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
The Real Brave
September 29th, 2011
6:58 am
1. Starters not going but 5 innings.
2. Over use of bullpen, causing burnout. See Venters.
3. Hitters with no patience.
4. Hitting coach with no answers.
5. Speed at the top of the lineup, not allowed to run.
The problems were systemic and finally came to roost
Double Zero Eight
September 29th, 2011
7:01 am
This team will live in infamy as “chokers”.
The fan base is already “fickled”, and will be
alienated and decimated for quite some time.
just sayin'
September 29th, 2011
7:03 am
i say this loss is on mccann…kimbrel throws the ball 99mph and mccann calls for curve balls…that’s not his best pitch…give the batter the best pitch u got and make him hit that…not your 2nd, 3rd best…and, fredi did leave kimbrel in too long..and lowe..what else can be said about him…well, don’t have to plan my tv watching around the playoffs this year…
Paul
September 29th, 2011
7:05 am
Man……..I have been a Braves fan since they moved to Atlanta. I have witnessed, many decades of sub-par baseball . What a season of expectations and failures, this year was.
Yes, changes have to be made. Hitting coach ? Lowe…out of here…
But people, the braves were very competitive this season as a whole….and right now in our country, there’s more important things to be pissed off about or concerned over.
Joey
September 29th, 2011
7:05 am
“But part, maybe even most, of being a champion is the capacity to perform under pressure…”
Excellent read, Mark, one of your very best. The line above is right on the money.
I still say if Constanza doesn’t sprain his ankle, and if McCann STAYS on the DL, we win by 8 games. We were rolling with Ross at catcher, good D, good game management, and clutch hits.
Oh well . . .
Bubba
September 29th, 2011
7:08 am
Any stadium sellouts this year???
Strange Murphy
September 29th, 2011
7:09 am
It’s official! Atlanta is Losersville once agian!
Bubba
September 29th, 2011
7:09 am
Fans don’t show up… why would the team !!!!
8dogman
September 29th, 2011
7:10 am
I hope the Cardinals can beat the Phillies in the playoffs. Charlie Manuel played this game like it was the 7th game of the world series. I can’t blame him for that because that is what he is suppose to do but I would have thought he would have rested more of his players but if the braves can’t hit then it would make no difference anyway. I felt sorry for Kimbrel in the 9th inning. He looked like he was trying so hard but it wasn’t meant to be. I don’t know what the braves can do with teams like Washington and the Marlins getting better. They need to clean house on some of these overpriced players. The Rays with a 42 million dollar payroll is the team I am rooting for to go to the world series. These rich teams who can get any player they want are just trying to buy the pennant. I am glad the Red Sox got eliminated and I hope the Yankees and Phillies get eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. These teams have unlimited funds and can go out and get anybody they want. I don’t guess they will go after the 2 premier free agents this year since they don’t need a first baseman. 2 weeks ago I predicted on a blog that the braves would get eliminated and I missed the Washington series by 1 game. I said they would win one game in Florida, get swept by the Nationals and then by the Phillies. I missed that prediction by one game in Washington. I don’t exactly understand why this game seemed to important for Charlie Manuel to win because he played it like the 7th game of the world series when it meant nothing to the Phillies. He may regret it since they will play the Cardinals who are hot. Again I hope they send the Phillies home too.
The White Rat
September 29th, 2011
7:10 am
This is why the Cardinals are the greatest National League Franchise in History. They make great moves in June to acquire what was missing on this ball club. This was a comeback for the Cards, but you should have seen the ‘64 cards as well. As far as Atlanta, when you sit around the clubhouse congratulating yourselves in July this is what happens, as a Cardinals fan when I saw this from the Braves and no offense the fans, I thought to myself……you better watch it the Giants or the Cards
Tur1261
September 29th, 2011
7:11 am
How do you go for 10 innings and not score a run then blame it on the pitchers?
Bubba
September 29th, 2011
7:11 am
Plenty of empty seats in last nights game…… Its shameful the Braves fan cannot show up!!!!
Gen Neyland
September 29th, 2011
7:11 am
One cannot name me a franchise that has been around the league as long as the Braves that hasn’t, ever, never, choked. This is baseball. It happens. It just turns out it was the Braves turn in the barrel. Comparing the Braves to the Cubs will make you feel better about things…
Strange Murphy
September 29th, 2011
7:11 am
just sayin’ This loss was a team effort just like blowing an 8 1/2 was a team effort. This team as a whole has no hart. To blame McCann is silly.
Gene O'Brien
September 29th, 2011
7:15 am
The Braves are the worst hitting team I have ever seen. Not one hitter over 300. Most under 250.
You can’t pout that much pressure on your pitching staff.
Gen Neyland
September 29th, 2011
7:16 am
White Rat and all Card fans : Congrats on your SEP run. Good luck. The Phillies aren’t the Astros so get ready for what I hope will be a great series…btw, knock ‘em out in 3..!
SeminoleDale
September 29th, 2011
7:19 am
NO! The Braves lost arguably their best starters. Derek Lowe morphed into something from the move Major League. They were basically going with Hudson and an inexperienced Beachy. It’s tough.
Coach D
September 29th, 2011
7:20 am
They should write a movie about this season .. baseball version of TITANIC. Braves fans now know what it feels like to be a passenger on the Titanic.
Hy Ronatt
September 29th, 2011
7:21 am
Fire Fredi. Retire NOW Larry. Enough of this tired old style of Booby Ball.
Greg Moundine
September 29th, 2011
7:21 am
What’s ironic about the situation? Well, Braves and Red Sox eliminated. Atlanta Braves used to be in Boston.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes
September 29th, 2011
7:23 am
Want to be better next year?
Get rid of:
- Heyward
- Gonzalez
- Lowe
- Linebrink
- Conrad
- Jurrjens (phantom injuries every other start)
Tell Chipper it’s time to retire as a Brave,
or become a bench player. Get a hot young 3rd baseman or left fielder and move Prado back.
Re-sign Bourn, add players who can HIT, and not just swing for the fences every time.
Get a stud #1 or #2 pitcher to add to Hudson…
jerry
September 29th, 2011
7:26 am
So the Braves are better than the Cardinals, they just “choked”? Bulls..t.
Finally turning in my Braves card
September 29th, 2011
7:26 am
I have said it all season long, even when the post season seemed like a lock, never underestimate the capacity of the Braves to find new and inventive ways to break your heart. Case and point, last night.
I have officially had enough.
wow
September 29th, 2011
7:26 am
Bradly, you suck
bring back bobby
September 29th, 2011
7:27 am
Bobby cox—come back—they need bobby to get back to the top!!
wiseoldawg
September 29th, 2011
7:28 am
Tomahawk choke
wow
September 29th, 2011
7:28 am
Coach D,
They “now know?” Clearly you are not a Braves fan since we have been experiencing this same feeling for decades. Only difference is it has seldom happened DURING the season.
cut prices
September 29th, 2011
7:29 am
to get more fans out to see these losers, the braves owners need to cut ticket prices, parking prices and the obscene prices for beer and the mediocre food they sell. And hire some competent employees at turner field who aren’t so rude.
Finally turning in my Braves card
September 29th, 2011
7:30 am
I said months ago, even when the post season seemed like a lock, never underestimate the capacity of the Braves to find new and inventive ways to break your heart. Case and point, last night.
I am officially done with this franchise, enough is enough.
Slim Shady
September 29th, 2011
7:30 am
Who gives a flying rat’s butt? All of the Braves players woke up this morning still MILLIONAIRES. Woopty-F’n-Dooo!!
dcoochie
September 29th, 2011
7:30 am
This is how we rock in the ATL… Wait til next year.
where my money
September 29th, 2011
7:31 am
i bought 2 playoff tickets from a dude—how can I get my money back? someone said they don’t give refunds. where my money?
duh
September 29th, 2011
7:31 am
Where are all the people that said at the beginning of the season the Braves were going to win the NL East?
Go Phills!
BaseballBuff
September 29th, 2011
7:32 am
“But part, maybe even most, of being a champion is the capacity to perform under pressure…”
“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.”
Finally! It’s in print by an AJC sportswriter. Thank you MB! And thus we also have the reason the Braves won 14 division titles but only one World Series ring despite having the most talented team in MLB for multiple seasons. The problem has been identified, but curing it won’t be easy. We badly need a team leader, a confident clutch player who can calm the nerves and set a positive example for the rest of the team. That would certainly help prevent more such fiascoes.
rc35
September 29th, 2011
7:32 am
A few posters back, somebody blamed Conrad. Blaming him for the Braves’ collapse is like blaming the guys in the engine room for the Titanic.
smoltz29
September 29th, 2011
7:33 am
If Ted Turner was still the owner: HEADS WOULD ROLL. To Liberty Media, this team is just a lousy tax write off, it’s a crying shame! Bobby Cox’s head is spinning right now…….MERCY
Furman Bitcher
September 29th, 2011
7:33 am
Duh they said they would be the NL least not east
Furman Bitcher
September 29th, 2011
7:34 am
The manager MUST be fired
AFSOC1stSgt
September 29th, 2011
7:34 am
When Linebrink came in I turned off the TV and went to bed. Watched that sceario unfold too many times this year not to know what was about to happen.
Atlanta Dream say...
September 29th, 2011
7:35 am
Enter your comments here
Furman Bitcher
September 29th, 2011
7:36 am
This team will not be back next year unless it gets a hitter for the middle of the line up and when I say hitter I mean a guy that hits for average with power. Prado is a back up not a starter and we should go get a bat for left field
Atlanta Dream say...
September 29th, 2011
7:37 am
WE GOT NEXT!!!! Don’t worry cheer up Atlanta. We will bring a championship to the city. Forget about that silly baseball. Come watch womens basketball.
BaseballBuff
September 29th, 2011
7:37 am
Other than MB in this article, Terence Moore was the only other AJC sportswriter who dared tell it like it is with the Braves.
Sons of Rick Matula
September 29th, 2011
7:37 am
How can you not crap on the Braves for gagging away the final month of the season? When was the last big hit? Chipper’s single to beat the Mets (typically 1-0)? Not a single player could come up with a signature hit? They all flailed and failed. 7 runs in the last 5 games. (Cards 30 runs in the last 5!) Look at the no-name relievers who shut the Braves down with their fresh arms – and look at the arm weary disasters that the overused Venters and Kimbrel had become. Look at the fish-eyed stare of an over-matched Freddi Gonzalez who is no more than a third base coach and a nice guy.
k483
September 29th, 2011
7:39 am
Just one more win when the Braves were 8+ games up, and we wouldn’t be talking about any of this. Yet I remember an almost arrogant “what-me-worry” attitude, given some of the clubhouse comments. Take care of business, and take care of it early. I can’t believe anyone would have sympathy for such highly-compensated professionals who fail to understand that.
All the facts
September 29th, 2011
7:39 am
Bottom line….Braves are not a playoff team. The Marlins and Nationals handled them before the Phillie’s laughed the Braves out of the playoffs. The Phillis are a playoff team…these guys never let off the gas pedal and didn’t hit a slump as a team all year. Thanks to Boston for the worst collapse in NL Wild Card history. How do you expect to win a playoff games batting .195 with runners in scoring position? This team needs power and Derek Lowe needs to go.
dean
September 29th, 2011
7:41 am
Earlier in the season when McCann homered to tie a game in the 9th then won it with another homer in the 11th, I thought these guys were good to go. Last night when Chipper’s drive to left center got hauled in (great catch by-the-way), I turned the lights off.
I knew when I woke up this morning what the headline was going to be. My wife, no baseball fan, told me she was sorry. All I could say was, “That’s baseball.”
Wait ’til next year!
Ted M
September 29th, 2011
7:42 am
There was mismanagement.
Fredi brought in Heyward for defense, he is not a good defensive player. And sure enough he loses an easy fly ball that lead to the second run. Had Diaz stayed in the game he would have caught that ball and Braves would have won the game. I knew he should have caught that ball, Hudson knew he should got it.
You can say there was rational for making that move, maybe so but it was still the wrong move by Fredi.
Fredi made all the wrong moves.
Frustrated Again
September 29th, 2011
7:42 am
I am stunned at what has happened. I have followed them since they moved to Atlanta. I thought I had seen it all by now, but this is a brilliant new failure. But I do know I cringed when I read about Chipper saying “we can handle the Phillies” earlier in September. I thought, why did you go public with such a statement? Are you trying to jinx your own team? We see what happened. Lost six out of six games to the Phillies. I wonder if Chipper’s comment was motivation for the Phillies. Or did the Phillies even need any motivation to beat the Braves?
ATL
September 29th, 2011
7:42 am
Why the braves only have one black player on the team?Uhhmmmmm!