Update: After 13 innings, the Braves’ epic failure is complete
Brian McCann can't bear to watch. Can't blame him. (AJC photo by Curtis Compton)
They’d been portrayed, not without cause, as choking dogs. They finished September having won two of nine series and having watched, numbly if not nimbly, an 8 1/2-game lead go poof. But even a choking dog can have his day, or night, and the 2011 Braves tried to give themselves one Wednesday.
They failed. They failed in the way this entire month had been a failure. They took an 8 1/2-game lead and threw it all away, and by the time they got done losing Game No. 162 they had made us suffer through all the failures that comprised this failed month.
They led 3-1 after three innings and 3-2 after eight, but Game No. 162, like the season itself, lapped into overtime. They hit early, then stopped hitting. They saw a key run thrown out at the plate. In sum, they suffered the kind of wobble that had gotten them into this mess in the first place.
Before Game No. 162, Chipper Jones had noted that the populace seemed ready to box these Braves’ ears. (Or words to that effect.) Attempting a tiny joke, someone suggested such civic outrage only went to show that Atlanta cares. Said Jones: “We care, too. We care more than anybody else.”
Fredi Gonzalez, lately portrayed as a do-nothing manager, cared enough to do something after Tuesday’s ugly loss. He sat his men down and told them he wouldn’t pick any other bunch over this to go out and win a game. Then, being practical, Gonzalez advised his charges to get some sleep and come back ready to play. “It wasn’t Knute Rockne,” he said Wednesday. But then, brightly: “Maybe 50 years from now it will be in a book of great speeches.”
It might not have been Henry V at Agincourt, but it — or something — did the trick. The Braves were loose and supple from the start of Game No. 162, which isn’t easy to do when your constituency stands ready to break out the rotten tomatoes. They had leadoff hits in each of the first five innings. They fell behind in the top of the first but answered in the bottom, and Dan Uggla’s crushed homer off Cole Hamels’ 0-2 fastball untied matters in the third.
And not a moment too soon. Uggla’s ball landed in the bleachers about the time the Cardinals were about to begin their game against 105-loss Houston, and sure enough St. Louis put up a huge early number. (Five first-inning runs on seven first-inning hits against Brett Myers, who like Chipper is an alum of Jacksonville’s Bolles School. Chipper had been hoping for “Bolles mojo.” No go.)
This became the game these Braves had played from April through the August: Tim Hudson gave them 6 1/3 innings textbook innings, and then the once-bulletproof bullpen took the baton. Eric O’Flaherty needed two pitches to induce Shane Victorino to hit into a double play to end the seventh. Jonny Venters walked/plunked the bases loaded in the eighth but struck out Raul Ibanez on three pitches.
Then it was the ninth and the kid closer entered to do as he’d done all season. Instead Craig Kimbrel, who’d blown two saves this month, blew another by slinging the ball around like a bad point guard. He yielded a leadoff single to Placido Polanco, walked the bases loaded, saw Chase Utley drive home the tying run with a fly ball and walked Hunter Pence to boot. The bulletproof bullpen had been hit.
Kimbrel was pulled for Kris Medlen, who in his second appearance in 14 months held the tie and got the Braves through the 10th. The Braves had a chance to win in the bottom of the inning, but Michael Martinez hauled in Chipper’s drive with Michael Bourn aboard. And neither Brooks Conrad, who struck out, nor Martin Prado, who tapped out, could drive home Jason Heyward in the 12th.
To the 13th. Scott Linebrink entered. Ahead 0-2 on Brian Schneider, Linebrink walked him. Chase Utley moved Schneider to third with a two-out single, and Pence brought him home with a broken-bat grounder in the second-base hole. (”Couldn’t have thrown it out there any better,” Gonzalez said.) Down a run, the Braves were three outs from elimination.
Jones led off against David Herndon and struck out. (The Braves’ at-bats from the ninth on had been little except hero swings, to unheroic avail.) Then Uggla induced a walk. But Freddie Freeman rapped into a 3-6-3 double play, and the season was done. There would be no trip to St. Louis, no 163rd game.
There will, alas, be only an aftertaste that will linger long. The 2011 Cardinals became the second team ever to trail by 8 1/2 games in September and reach the postseason. The 1964 Cardinals, beneficiaries of the infamous Philly Phold, were the first, and that’s the miserable company these Braves will keep.
Dan Uggla gives the Braves the lead. (AJC photo by Hyosub Shin)
They won their 81st game on Sept. 1. They never got to 90. They led by three games with five to play and never won again. They lost their 162nd game to a team that had no real reason to care about winning. They had the lead and the best rookie closer ever on the mound, and they lost. If you want to say they choked, nobody will argue.
The kid closer all but volunteered the cursed C-word. “You have to bottle up emotions and harness them,” Kimbrel said. “I didn’t do that today. September’s the hardest month of the year, and I let my emotions get to me. Things just started to move too fast, and I couldn’t put it together.”
Kimbrel was overthrowing. The hitters were overswinging. “We’ve been swinging really hard for a while,” Jones said. “When a guy’s living two or three inches off the outside corner, that’s not a ball you’re going to hit out of the ballpark.”
To return to Chipper’s assertion of eight hours earlier, these Braves absolutely tried their hardest. They actually tried too hard. But part, maybe even most, of being a champion is the capacity to perform under pressure, and these Braves buckled. There was, contrary to popular belief, no great mismanagement in this game: Fredi G.’s team was in position to win the exact same way it had all summer, except that summer ended and September arrived and the winning ceased.
“It just got a little wild,” Chipper said, speaking of Game No. 162 but actually the whole lost month. When the Cardinals began to close, the Braves were never the same. Even without Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson, this team should have had enough to play into October. It won’t. It won’t because it choked. End of story.
By Mark Bradley
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874 comments Add your comment
Larietta
September 29th, 2011
1:16 pm
There was a comment on a sports talk radio show this morning about; “where is our Longoria, or Posey?” Folks we have and have had them. We are our own problem. Francoeur, Heyward, and Kimbrel were and are great, but young players when we began to heap incredible adulation on them BEFORE they reach consistent performances over a reasonable period of time. Example: “Say Hey kid” for Heyward just because he put on a uniform. Come on?! Let these guys grow into great players like we did with a person by the name of Larry Jones, who is one of the best of all. Let them earn it first and they then seem to be able to handle the pressure when it counts.
Braves Fan
September 29th, 2011
1:20 pm
First of all, you want to talk Loserville, go to Houston. I take my Braves any day. The fact that the Braves were in race for the playoffs shows what a good team we have. I don’t understand where the Braves of old have been for the last month. You knew that when you went to the game, you stayed to the last out because the Braves always had the potential to come out ahead. That has been missing. Maybe they tried too hard and that is something the manager has to manage. And, why would you not take Kimbrell out after he threw multiple ball in the dirt. It wasn’t his time and if Fredi had pulled him earlier for Medlin, I would be sitting at Taco Mac tonight watching a playoff game. And, why, why would you use Diaz and Heyward and not put in a hot Constanza. Why, why, why….I guess the glow of Bobby Cox is gone and Fredi just needs to lick his wounds and start over next year and learn from his mistakes.
Used to be a braves fan
September 29th, 2011
1:25 pm
I think this season will finally snap my loyalty to the Braves. Since 1991, I’ve been watching. I don’t think I can stomach much more.
Mark's for the Braves
September 29th, 2011
1:29 pm
What an incredibly ulcer-causing loss last night was………………………………………..
I woke up this morning hoping it was a nightmare, but when I flipped on ESPN they still said the Braves had choked it all away last night. Why was Linebrink even pitching in the 13th? Couldn’t Sherrill have come in and got that last out?
But it goes so much further than that? Where is a clutch hit? Prado, Chipper, Wilson all couldn’t come up with clutch hits. Why wasn’t Freddi more upset than he was? I believe even Cox would have been upset about this game!
We need some changes in ‘12–Chipper needs to retire so we can get Wright from the Mets, we need a LF and a RF who can produce and we need to insert Medlen in the rotation and trade Hanson and JJ for the offence we need. Delgado and Tehran can also go into the rotation. Lowe must go and so must Linebrink.
By the way, is this still a nightmare or did I wake up to reality and we really won last night? We really did choke away an 8.5 game lead in 3 weeks?
Leading Off: Three Minutes That Rewrote History | Il Neurone USA
September 29th, 2011
1:36 pm
[...] The usually play came with a Braves’ demise. Labeling them choking dogs is a harm to dogs, writes Mark Bradley in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Joe Sheehan explains on SI.com how a seeds of this passing were sown as a deteriorate [...]
GameReviewer
September 29th, 2011
1:39 pm
It’s Chipper f’n Jones. The guys a bad omen. The other players see his lack of enthusiam and HUGE salary and think “if he can slack off and get paid, then I can do it too”. Enough of this loser, Retire already!
Gail
September 29th, 2011
1:42 pm
Only one thing left to say – Go Cards!
Redbird Fan
September 29th, 2011
1:48 pm
Thanks Braves, for keeping the season alive and exciting through game 162 for us in STL. Your wounds will heal in time. The Braves are a good team that got cold at exactly the wrong time. Our Cards did nearly the same thing from mid-July to near the end of August, then they got hot hot hot.
I gotta say it…GO CARDS! Show them how it’s done (again).
Former Fan
September 29th, 2011
1:48 pm
The Braves owe the city of Atlanta an apology. All around fail.
For me, this is where it ends.
Good luck down the road, but I won’t be following you guys anymore. Sad day.
Leading Off: Three Minutes That Rewrote History
September 29th, 2011
1:50 pm
[...] The only drama came with the Braves’ demise. Labeling them choking dogs is a disservice to dogs, writes Mark Bradley in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Joe Sheehan explains on SI.com how the seeds of this demise were sown as the season unraveled. [...]
GameReviewer
September 29th, 2011
1:58 pm
I’ve been following this team for 20 frickin years. Only one year did they have decent hitting that could COMEBACK and win games. That year was 1995. You can tell if a team is CHAMPIONSHIP caliber. They COMEBACK to win close games.
This team CANNOT hit. They haven’t been able to hit for 16 frickin years. Forget the pitching. It’s boring and it’s NOT winning games. Go for decent pitchers and GREAT hitters. The hitters will make the pitchers LOOK great because they’ll be relaxed with a big lead.
roja
September 29th, 2011
1:59 pm
Last night I heard a talking head on ESPN say that the Boston Red Sox collapse was more of a surprise because nobody really cares about the Braves EVEN IN ATLANTA. He was talking about BRADLEY!!!!!!!!
Every time I get peeved about the Braves not making it to the post-season, my Cubs fan friends remind me that even though they are on Medicare, they were NOT EVEN BORN the last time the Cubbies WENT TO a World Series. And my Yankee Friends remind me that the PHillies only need to win 25 MORE World Championships before they can lay claim to the title of Yankees of the National League.
Then I remind him that they need to win another TEN division titles in a row before they can even claim to be the Braves of the NL East!!!!!!!! The Braves Organization still has more World Championships than the Phillies Organization does. And how many world titles has Lee won?? NONE you say????? Right.
I’ll take MY Braves any day.
By the way, the latest Mets collapse was MORE EPIC. They even refer to the Bosox collapse as being “of Metsian proportions”
Frank Shab PA
September 29th, 2011
2:14 pm
I was corrrect, I said the Braves wouldn’t win another game after saturday. Face it Braves Nation,the team just can’t get clutch hits. Thye’re OK when their is no pressure. Example Melky Cbarera last year was terrible everyone agrees.Did crap here. Look at his numbers this year 21 homers batting over .300 with 22 staels. Why no pressure. The Braves are the same way. With pressure they can’t execute.
This from a Braves fan over 52 years (Milwaukee then) living in the middle of Philly Land Scranton/Wilkes/Barre area in PA.
Jaime
September 29th, 2011
2:26 pm
Keep returning to my computer hoping to read “Fired!”…somebody…anybody will do. I mean…we can’t even own the (WC)First to Worst Epic Fail title all by ourselves… have to share with the Sox? Really? Can’t the Braves Coaches/Mgr. do anything right???? Please fix this! Do not let the failures drag on and on and on like it did when I was a kid…I won’t be alive if I have to wait that many years to see another winning Worst to First team. FIX IT NOW…even if you have to fire Fredi – make a statement for the fans – the ones that pay the bills and the fancy salary’s – WE ARE THE REASON YOU EXIST AT ALL.
dwinn
September 29th, 2011
2:34 pm
I’ve been a Braves fan for 30 years . . . even when I lived in Philly! Kimbrel is the only stand up guy in the bunch – he didn’t perform well enough to get the job done. Neither did anyone else – the hurricane analogy is perfect . . . we could all see it coming. No leadership on or off the field. “Go home and get a good nights sleep”? They certainly can now!
southern hope
September 29th, 2011
3:02 pm
Boston is much better at grief than we are….from a blog at Boston.com this morning:
“This should set Red Sox Nation back about 86 years.
These are my father’s Red Sox after all. There will be no more fakes in the stands at Fenway. Anyone over the age of 5 who shows up next season has earned their Red Sox stripes. The torch has been passed. An entirely new generation of fans have been scarred for life. This was disgusting, embarrassing and horrifying.
The greatest collapse in history is complete. Forget Rome. The 1929 stock market crash. The Soviet Union. The Berlin Wall. Super Bowl XLII. The Titanic. The Hindenburg. Home values. Every other baseball team ever. The 2011 Red Sox out Red Soxed themselves – wiping 1978 and every other breathtaking free-fall out of the record books.
A $161 million payroll produced a 7-20 September. Shock and awful. If the Red Sox had just gone 9-18, as Theo pointed out, they’d still be playing. And just like the Patriots, the Red Sox haven’t won a postseason game since 2008. “
day old fries
September 29th, 2011
4:22 pm
…I’m over it already.
Arizona Diamondback fan
September 29th, 2011
5:35 pm
Brian McCann should be forced to watch the game, he’s one of the one’s who caused the result! Oh, did I mention, GO DIAMONDBACKS!!! HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE
RE: day old fries
September 29th, 2011
5:37 pm
Day Old, you should have been over it in spring training I would think. Isn’t this the result EVERY YEAR?
stump#2
September 29th, 2011
6:45 pm
now you no why freddi was fired in miami. the staff returns in 2012. same song, second verse. there is no baseball leadership in Atlanta. 2.5 million fans deserve better. but with the present staff top to bottom, that great enthusiasm is not there.
Drifter
September 29th, 2011
6:49 pm
I think we should have a 7-games series with Boston to remove all doubt about which team is the biggest choke in baseball history.
Realist
September 30th, 2011
6:23 am
No excuses! You need MAJOR league quality players on the field in every position, on the bench to substitute and on the moundand from the bullpen – then a Manager to manage that TALENT – go position by position and we are right where we belong – watching the playoffs from home.
Mike
September 30th, 2011
2:01 pm
The Braves had so many opportunities to put the Cards away. Game after game. Their offense quit scoring runs unless they hit a home run; the bullpen collapsed. No excuse; they just choked; apparently, unable to handle the pressure,
By the way, the Phillies had plenty of incentive to win. By winning, they set a franchise record for most wins in a season. More importantly, they insured they got the tired Cardinals instead of the rested Diamondbacks or Brewers. They now don’t have to beat both the Diamondbacks or Brewers (2 teams who won their divisions & finished the season strong, playing some of their best baseball all season; the 2 best teams in the National league beside the Phillies) to get to the World Series. They only have to beat one as the Brewers & Diamondbacks now have to face each other. The Braves collapse more than likely made the road to get to the World Series a little easier for the Phillies.
Derek D
October 1st, 2011
10:40 am
Another disgusting part of the overall Braves scenario is the endless alibiing by Mark Lemke and Co. for each substandard performance/loss. I know little Markie must be worried about his job, but his “analysis” is so partisan and so biased it’s almost a joke. A true “organization weenie” in every sense of the word, I’d fire his sorry **** in a New York minute. Brian Jordan and Ron Gant aren’t not much better, either.