What’s worse about this loss is that we managed to leave more men on base than the last few games (13). Over the course of the last three games we’ve left a total of 31 men on base. That really needs to stop and our hitting needs to be more timely in key situations, especially since our bullpen can’t really hold a lead or close game right now. We really need to get better in clutch hitting. Also, it doesn’t help when we send the same guys out there that keep blowing games out of reach to hold a game. Buddy Carlyle and Chris Resop should not be brought in to shut down games at all. Obviously, it hasn’t worked yet for them and it probably won’t but every once in a blue moon. But Bobby keeps sending them out there nonetheless like he forgets what they have (or haven’t rather) done during games lately.

This was one of those games that just crops up every now and again. The Braves hit plenty, in fact they had base runners every single inning. But, when it came time to get them over and get them in, it just didn’t happen, inning after inning after inning. The Braves actually out hit the marlins tonight, but not when it counted.

ESPN - Marlins vs. Braves - Box Score - April 23, 2008

Great, these guys. I really think they have our number somehow, whether they’re good or bad. Maybe it’s the teal.

Smoltz secured his 3,000th strikeout and more and the offense didn’t even show up to help him get the win. I know we’re not going to win every single game because even the “best team in baseball” *insert your choice team here* loses games at some point. Your team isn’t going to gel every single time you play. Mac hit the nail on the head when he said last night was “disappointing.”

As one of the best left-handed pitchers ever, Warren Spahn will be forever remembered in baseball lore. Possibly without a three-year stint in World War II, Spahn may have been the third pitcher with 400 wins. Still, Spahn enjoyed a stellar career that would leave him with the most wins by a left-hander during the live ball era.

ESPN - Nationals vs. Braves - Box Score - April 22, 2008

It was a great day for Smoltz. As has already been mentioned in the blog, he achieved the milestone of 3000 strikeouts. Only 15 other pitchers in all of baseball have matched that accomplishment. He will forever by immortalized along side other greats like Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Don Sutton, and Phil Niekro. That is a heady group, that Smoltz belongs with. Congratulations, John.

John Smoltz recorded his 3,000th career strike out in the 3rd inning of tonight’s game vs. the Nationals. The new trivia answer is that Felipe Lopez is the victim.

It seems like we’re always playing these guys. Also, two-game series are stupid.

Tonight Smoltz goes for #3000 in strikeouts. For Talking Chop’s NAHWAL (Noc-A-Homa-Win-A-Lotta game that fans play for fun and prizes) for today, I predicted that Smoltz would strike out Ryan Zimmerman in the 3rd inning of tonight’s game for #3000. Just thought I’d include that in the post. We’ll see how it goes.

The Braves just continue to roll. After sputtering out of the starting block, everything is finally starting to click and we are seeing the team we thought we had at the end of spring training. That makes five wins in a row for the Braves and for the first time this season, we are over .500.

ESPN - Nationals vs. Braves - Box Score - April 21, 2008

I thought of posting all the videos U2 did for “One” in honor of all the one-run losses, but there wasn’t enough room.

This idea was actually thought out by DOB in his latest blog, since he thoroughly believes we won’t be able to sign Teixeira for $20 million+ per year. At first, my being partial to KJ kind of kicked in, and I was thinking, “he has got to be kidding.” But I read most of the blog, I could then see where he was coming from, and it is something to think about; it wasn’t actually that bad of an idea.

This idea was actually thought out by DOB in his latest blog, since he thoroughly believes we won’t be able to sign Teixeira for $20 million+ per year. At first, my being partial to KJ kind of kicked in, and I was thinking, “he has got to be kidding.” But I read most of the blog, I could then see where he was coming from, and it is something to think about; it wasn’t actually that bad of an idea.

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I believe I said in a past recap, that for the Brave to succeed certain thing had to happen. I’m pretty sure two of those things were, Tex needed to start hitting and the pen needed to perform. Well, looks like those two things have happened, and the results have been pretty good. When the starting staff gets back and healthy we are going to be the team to beat, if not sooner.

ESPN - Dodgers vs. Braves - Box Score - April 20, 2008

Hey, it’s the third game of the series, I have to tie this stuff together somehow.

So we’ve won three in a row and we’re slowly but surely building our confidence back up after the first few unlucky weeks with the injuries and what not. If we sweep the Dodgers, that will only make things better. It seems Hiroki Kuroda hasn’t done badly, but he is 1-1. If we hit smart and actually bring guys in when guys get on base, we should be ok. We left a total of nine men on base in yesterday’s game (ten in Friday night’s game) and that’s becoming our downfall, except for the offense coming alive during the latter innings of the games. At least we’ve learned how to take some walks now, we did have five yesterday. Plus, our bullpen isn’t sucking right now either, which is always good since most of the guys in the ‘pen are shaky at times. Maybe the baseball gods felt bad and thought they’d give us better luck for a little while. Even if some of our guys still have yet to start anything that resembles hitting, not naming names though, which I probably don’t have to, unfortunately.

I love it when things work. We had good pitching, from what has become an unlikely source, Chuck James. We had good hitting from what has come to seem like and unlikely source, Tex. Can’t forget, we had good relief from what one can only consider and unlikely source, the Brave’s pen.

ESPN - Dodgers vs. Braves - Box Score - April 19, 2008

I don’t mind guys leaving the Braves as free agents so much. But why do they have to sign with the Dodgers? I’d almost rather they became Mets. Ugh.

Tonight, it’s easy to know who to start with, Chipper. Last night, he said he was, “starting to get comfortable.” Well, I’d have to argue, he is locked in. Tonight, I gotta say, the entire team did well. Bennett did more than we could have expected, the pen held and the bats came through. We need more games like this until Glavine, Smoltz, and Hampton get back to 100%.

ESPN - Dodgers vs. Braves - Box Score - April 18, 2008

You know that I now weigh less than Andruw? This is not a good thing, what with him being a professional athlete and all.