Braves Dominated By Marlins

Written by Smitty on April 16, 2008 – 9:14 am

I’d like to consider myself a good sport.  Sure, I can trash-talk with the best of them. Especially if it’s about giving the Mets a hard time.  But generally, I am good about recognizing excellence, even when it comes in the guise of a non-Braves uniform.

And I’d like to be able to tip my hat, in a gentlemanly manner, to Marlins starter Scott Olsen. Sure, he went seven innings without walking a guy or giving up a run. I’d like to say our team just knuckled under to his superior talents and couldn’t score on his pitching wizardry.

But I can’t. Because he stinks.

Not as a person, maybe, but as a pitcher. Every number he had last year was considerably worse than the year before. In fact, the fish, as a team, had one of the worst ERA’s in baseball headed into tonight.

So what happened? Simply put: the Braves stunk worse.

At every turn, we (and yes, I will continue to say “we” when the team loses) gave up opportunities, failed to wake up the offense, and above all, really let down Jair Jurrjens’ solid showing. To be honest, Jurrjens has not pitched a bad game this season.

The Braves went down to Florida hoping to compensate for the recent spat of pitching injuries by busting out some offense on one of the WORST pitching staffs in baseball.  Alas, it was not to be so.

Want to know how bad? You sure? Ok, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Six hits-with two apiece coming from two different players.  Never mind that Jurrjens went six and gave up only two earned runs.  And the two that Ohman walked in didn’t improve matters any. But say he hadn’t walked in two. That would leave us still with a big fresh goose egg in the offensive column.

Yes, I am a “homer.” I drink from the Braves Koolaid^TM 24/7. But I also pride myself on calling a black cat black. And the Braves just stunk tonight.  We’ve got to find that one thing that can turn this around. Any suggestions?

Well, on the bright side, Kelly Johnson’s hitting streak was extended to 11 games.

Tags: Florida Marlins, Jair Jurrjens, Kelly Johnson, Scott Olsen, Will Ohman
Posted in Game Analysis |

Braves Face First-Place Marlins

Written by Jonathan on April 15, 2008 – 6:43 pm

It’s only a dozen games into the season, but I don’t think many people had the Marlins at the top of the potent NL East at any point this season.  Nevertheless, as the Braves (5-7) head into Florida to start a three-game series against the Marlins (7-5), that’s exactly the case.  The Braves currently find themselves in fourth place with only the Washington Nationals behind them.

The Miami weather will be a nice change for the Braves who have played their last two series in Colorado and Washington.  Tonight, Jair Jurrjens (1-1, 4.38) faces off against Scott Olsen (1-0, 4.61) in the series opener.  It will be interesting to see how the bullpen fairs after today’s events where we lost yet another reliever.  Peter Moylan was placed on the 15-day disabled list with an elbow strain and is back in Atlanta for an MRI.  Hopefully he won’t be gone long.  Buddy Carlyle has taken his place for the time being.

The Braves have faired well against Scott Olsen in the past, scoring 10 runs in 4 innings against him in the last outing between the two.  The offense has been streaky at best lately so hopefully they can find their stride tonight and we can see Jair go deep into the game to take a little stress off our bullpen tonight.  Sidenote: it’s Jackie Robinson Day (Mark Kotsay will be sporting the #42 tonight; Bo Porter is doing so for the Marlins).

Tags: Florida Marlins, Jair Jurrjens, Peter Moylan, Scott Olsen
Posted in Game Threads |