Braves give a demo on how to choke

[WraithSentinel]

Blowing a 10-1 lead this afternoon. Phillies would quit tripping over themselves they could easily surpass the Braves. Braves do not have the talent or the fundamentals of the game down to win this division.

[CBAreject]

Blowing a 10-1 lead this afternoon. Phillies would quit tripping over themselves they could easily surpass the Braves. Braves do not have the talent or the fundamentals of the game down to win this division.

Funny thing--When we were up 10-1, I had a premonition we would lose 11-10. I remembered that game in 1992 when we blew a 9 run lead against the Cards. I was wrong today--we lost 12-10. When we lost that game in 1992, I thought that game would send us into a tailspin. It seemed to because we lost the next game on the final at bat to the Cards. Luis Alicea just owned us all series. We turned it around though. Bobby Cox, for all his poor in-game decision making has a way of instilling positive thinking. I expect the Braves to win the next series and for this to be a nasty bump in the road. The Reds ALSO blew a 9-run lead today, but they won in extras. They have the distinction of being the only team in history to blow two 9th inning 6 run leads to lose in the SAME SEASON (one of those to us). Those losses are aside from today's ugly win for them. The Reds are everybody's pet favorite, too. So, one disgusting, gut-wrenching choke-fest does not a season make.

On the loss itself, there were a couple of things to point out.

1) The Rockies actually have players who can hit good pitching. Carlos Gonzalez is looking like the most feared hitter in the NL for the better part of the next decade. Anything could happen, but the way he hit that ankle-high sinker from Lowe 420 feet reminded me of only 1 other hitter in my lifetime--Mike Piazza.

2) We pitched Todd Helton stupidly all series. He can no longer catch up to anything thigh to belt high. We pitched him exactly where he likes it all series. Other teams picked up on Troy Glaus' similar struggles and gave him high heat over and over. We failed to do that to Todd Helton.

3) We still win this game if we don't walk a .200 hitter in Ianetta twice in his final two AB's. He scored both times.

4) The fact that Cox let Venters pitch 2 innings (when he's far from fresh) shows he has no confidence in Farnsworth (deservedly) or Saito when he's pitched the prior game. I still would've gone with Saito in the 8th because although he's not as good in back-to-backs, he's probably better than a tired Venters or a fresh Farnsworth. If not that, I would've gone with Wagner when Venters put 2 on. Cox never pitches Wagner more than 1 inning and I generally wouldn't, but he hadn't pitched in several days.

5) There's just something about a massive comeback in sports. Once the other team looks like it believes it can come back, it almost always does. And it seems like no combination of moves can prevent it. There's an inevitability to it that is palpable. Even after my premonition, the point when I knew for sure the Rockies would win was when Jurrjens gave up that lead off double to Helton in the 6th. We were up 10-5 at that point.

6) I blame the offense heavily for this loss. Yes, they scored 10 runs, but sometimes the starter will get shelled. In Denver, you have to keep scoring or you risk getting beat. The last 6 innings of the game, I think we got 2 hits and allowed the Rockies to score 11 unanswered. When we were winning because of dominant starting pitching, we were still losing 2-1 every third night. Now that the starters have had some mediocre performances, we're losing most nights 4-3 and 5-2. We just give away too many instant outs with Ankiel, Melky, Hinske, and yes, Lee now. I hope Lee will turn it around. I thought he would be a spark plug, but he is now 3 for his first 24 with us, and he is just Troy Glaus #2.

Edited August 26, 2010 by CBAreject

[CBAreject]

Blowing a 10-1 lead this afternoon. Phillies would quit tripping over themselves they could easily surpass the Braves. Braves do not have the talent or the fundamentals of the game down to win this division.

It's worth noting that the Phillies have lost 3 straight games to the Astros, tonight losing a Roy Halladay start. When I looked at their series, I had them losing games 1 and 4 and winning 2 and 3. They've done worse than I projected, but I still have them losing tomorrow in a game that favors the Astros with starting pitching.

Put yourself in their shoes. You had the Astros at home while the Braves were playing a hot, hungry Rockies team on the road. The Braves get swept, and you...actually lose half a game to them in the standings??? That is incomprehensible. As I said, this is an ugly, nauseating bump in the road, but baseball is a funny thing. I've been watching for 25 years and I am still baffled by how bad a team or player can look but turn it around in an instant.

In 1993, when we caught the Giants after falling 10 games back in early August, there was a time when the Giants lost 8 games in a row, and we went from being 2 or so behind to 4 games ahead with less than a month to play. It was over, right? The Giants had given up, we all thought. Well, they ran off 11 of their next 12 to actually tie us, as I remember, and the rest of the season, we were neck and neck, needing the final game to clinch.

Edited August 26, 2010 by CBAreject

[PlayaPat420]

Blowing a 10-1 lead this afternoon. Phillies would quit tripping over themselves they could easily surpass the Braves. Braves do not have the talent or the fundamentals of the game down to win this division.

sooooo, the Phillies losing three straight to the Astros is somehow "tripping over themselves" but the Braves are choking by losing to a GOOD Rockies team?.... Typical Atlanta fan :brick wall:

[Dexmethylphenidate]

They probably need a replacement to Ankiel. I'd rather have Gregor Blanco right now. Such a lateral trade that move was.

[CBAreject]

They probably need a replacement to Ankiel. I'd rather have Gregor Blanco right now. Such a lateral trade that move was.

I think the Braves were thinking that Farnsworth would pitch as he had for the first 100 games of the season. I thought it was a good trade at the time, mostly for Farnsworth. I figured that having him in a non-closer/non-setup role would take the pressure off and we'd get some good innings. It hasn't happened that way. I also thought Ankiel would hit .240 with a little pop and be an upgrade offensively on McLouth and defensively on Blanco or Melky. Ankiel has been ok defensively, but he is awful at the plate, save for a couple of big hits.

[DJlaysitup]

You make some good points CBA, but I'm telling you...Coors Field is a Voodoo place. I know - I lived out there for 5 years and watched a bunch of games.

The thing is the altitude and the lack of humidity. Hits carry further, curve balls don't curve, dogs and cats sleep comfortably with one another.

Golfing out there is hilarious! I used to routinely hit 300 yard drives. I'll never forget the time I came up onto a tee where the fairway got narrower at about 230 yards. I figured (no problem) I'll hit a 5 iron off the tee...my normal 200 yard club at that altitude...flushed it and hit a 250 yard 5 iron (no wind)

I remember when I first moved out there - there was like a foot of snow and it was 20 degrees. I put on a bunch of clothes (layers) and grabbed my heavy duty snow shovel to do the driveway. What a hoot. I quickly pealed off layers and realized that in the sunlight in Denver at 20 degrees all you need is a sweatshirt. I also tossed the snow shovel since the snow was like talcum powder...just swept it off with a broom.

Snow does wierd things there too...melts in the sun at 20 degrees and doesn't melt in the shade at 50 degrees.

My brother (a midwesterner like me) said once: "Must be cool having all that snow...lots of epic snowball fights" I replied, "you cant make a snowball out of this stuff...it's like powder...you grab a handful and it doesn't stick together.

Great line from Tiger Woods when asked about his driving distance (paraphrase).."Well I normally hit it between 300 and 325...but there was that time out in Colorado when I drove the green on a 449 yard par four."

Edited August 27, 2010 by DJlaysitup

[CBAreject]

My brother (a midwesterner like me) said once: "Must be cool having all that snow...lots of epic snowball fights" I replied, "you cant make a snowball out of this stuff...it's like powder...you grab a handful and it doesn't stick together.

It's not the quality of the snow; it's the temperature. Once you get around 20 degrees, it's almost impossible to make a snowball. The reason is that the physics of snowball making involve the fact that when you increase the pressure on ice crystals, they temporarily melt on the surface. Releasing the pressure causes them to freeze again, so in the 20's and low 30's, you can make snowballs all day long. The problem is that when it gets colder, it requires much more pressure to get the same melting effect. When it gets to a certain temperature, it is impossible to generate enough pressure with your hands to melt the crystals, so you can't make a snowball. However, you could use a machine to generate that pressure for you...what fun is that, though?

[DJlaysitup]

It's not the quality of the snow; it's the temperature.

Agreed, but I also think it's the lack of humidity. We would go golfing in the summer and occasionally it would hit 90 degrees +. Now doing that here in Georgia I would drink like five bottles of water and never have to take a p!ss...out there it was comfortable (in the shade). I'm telling you - it's Voodoo :biggrin:

I went fishing up past the E tunnel and set up my chair around a Beaver pond. I caught a few fish but mostly sat there with my right leg crossed over my left (wearing shorts). It was only like two hours and I got a sunburn bordering on sun poisoning. I was peeling layers of skin off my lower right leg at Thanksgiving.

Additional note: I went up in the mountains fishing with a couple friends once. It was 80 degrees around noon. We had a nice camp with modern-ish tents...temp dropped after sundown. We woke up early next morning because the tents were collapsing due to the snow.

Edited September 5, 2010 by DJlaysitup