whole team is SUCKING both offensively and defensively.
If the Braves played in New York, there is NO FREAKING WAY that the press there would suck up to Bobby like the Atlanta press does. However, Bobby “the wife beater” Cox gets a free pass from the Atlanta media despite the fact that this team isnt getting quality coaching and is being mismanaged.
J.o.h.n.n.y C.r.u.n.c.h
April 25th, 2010
8:37 pm
Another “great” play by Chipper there,lol. Yet Bobby Cox will wait until Yunel Escobar messes up before he chews someone out.
If Chipper could hit and stay healthy, then I could tolerate his errors. However the fact is that Chipper’s a shell of his former self.
I’d bet the farm that there is NO FREAKING WAY that he walks away from $26 mil. He’s going to SUCK A$$ the next 2 years while stealing money from the Braves.