The Braves lose Game 1, the wonder being that it was close
One that got away: Jason Heyward misses Shane Victorino's liner Monday. (AP photo)
PHILADELPHIA -- The two best teams in the National League met in Game 1 of the series that could well decide the NL East. A clash of the titans it wasn’t.
The Phillies’ starting pitcher: Cole Hamels, most valuable player of the 2008 World Series.
The Braves’ starting pitcher: Brandon Beachy, a rookie who wasn’t on the team’s 40-man roster as of Sunday.
The Phillies set their rotation for this series so as to give each of their Big Three — Hamels and the two Roys, Halladay and Oswalt — a turn. The Braves didn’t know who’d start Game 1 until 3 p.m. Monday, when it was decided Jair Jurrjens’ knee was too sore. Said Beachy, speaking late Monday after two days of motion and uncertainty: “I’m here right now; two days ago I was down in Orlando [in the instructional league].”
The wonder was that it was even close, but this Braves’ season has been a series of wonders. They took a early lead and wasted a chance to make it bigger, and then their defense collapsed — Jason Heyward dropped a knuckling liner for a three-base error and Alex Gonzalez chose not to throw home and Brian McCann whipped a throw into center field — and Beachy was a loser despite yielding fewer hits and just as many earned runs as Hamels.
“I thought he pitched unbelievable,” said McCann of Beachy, whom he’d never caught before Monday night. “The atmosphere in this ballpark — you couldn’t ask for anything more from him.”
The Braves lost 3-1 on a night you maybe expected 13-1. Not that the result was much comfort to anyone in the visiting clubhouse, not even the 24-year-old who’d acquitted himself nobly. Said Beachy: “I’m not really happy with the way I threw the ball.”
This is September, which isn’t the month for nice tries. The Phillies have won eight in a row and look like the class of this and maybe the other league. The Braves are trying to rustle up enough players to get them into the postseason. The NL East seems all but gone now — four down with 11 to left — but the wild card is another story.
The Braves lead the Padres by two games and the Rockies by three for the right to be called the best among runners-up. “You want to win the division,” Cox had said before Monday’s game, “but it doesn’t make any difference at all [if you're the wild card].”
Truth to tell, this team bears the look of a wild-card qualifier: Gifted and gritty but not quite a complete team. The Braves are 9-10 in September and are scratching for runs, for starting pitching, for someone to play center field at a big-league level. From May through August they were able to mask some of their flaws, but the long season is catching them at last. At issue is whether the Braves wear out before the 162nd game is done.
It’s not essential that the Braves win this series; it’s imperative they’re not swept. One victory here would ensure they leave for D.C. and the season’s last road series with the wild-card lead intact. One victory would leave the burden of proof still in their hands.
But you look at the Phillies, almost at full strength, and the Braves, who are without Chipper Jones and Kris Medlen and now Jurrjens, and you ask: How are these teams still in a race? The Phils ace the eyeball test: They look like a championship ballclub. The Braves are a creaky aggregation trying anything just to get through another day.
That said, they’ve gotten this far, and they’re not about to stop. Someone asked McCann how the Braves would feel if they lose Tuesday and fall five behind with 10 to go. “I can’t answer that tonight,” McCann said. “We’re not thinking we’re going to lose.”
And maybe they won’t. But the pitching matchup for Game 2 is only slightly more promising. The Braves’ starter will be Mike Minor, a rookie with three big-league wins. The Phillies’ starter will be Halladay, who could win the Cy Young Award. Doesn’t seem fair, does it?
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179 comments Add your comment
Doug
September 20th, 2010
11:02 pm
First?
Mark Bradley
September 20th, 2010
11:05 pm
Kudos, Doug.
Doug
September 20th, 2010
11:07 pm
Mark,
I still think this is an NLCS preview. Just hoped the Braves could win the division and home field advantage.
Mark Bradley
September 20th, 2010
11:08 pm
It still could happen, Doug. But I’m thinking the wild card is about the best-case scenario now
Doug
September 20th, 2010
11:08 pm
But if the first round is between the Giants at home or on the road to Cincy, I wouldn’t mind the latter.
Herschel Talker
September 20th, 2010
11:09 pm
MB:
Aren’t you concerned that the mental errors, the errors in the field, and the lack of clutch hitting with RISP all seemed to resurface in such a crucial game? It’s easy to be relaxed when playing the Mets, but they seemed to “choke” under the pressure.
HT
Mark Bradley
September 20th, 2010
11:10 pm
Yes, Herschel, but this team is what it is — it’s not going to score a bunch, and it’s not very good at catching the ball.
Mikey
September 20th, 2010
11:11 pm
It’s funny how we all broke down the pitching and hitting but the game just came down to defense.
doubled
September 20th, 2010
11:11 pm
no excuses needed,Phills had troubles early,Braves having them continously.
Carl
September 20th, 2010
11:13 pm
As a Phils fan the mistakes the Braves made today are mistakes that you can’t make in the playoffs…it will kill you. A perfect example was Lidge not covering 3rd on Damons double steal in Game 4 of the W.S. Mental mistakes will kill you in the postseason.
Reid Adair
September 20th, 2010
11:13 pm
I hate to say it, but the Braves’ limited roster (thanks once again, Frank Wren) has come crashing back down to Earth. The three teams in the West are playing perhaps their best baseball of the year.
Herschel Talker
September 20th, 2010
11:17 pm
MB:
So how do you reconcile that answer with your belief that this is an NLCS caliber team? Yes I agree the rest of the NL is mediocre, but they are far more fundamentally sound that the Braves, and that should carry them further than it will the Braves.
HT
Tho
September 20th, 2010
11:19 pm
Great game.
GT in Murfreesboro
September 20th, 2010
11:20 pm
Hard to win when the defense doesn’t hold. Impossible to win when the offense doesn’t produce.
gadawgs
September 20th, 2010
11:22 pm
I hate to say this but I admire the passion of the Phillies fans. They know how to support their team. We should take note. It was like a World Series game to them tonight.
Tweets that mention The Braves lose Game 1, and the wonder is that was so close | Mark Bradley -- Topsy.com
September 20th, 2010
11:22 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Bradley, Hank Humphrey. Hank Humphrey said: RT @MarkBradleyAJC: The #Braves lose Game 1 in Philadelphia, the wonder being that it was even close. http://bit.ly/dsyeJ9 [...]
SG10
September 20th, 2010
11:22 pm
Mark,
Good article, positive as always..
Regarding the Braves, unfortunately there is not a position right now where they can say they have been solid defensively (Lee has been only from.August so that doesn’t count)..Gonzo makes some highlight plays but has too many errors. Prado is good but not great. Do you recall if Braves ranked so low in fielding percentage during those 15 divisional championship? May be there was a year or two…It is not a coincidence that Phillies are dominating these past several years while playing solid defensively..The problem is that the Braves won’t be able to fix that unless they change personnel but who would you change really…
Mark Bradley
September 20th, 2010
11:26 pm
This is about the worst-fielding Braves team I can recall, SG10.
Mitchell
September 20th, 2010
11:28 pm
But you look at the Phillies, almost at full strength, and the Braves, who are without Chipper Jones and Kris Medlen and now Jurrjens, and you ask: How are these teams still in a race? The Phils ace the eyeball test: They look like a championship ballclub. The Braves are a creaky aggregation trying anything just to get through another day.
What a bunch of sh*t.
Were the Braves in first for three months on accident? No. They played like every game mattered.
At least until about the end of August.
All the Braves had to do was not suck @$$ in the final month and they would have won the division.
They’ve passed it off like a bag of chips.
This is Bobby Cox’s last great blunder but it’s all about how we don’t measure up to the great, grand Phillies.
How would this have been a more difficult task than the Rays faced in attempting to knock off both the Yankees and Red Sox for the AL East title in 2008?
We had the best record in the NL at the All Star break. This is the third choke the Phillies have benefited from in their stretch of what will now undoubtedly be a fourth consecutive division title.
It’s all a bunch of sh** and Bobby gets away scott free because, gosh, the Phillies are just better.
The Phillies who were about to trade Jayson Werth a month ago and had all but conceeded the division.
What a disgrace.
Team Redneck
September 20th, 2010
11:32 pm
I”m a Phillies fan but I’m impressed with how well the Braves have played this year and last year. A few comments:
1– injuries are not an excuse. Phillies had a plethora of injuries and pretty much sucked for the middle 2 months of the season and i dont think it was because of their injuries, it was just lack of focus and toughness.
2- tomorrows game Minor vs Halladay worries me as a Phillies fan seeing as how Phils cant hit young pitchers they havent faced before well. Also, Halladay has been relatively ’shaky’ of late, i.e. not lights out
3- I am appalled by how few fans attend Braves games in september. It is startling.
4- Jason Heyward is the real deal, but I think it was premature to call him the next Hank Aaron, as ESPN commentators did during the nationally televised season opener. I think he’ll be a decent outfielder, but there are other great rookies around the league, including Gabby Sanchez, Buster Posey, and Jaime Garcia
5- The A-gone for Y-Escobar trade was the death knell for this Braves team. Escobar has a ton of upside and could be a potential future Tulowitzki type short stop. I have no idea why that move was made. Seems that the team has not been great since then. The other head-scratcher is the Derek Lee aquisition.
Team Redneck
September 20th, 2010
11:34 pm
Mitchell– “this is the third choke the Phillies have benefitted from” ?? um, no. The Phillies are 44-15 in their last 59 games. . that is not a team benefiting from choking, that is a team playing really well. The Phillies have been to 2 consecutive world series. . stop being a bitter child and give credit where it’s due.
jack
September 20th, 2010
11:35 pm
“The two best teams in the National League”??? My God that must be good crack!
Mike Smith
September 20th, 2010
11:48 pm
@Team Redneck – when your team is not able to spend $150 million dollars a year, you have to make due with what is available. Injuries might not be an excuse for the Phillies who have lined their roster with big name hitters and loaded their starting rotation with the best arms available.
Injuries are an excuse for a budget team that has few established players to rely on and can only replace them with journey-men and triple A call-ups.
The Yunel trade was made because he is not hitting or playing well this year, and the Braves cannot afford to absorb that going forward. Why Derek Lee? The Phillies can afford to spend $20 million a year on a first baseman, the Braves can’t. They had to let Mark Texiera go to the Yankees last year, and then couldnt even afford to sign Adam Laroche back. Lee is a placeholder for…a rookie, Freddie Freeman.
Mark is absolutely right. Bobby Cox has done some seriously good work keeping this team where they are.
Rob
September 20th, 2010
11:49 pm
““The two best teams in the National League”??? My God that must be good crack!”
You’re absolutely right — the Phillies don’t belong in that conversation. They are a smoke and mirrors team with no real substance. Any objective view of the NL playoff scenarios clearly shows advantage Braves, all the way to the World Series.
I can’t wait for the postseason — that’s where this team will really shine!
Go Braves!
Mike W.
September 20th, 2010
11:50 pm
Game 2 tommorrow.
PMC
September 20th, 2010
11:52 pm
Why the heck would anyone call this a choke job? This is a very VERY average club playing above their heads this year.
If they manage to make the playoffs I will be extatic with the results this year. They have 86 wins with 11 to go. That’s outstanding with this club.
Mike Schmidt
September 20th, 2010
11:55 pm
Maybe because the game was so close, maybe then the Braves should not lose a full game to the Phillies in the standings? Maybe they should get a do-over because it wasn’t 10-0?
This is just so much loser nonsense!!
JJ
September 20th, 2010
11:55 pm
I want some of what you have been smoking tonight Rob! It’s the Braves that are smoke and alot of now broken mirrors.
philee fan
September 20th, 2010
11:57 pm
Mike,,,, maybe you owners could spend like a big league team if they had big league fan support,, just a thought. And Rob,, you are obviously delusional.
extremus
September 21st, 2010
12:01 am
Beachy pitched very well and had good composure out there tonight. Problem is, take away two Braves errors and he doesn’t take a loss. This team has absolutely stunk on fundamentals this year, especially during the second half of the season; among the contenders they’re easily the worst-fielding team in baseball. It’s beyond maddening to see errors decide such a crucial game, but somehow not surprising given the Braves’ penchant for them this year. Painful and frustrating.
Turtsnap
September 21st, 2010
12:03 am
Bravos didn’t start their rotation very well for this series, did they? Oh well…… we’ll get ‘em next year!
Stanley Crowe
September 21st, 2010
12:03 am
Nice to hear such generous and substantive comments from Philly fan Team Redneck. As a Braves fan who likes the Phils a lot, I appreciate it. The comment on the Yunel Escobar trade struck me, for I hadn’t given it a lot of thought. Yunel was off to a bad start, and his body language was upsetting, but man, he plain CARRIED the team at the end of last season . . . maybe we should have stuck with him, though Alex has had some very good moments. On the failure to throw home, I don’t know. Truth is, the damage was done before that, and he should never been in that position. So the sure out play wasn’t a bad decision. Then up came Troy Glaus, who has been a non-presence for months, it seems — and he’s STILL up there with the RBI leaders. What that means is that the Braves absolutely wouldn’t be where they are without him — so we owe him a spot on the bench at the very least as we go into the post-season — as I believe we will (some tense moments notwithstanding)!
carlchamblee
September 21st, 2010
12:08 am
-Bradley says – “Yes, Herschel, but this team is what it is — it’s not going to score a bunch, and it’s not very good at catching the ball.”
-Yet Bradley says – “The two best teams in the National League met in Game 1″
Oooookkk…
Kyle
September 21st, 2010
12:08 am
Rob-put down the pipe.
Mitchell-The Phillies are better. Don’t delude yourself.
philee fan
September 21st, 2010
12:10 am
Smitty,, maybe we can give them a mulligan for the entire period from july 21 till now.
You know the period when they went from being 7 games up to being 4 games down.
They may not be able to afford a major league team (no fan support ?) but they have proven more than capable of a major league CHOKE JOB. GO PHILLIES
carlchamblee
September 21st, 2010
12:11 am
Rob did you really say the Phils are a smoke-and-mirrors team no substance? Wow! You must be bucking for a job as an AJC sportswriter. You seem to possess similar baseball knowledge
MitchC
September 21st, 2010
12:11 am
Mark, I agree with you. The division is all but gone. As I’ve said in my previous posts, my gut tells me that the Phillies will clinch the East, before they even get to Atlanta next weekend.
Some of the pitching matchups in this series, remind me of when I first became a Braves fan in the 1980s, and the Braves would come into NY, where I lived at the time. (I’m now in PA) The pitching matchup would be sub 500 Zane Smith for the Braves, against Ron Darling, Sid Fernandez, or Doc Gooden, in his heydey, for the Mets. Clearly not fair.
You mentioned it being imperative that the Braves aren’t swept in this series. It would seem their best “chance” to win, would be Wednesday night.
Hopefully, they can win at least one of three in Philly, and one or two of three in DC. If that happens, they go home, with a decent advantage in the wild card.
As I said before, the NL East is gone, I still think we will win the wild card. That was probably our realistic goal at the beginning of the season, as, in reality, the Phillies at full strength are just a better team then we are.
philee fan
September 21st, 2010
12:14 am
carl,, I come in peace to talk sports,,, but Rob is obviously smoking something illegal.
smoke and mirrors all the way to the world series. wow,, what a comment.
Go Phillies
Worst game of the year
September 21st, 2010
12:15 am
The kid pitched great. Gonzo was awful tonight. Melky needs to be somewhere else next year.
Nate should have started in center.
Heyward has much learning to do. He may just be another Jermaine Dye. Great hitter… All else???
Bad loss.
philee fan
September 21st, 2010
12:16 am
And Rob, at this pace you may have to wait until next year for the postseason
Will give you a chance to rehab.
JASon
September 21st, 2010
12:19 am
Joe simpson acted heartbroken that the braves would have a poor defensive game after “commiting no errors in new york.” Come on dude. This team has been pathetic all season in the field. Then they were making excuses for gonzalez not throwing home to get victorino, where that was THE ONLY play to make there. Our embarrassing defense has been the story this year. It has cost us so many games. There is no way a team with this bad of a defense makes the world series, and probably won’t make the postseason.
Petro
September 21st, 2010
12:19 am
Rob is clearly just trying to get a rise out of Phils fans. Nice try idiot. How about you and the over lame Barve fans actually sell out your games? You can rip all you want on Philly fans but don’t the Barve players deep down wish they played in that atmosphere each and every game? Face it, Atlanta is a pathetic pro sports town. Don’t worry, you guys have the Dawg’s.
Henry D.
September 21st, 2010
12:21 am
Yunel was traded because he wasn’t “Bobby’s kind of guy”. And since this is Bobby’s last year (thank goodness) did we really improve anything? Nope! I have not been impressed in the least with “Gonzo’s” hitting or fielding. This has been a bad fielding team all year, in fact they haven’t been worth a flip with fundam,entals in the last several years and that includes the horrific bunt attempts I have seen this year. My daughter can bunt better than half of this team.
Wren panicked at the break and worked too many trades that were made just to be making trades. None of them really helped the club.The only thing they did was break up the make up of the club. Someone please tell me how Philadelphia can go out and get someone like Oswald while the Braves get Kyle Farnsworth? Oh, that’s right, they would have to spend a buck.
We will end up losing out on the Wild Card as well unless the Rockies and Giants beat up on each other and keep each other out. The Braves will lose at least 2 of 3 in Philly, 2 of 3 to the Nationals and will be swept by the Phillies, unless they are out of it by then and then they will “loosen” up and sweep when it doesn’t matter anymore.
MitchC
September 21st, 2010
12:24 am
I posted a long comment that didnt go up, so I’ll try again.
Bottom line. Beachy pitched well. Hamels, a very good pitcher, was just better.
I agree with you that its important for the Braves not to be swept in Philly. If we do that, and win two of three in DC, we can go home, and go four and two, or five and one, and make the wild card.
As you probably read, Jeff Schultz said he thinks we need to now go nine and two to win the wild card. I dont see it as that desperate. Seven and four, or eight and three, would do it. I think we can do that.
I think the Braves will hang on to the wild card.
mdmp
September 21st, 2010
12:25 am
hey team redneck….. you say heyward is the real deal… and then that he would be a “decent” outfielder…. makes no sense..
PMC
September 21st, 2010
12:25 am
Why on earth did they build a 50+ thousand seat stadium in a college football city? Why not ask that question?
Mark Bradley
September 21st, 2010
12:26 am
The Phillies have the league’s best record. The Braves have the second-best. You could look it up.
Petro
September 21st, 2010
12:29 am
Said it before, will say it again. Southern fans care more about college sports, NASCAR & Bill Dance fishing shows than pro sports. Went to a Phils/Braves game at Turner field and let’s just say I had a more energetic feeling at a Barnes & Noble. Psssssst, Brave’s fans…that’s a big place that sells books. You know, those things that have pages with words in them?
James
September 21st, 2010
12:38 am
Braves will win the wild card they won’t win the NL East.
philee fan
September 21st, 2010
12:39 am
petro,, where is the love ? have some compassion for our southern brothern,,, their team sucks and if the filled their stadium every night their team would suck. period,, go Phillies