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
ICDogg
September 29th, 2011
4:07 am
I feel for you guys… this is so similar to the 1964 Phillies to an old Phillies fan such as myself. That season is forever stuck in the psyche of Philadelphia fans. Kind of made us into the surly bunch that we are
In that season the Phillies blew a 6 1/2 game lead to Cincinnati with 12 games to play.
CH2
September 29th, 2011
4:18 am
It could be worse… the lead off sports story was how the Boston Red Sox lost 20 games in the last month. So, not as bad as the Sox’s. Perhaps we need to go 10 years or so with a bad team, and then we’ll have the city and team have the fervor that the folks in St. Louis enjoyed.
Carpetbagger
September 29th, 2011
4:23 am
With Terry McGuirk ANYWHERE near the Braves…. we’ll never reach our potential. What a waste of money to an air sucker. McGuirk does NOTHING ( but collect a paycheck) and is the link to tax write off Malone and Liberty.
theriddler
September 29th, 2011
4:43 am
I blame the OUTFIELD again this year. Left field was weak, center field a black hole until Bourne showed up and right field was miserable. Worst offensive OF in the league again.
Buzz ME
September 29th, 2011
4:44 am
An ownership that doesn’t care…mediocre players…an average team…a below average manager. Nuff said
DawgVoiceofReason
September 29th, 2011
4:47 am
I root for the Braves but fortunately I distanced myself from them some time ago. So, as an interested but unemotional observer, I don’t see this as a choke. The Braves lost two of their top starters, had another starter (Lowe) who obviously ended his career (but kept playing) some months ago and then had key position players who weren’t hitting for much of the season combined with their best hitter (McCann) returning from injury but not able to resume form. This team was NOT going to do anything in the playoffs anyway. While it would have been fun to see them at least in the “big dance”, they certainly weren’t a good team anymore and really were not a playoff quality team.
Reggie
September 29th, 2011
4:48 am
There’s only one man to blame for this collapse….darn you Thomas Edison. If this jerk never invents the light bulb then the Braves don’t lose all those balls in the lights.
Knockahoma
September 29th, 2011
4:57 am
Man, Braves fans and Red Sox fans are going to have to organize some sort of meeting together to cope with this.
DB
September 29th, 2011
4:57 am
The forces are against ALL ATLANTA TEAMS because of the negative energy
both sides of the racial divide have for one another. We don’t deserve a championship.
That would put us in a positive spotlight. We shine much better with executions,
discrimination, segregated communities, disparity. All the things we’ve always
been champions at.
bob
September 29th, 2011
4:59 am
need a complete make over of the team. next year is a rebuild year not another duct tape year.
coach needs to go with the staff. lance did nothing to improve hitters or stop slumps. roger did everything to overuse the staff with early season high pitch counts with starters and overuse of relievers. freddi did nothing.
dump lowe and trade hanson or jj for some real speed. red sox and yankees both need arms. braves are deep with arms. and keep the young arms away from roger before he sends more to the surgeons.
sign bourne to a long term or trade him.
move mccann to third so he can prolong the life of his legs or just watch the guy burnout every year behind the plate.
questions include chipper, prado and heyward. not sure what to do there.
red&black
September 29th, 2011
4:59 am
Did anyone expect anything different from this bunch? They couldn’t hit a bull in the a$$ with a bass fiddle, trot out pitchers like Boozer Lowe and Jair Jerkoff, and a worn out third baseman who’s stealing money, and they actually believe in Jason HeyIsuck. I’m soooo glad this is finally over. College football is the life blood of the south anyway…..
perk
September 29th, 2011
5:08 am
FREDI CHOKED – HE TRIED TO MANAGE DOWN THE STRETCH LIKE IT WAS JUNE. McFLY: IT WASNT JUNE. incredibly disapointed. Venters and Kimbrel were worn down. McCann and Chipper were playing hurt – gotta give them credit.
NoBraves4you
September 29th, 2011
5:10 am
Glad to read of the ‘collapse’. Saves the embarrassment of getting beaten by any other NL team in the playoffs. Go Phillies!
The Buffalo Bills of MLB---sort of
September 29th, 2011
5:14 am
I think they should all give part of their enormous salaries back for choking
Rahvi
September 29th, 2011
5:19 am
In a city known for their phoney, fair weather fans and teams that spit the bit down the stretch, this takes the cake. I thought the Falcons getting humiliated by the Packers in their “House” while Cheeseheads owned the place best exemplied Atlanta futility, but I was wrong. The Braves proved that they were the biggest chokers in town and they did it in epic fashion. Just like the fat Clown Bradley declaring the 1996 World Series over when the Braves won the first two in NY, before getting rolled in the next four, the Braves and Atlanta fans are a joke.
dean
September 29th, 2011
5:28 am
Earlier in the season when McCann hit a late homer to tie the game then won the game with another homer in his next at bat, I was confident these Braves were special. Last night when Kimbrel let it get away I knew it wasn’t to be. And when Chipper’s drive to the left field gap last night got hauled in, I turned the lights out.
“Wait ’til next year!”
Glenn in Snellville
September 29th, 2011
5:34 am
Your words said it all, your column was brilliant. The other night I was shaking my head wondering what had happened to these guys who had provided so much energy and thrills earlier in the season. Plain and simple, as you so noted, they choked.
Ty Slobb
September 29th, 2011
5:36 am
Hahahahahahahahaha!
Peachtree TV
September 29th, 2011
5:36 am
Chip and Joe are still talking about how great this Braves team is. You’d think they’d won 120 games and at least 6 players were All World. And Fredi and the front office, simply brilliant.
Ted
September 29th, 2011
5:38 am
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! What a great way to end the season! I’m glad that we won’t have to hear about the Braves in the postseason and am happy about their monumental collapse. Chipper, that’s what you get for talking trash about how you could beat the Phillies in the playoffs. Playoffs????
rickman
September 29th, 2011
5:40 am
I’m just glad it’s over..This teaM SUCKED!!!!
Ted
September 29th, 2011
5:42 am
It was even better that this happened in Atlanta, in front of some fair weather fans who decided to go to Turner Field for once!!!!
Troy Davis & Injustice in GA
September 29th, 2011
5:43 am
This area is cursed. Probably for good reason.
Lil' Barry Bailoutou
September 29th, 2011
5:44 am
Who cares. It’s just a reality TV show and isn’t very important. Go hug your wife, kids, or your parents and tell them you love them.
CW
September 29th, 2011
5:44 am
I think as long as we keep the same manager, the team will under-perform. Bourn should never have tried to steal third…right before Uggla hits a dinger. My manager once told the team that if any one of us tried to steal third on our own, we’d better be damn sure we’d be successful, cause we’d be riding the bench otherwise. Hudson should have been out of the seventh inning….perfect hard grounder right to our short stop…tailor made. All in all, a combination of lousy managing and one of the worst choke jobs of this or any other generation.
ChasZee
September 29th, 2011
5:52 am
Tough ending, but I’m a fan of the game. And there was a time this season when the Braves were as good as any team — as good as the Phillies, as good as the Yankees, as good as the Red Sox when they were going like gangbusters. There were a lot of good moments. I don’t believe most people recognize just how fine a line there is between winning and losing. And that’s what makes the Braves long run of postseasons so special. They don’t just happen. Biggest blows were injuries to JJ and Hanson. Yes, rookies pitched well, but not into the late innings that might have saved the bullpen and helped out an offense that was on the anemic side all season.
ross
September 29th, 2011
6:02 am
we need a new manager,somebody with fire in his eyes.2 bobby cox’s is enough.if you can’t hit you are gone.bring back ted turner….
eric
September 29th, 2011
6:03 am
Now we can watch the Falcons go 4-9 the rest of the way home …
Chief KnockaHoma
September 29th, 2011
6:09 am
It all starts at the top people. Look no further than the ownership who could care less if this is a competitive team or not. The payroll has been shrinking for years now and they have too much money tied up in players that are not performing.
This franchise cares about 1 thing …. keeping the corporate tea-toatlers happy and coming back to the ball park weather they win or lose. They want to create this “Disney experience” at the ball park while making sure the corporate luxury boxes and Suntrust Club are full of fat wealthy executive baby boomers and VIP’s who really don’t care about this team.
Fredi Gonzalez needs to go along with the entire coaching staff. <~ This is a MUST!
I'm sick of it all …. Something better change or I will …. meanign I won't be coming back!
NickGranite
September 29th, 2011
6:12 am
I’m not that bad with this to be honest. We had a World Series worthy team about 6-8 weeks ago shortly after we got Bourn but when Jurrjens and Tommy got hurt along with McCann, it simply was not the same team. The relievers weren’t the same, the starting 5 were gutted. Could we have still made the playoffs? Sure. Kimbrel blows 3 saves, Lowe is 0-5 with about an 8.75 and some of the hitters other than McCann went into the tank but let’s be honest, this team with it’s current pitching configuration wasn’t going to pull a “giants’ this year…that team had pitching. It will be an interesting off season because something we definitely need looking at team hitting stats is another hitter.
David
September 29th, 2011
6:14 am
Its all Bobby Cox’s fault..oh wait…
Nurse Ratched [Randal Patrick McMurphy]
September 29th, 2011
6:22 am
Yeah… cursed…. that’s it. Cursed with BAD management from top to bottom. It begins in the front office and the stink perpetuates downward…
GOP Cannon
September 29th, 2011
6:23 am
Year after year, the Braves have found new and creative ways to break my heart in the post season; however, this epic collapse at the end of 2011 has to be the most bitter season finale of them all.
I keep trying to tell myself that I will be excited about baseball next hear, but right now I just don’t think that I will ever be able to get over this one… I am going to remember this terrible loss for a long, long time.
Joe Tess Fish House
September 29th, 2011
6:26 am
Just remember it was me who done told U the Braves where a bunch of loosers and no way they make the palyoffs.
I was rite and the rest of you where wrong!
Coach (2011 Fredi G. a go!)
September 29th, 2011
6:26 am
2011……the choke season, enough said.
Loosing Managar = Loosing Record
September 29th, 2011
6:28 am
HAHAHAHA….I was rite all a long!
Ron Elgin
September 29th, 2011
6:29 am
Its just as good, because these guys are worn out. The starting pitching, the offense, and the relief corp are all done. Turn them over. I know the season is long, but good grief, do something different to be stronger at the end. Learn a lesson, and try and get better. We have a very young team, leave Lowe at home, and lets just go after it next year.
GOP Cannon
September 29th, 2011
6:29 am
Peachtree TV, you are right on Bud… the whole game Chip and Joe where singing praises for how hard the Braves fought all season. I am sorry, but these guys need to face the reality that the Braves have choked in monumental fashion and that this is the most disappointing team that has been fielded over the past 20 years.
Among other things that need to go in the off season, I would bring on some new announcers.
jw
September 29th, 2011
6:30 am
gotta have better pitching management – can’t Dusty Baker them – they break. To have Prado, McCann go through a whole slumping year tells me there is a big issue with the hitting coach. Send Parrish to Mississippi and give it back the Terry – he had them hitting in September. If not, got to buy new bats in August, the ones we had ran out of hits too early.
Loosing Managar = Loosing Record
September 29th, 2011
6:30 am
I dont get it I speek the truth about the loosing Braves and I get sensored?
Thomas
September 29th, 2011
6:34 am
This is the epic choke…
Mark Bradley is epic failrue
September 29th, 2011
6:36 am
For banding me hear.
Long Live Joe Tess!!
Gordon
September 29th, 2011
6:37 am
Hey! How about that Dream! In the WNBA Finals!
Life is good.
Marc in FL
September 29th, 2011
6:38 am
Just like our postseason last year, when things get tough this defense just falls apart. It’s painful to watch. Truth be told they would have just been swept in the playoffs anyway, so this is probably a good thing, let misery to come.
eastbound and down
September 29th, 2011
6:38 am
Bradley, don’t give Fredi a pass. he should have yanked Kimbrel after the first guy got on. how many saves did he blow in September. he shouldn’t have started Lowe in the next to last game. but, it might be irrelevant, if Fredi returns he will do what he can to burn Kimbrel’s and Venter’s arms off. Guy is a loser
Satchmo
September 29th, 2011
6:40 am
Thinking back, the harbinger of the collapse for me, was when Chipper lost a chopped infield ball in lights against the Marlins that should have ended the game. Thought to myself, that could be the harbinger of the things to come, and cost our season. Sad, to say it was.
GTFanny
September 29th, 2011
6:40 am
I hear Winnipeg is looking for a baseball team.
exiled
September 29th, 2011
6:41 am
OMGoodness!!!! It’s the same story here in ATL. We always get so close with our teams and they all choke!! Please chipper its time to retire guy. Can Ted Turner come back and be the owner? At least he spent the money to try and have a good team. The Falcons and Hawks miss on talent during the draft and on free agents. The Bulldogs cant even beat FLA….. I hate hearing ooh wait until next year. Well guess what next year keeps coming!!!!
CPR
September 29th, 2011
6:48 am
Keep coughing, keep coughing….
TheAntiMe
September 29th, 2011
6:52 am
The Braves problem was very apparent. The players spent the final two weeks feeling sorry for themselves for getting some bad breaks when instead it should have made them mad enough to come out and take it out on their opponents. But no, they chose the “woe is me” route and by doing so the never really had a chance.
Then, after the Florida game in which Chipper lost a bouncing ball in the lights (wtf) and Infante jacked it out a couple of pitches later for the fish victory, the whole team basically just quit right then and there from that point on.
I have been a Fredi Gonzalez supporter for most of the year but I will definitely have to disagree with you, Mark, about Fredi not mismanaging this game. There is no way in Hades that a manager worth his weight in salt would pitch to Hunter Pence – hitting in the 3-hole because he is the PHILLIES BEST HITTER – in the 13th inning. Not with one of the Phillies scrubs waiting on deck. True enough, it never should have come to that but that was a serious screw-up on the Braves manager’s part.
I guess there’s always next year to see how the Braves will hurt their fans. Will they use the same survival knife that they plunged into our guts this year or will they opt for the butcher knife to plunge into our guts and just give it a few dozen extra turns? I can hardly wait to find out.