Loading ...Braves at Nationals, Game 1
Written by Jonathan on April 20, 2009 – 5:37 pmDerek Lowe takes on the Nationals tonight as their #1 prospect Jordan Zimmermann takes the mound in his major league debut. The Braves have lost six in a row in Washington and need a series win after losing five of their last six this season. The Nationals have done some roster shuffling recently after a dismal 1-10 start to the season – so Braves fans, remember it could always be worse.
Brian McCann is out of the lineup tonight as he’s still experiencing some eye dryness. He may need lasik surgery before he can return – hopefully that’s not the case. Either way, good thing Dave Ross got healthy just in time for this. Fortunately Chipper should play tonight – the Braves are a much better team when opposing pitchers have to think about pitching around him.
The Braves need to step it up and take at least 2 out of 3 from the Nationals. They’re an easy team to take it from – and we need to be back on track soon so we don’t fall behind early in the season. Hopefully our bullpen is less sucky without Blaine Boyer.
Braves: 2 Nationals: 3 |
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| Top 9th: | Kotchman walks and the Braves can do nothing with him. Nats win 3-2. |
| Bot 8th: | Rafael Soriano on th pitch. Dunn doubles to lead off the inning. Willingham hit by a pitch. Soriano strikes out two to get out of a bases loaded jam. |
| Top 8th: | Two outs in the half inning….rain delay. One pitch for the third out. |
| Bot 7th: | Rain’s coming down again. Eric O’Flaherty on to pitch for the Braves. 1-2-3 inning for the bullpen. That’s refreshing. |
| Top 7th: | Kip Wells on to pitch for the Nats. Schafer draws a two-out walk but doesn’t advance. |
| Bot 6th: | Dukes with a one-out single. Willingham singles past Chipper. Dukes to third. Flores singles past short. 3-2 Nationals. |
| Top 6th: | Quick 1-2-3 inning for Zimmermann. |
| Bot 5th: | Hernandez walks. Johnson singles past short. Two on with one out. Zimmerman grounds into a double play to end the inning. |
| Top 5th: | Ross walks to lead off the inning. Lowe pops up the bunt again and gets Ross and himself out on the double play. |
| Bot 4th: | Johnson walks to lead off the inning. Zimmerman singles to right. Dunn with a sac fly to the track moves the runners up. Dukes singles to right. Johnson scores. 2-1 Braves. Dukes steals second and intentional pass to Willingham to load the bases. Flores sac fly. 2-2 Game. |
| Top 4th: | Chipper triples down the right field line to lead off the inning. Kotchman pops out to short. Francoeur grounds out to second. Diaz turns on one for a two-run homer to left center. 2-0 Braves. |
| Bot 3rd: | Rain’s starting to fall again. Flores singles to lead off. No further damage though. |
| Top 3rd: | David Ross with a leadoff single. Sacrifice by Lowe fails and Lowe’s at first. Johnson singles to right. Double play ends the inning however. Nothing on the board. |
| Bot 2nd: | Lowe gets his second strikeout of the evening while notching another 1-2-3 inning. |
| Top 2nd: | Kotchman leads off with a double but is thrown out trying to take third on a passed ball. Francoeur strikes out but Diaz doubles to center. Left there by a Schafer flyout. Should have gotten a run out of that had Kotchman not caught the tough break. |
| Bot 1st: | Lowe responds with 1-2-3 inning of his own. |
| Top 1st: | Braves down 1-2-3 on 7 pitches. |
Tags: Brian McCann, Derek Lowe, Game Thread, Jordan Zimmermann, Washington Nationals
Posted in Game Threads | 2 Comments »
By Jonathan on Apr 20, 2009 | Reply
I'm all for the rain delay tonight. I'm stuck at work until 8 or so; good timing. Let's hope the offense from last night sticks around.
By dave on Apr 21, 2009 | Reply
It seems like we all had the answers during the off season. I think we have very good capabilities pitching and hitting. We have got to live up to our potentials. The starters as we all know are doing fine with a glitch here and there. The hitting the hitting, a team has to have consistency. You cannot not score 10 runs jump for joy about 1 game, and then score 0 to2 runs in the next 5 games. That is to much to ask from your pitching. I know our pen has been addressed, and may need some more. I don't know what is going on internally, but something has to change. When pitching gives up 3 runs, you should win the game 95% of the time. There is no excuse!!!!! I feel for Derek Lowe he is experiencing the same thing Smoltz, and Hudson did the past few years. It is time for the excuses to stop. I have tried to look on the bright side of things, but the dark clouds of doubt keep appearing. We need some flame throwers like every one else has in the bullpen that know what they are doing. I saw the same old Francoeur swinging low and outside, and high as his eyes. With no patience whatsoever it became infectious. I know hitting a baseball is not the easiest thing to do but you need a little patience. Many of the others followed Jeff's example. Something has to change. I know it's early, but I also know this is where you win or lose championships. The Marlins are showing how it should be done, and are gonna be had to catch. I know there not anything we can do except express our frustrations. I thought our run production would be more consistence, I still believe it can be. I will go ahead and say it we may need a new hitting, and pitching coach.