Game 1: 3/31 @ Washington
Final: Braves win (2-0)
Headline: A great start to the Gonzalez Era.
Recap
Derek Lowe and four Braves relievers shutout the Nats earlier today in the first game of the season. After living in Florida for most of the last 6 weeks, the Bravos had to play their first real game in cold, rainy Washington D.C., where they have always struggled. It was a nail biter, as the Braves were only able to muster 2 runs of their own. Facing Livan Hernandez for the four thousandth time in the last 15 years, Atlanta got just 5 hits all game.
The Braves did all of their damage in the first 2 innings. With two out and none on in the 1st, Chipper Jones pulled a 3-2 pitch down the line in right for a hit. Jayson Werth was playing CJ to pull, but with the field soggy, Chipper was thinking double all the way and he made it easily. He looked great. It could end at any moment, but today he did not look like a guy who needed to hang it up. Brian McCann—who did not have a good spring—swung at the first pitch he saw from Hernandez and sent it back where it came from and through into center. CJ scored standing to put the Braves on top 1-0. Dan Uggla hit a ball deep to center but he got it off the end of the bat and it stayed in the park for the final out in the 1st.
Jason Heyward led off the Braves’ 2nd with a rising liner that landed in the seats in right for a homer to make it 2-0. With that, Heyward became just the 2nd player in the history of baseball to homer in the first game of his first two seasons. The other guy was Kaz Matsui, but that shouldn’t take anything away from the accomplishment. By the way, they both did it in their first at bat of their first two seasons as well.
El Cerdo de Cuba (“The Cuban Pig”) totally settled in after that, setting down the next 15 Braves batters in order, as Atlanta went 1-2-3 in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th. Hernandez threw 6.1 innings and needed just 71 pitches to do it, firing 51 for strikes. He gave up 2 runs on just 4 hits with 3 K’s and did not walk a batter.
Meanwhile, Derek Lowe held the Nats scoreless despite some early scares. Washington got back to back singles to put runners at the corners with only 1 out in the 1st. It looked like the Braves’ lead would last less than an inning, but Lowe got Adam LaRoche to pop out and got Mike Morse on the ground to strand the runners. D-Lowe stranded a runner in scoring position in the 2nd inning as well, before hitting his best groove of the day, which included striking out the side in the 3rd. Rick Ankiel walked with two out in the 4th, but Brian McCann dugout a low pitch and gunned him down trying to steal for the 3rd out of the inning.
Lowe was solid, making big pitches every time he had to. He did leave a couple of pitches up that might have been homers if the game had been played in different conditions. Ankiel led off the 2nd and hit a pitch high and deep to right. It appeared that Lowe himself may have thought it was gone off the bat, but it stayed in the park for Heyward to catch. Adam LaRoche went the other way with a pitch leading off the 4th and sent Martin Prado to the warning track, but again it was just a scare.
In warmer weather those balls might have had more carry. Both of those drives would have been in the seats in Philly. On the other hand, Lowe knows what kind of conditions he’s pitching in, and while both LaRoche and Ankiel just missed going yard, the end result was a pair of outs. Pitching with a 2-run lead from the 2nd inning on, there was no reason for Lowe to nibble against the first batter of an inning. He walked 2 in the game, but those free passes were more the result of good at bats by Ankiel and Zimmerman than a lack of control by D-Lowe.
Lowe was in command all day but he went to several full counts and eventually ran his pitch count high. After getting the first couple of outs in the 6th, Lowe lost Ryan Zimmerman on a 3-2 pitch that missed low, and Freddy Gonzalez brought on Eric O’Flaherty. Lowe smiled as he left the mound. It was hard to tell if he wanted to go one more batter or if he was smiling about how close he had come to getting through 6 innings. He left after throwing 105 pitches, and ended up throwing 5.2 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits (all singles) and 2 walks, while fanning 6.
EOF gave up a 2-strike hit to LaRoche to put the tying runs on. Mike Morse then hit a hard ground ball to the left side, but Alex Gonzalez back handed it and tossed to second for the force to end the threat.
Mac led off the 7th with a ground ball up the middle that went just under a diving (rolling?) Ian Desmond for his 2nd hit of the game. Livan was removed with one out in the inning and Jason Heyward drew an excellent walk off of left Doug Slaten to put two on with one out. The Nats brought on Tyler Clippard and he put away Alex Gonzalez and Freddie Freeman to keep it a 2-0 game.
EOF gave up a 1-out double in the bottom of the inning, but he got Ivan Rodriguez on the ground, and then Peter Moylan came on and made Lance Nix look like a fool. Johnny Venters set down the Nats in order in the 8th, with A-Gon and Freeman combining on a nice play to retire Werth.
Chipper got another solid hit in the 9th, but the score stayed 2-0. Craig Kimbrel was called on to finish it off. He fell behind LaRoche 3-1, but came back to get him to fly harmlessly to left. With the first man out of the way, Kimbrel seemed to relax and he dominated the final two hitters. He blew Morse away with a fastball moving up and in. Then he froze Ankiel for the final out, finishing off the 2-0 victory.
Tough Day at the Plate
Chipper (single, double), Mac (2 singles), and Heyward (homer) combined to go 5 for 10 with a walk, 2 runs scored, 2 RBI, and 1 K. The rest of the Braves went 0 for 21 with 4 K and no BB. Mac nearly had a 3-hit day, but LaRoche stopped his hard ground ball and tossed to the pitcher for the first out in the 4th.
McLouth and A-Gon probably had the worst days at the plate. Gonzalez went 0 for 3 with a K and did not hit a ball hard. He struck out with two on and one out in the 7th, going down swinging on a tough 3-2 pitch from Clippard. McLouth was 0 for 4 with a strikeout and saw only 12 total pitches. He did not hit a ball hard in any of his 4 at bats.
Martin Prado was 0 for 4 but he worked the count in his first two at bats as a leadoff hitter should. He led off the 6th with a liner to right that looked like a hit but Werth was playing shallow and was able to make a sliding catch.
Dan Uggla was 0 for 4 with 2 strikeouts in his Atlanta debut, but he did hit a couple of balls hard. Uggla drove the ball deep to center for an out to end the 1st, and in his last at bat he pulled a ball hard into the left field corner but it landed just foul.
Freeman’s Debut
Freddie Freeman’s day at the plate did not turn out well but he really shined defensively, making some great picks and scoops on throws to first base. On the offensive side, Freeman went 0 for 3 and saw just 9 pitches. I’m still not sure if batting 8th is a good spot for him. Freeman is not a big walk guy, and an 8th place hitter is going to be given quite a few opportunities to walk due to the pitcher being the guy behind him in the order.
Sometimes I want my #8 hitter to extend the zone. Say there are two outs and runners in scoring position and the opposition decides to go with the “unintentional intentional walk.” I might want the #8 hitter to be aggressive because he might have a better chance of getting a “bad ball” hit than the pitcher would of hitting a BP fastball right down the middle.
However, most of the time I want my #8 hitter to take a walk if the pitcher isn’t giving him anything to hit. If there are less than two outs then the pitcher can sacrifice him to second and give the leadoff man a chance to drive him in. If there are two outs, we probably won’t score any runs this inning, but taking a walk will clear the pitcher and bring the leadoff man up to start the next inning.
This may not be Freeman’s forte. I don’t claim to be a Freeman expert, but from all I’ve heard he is a guy who looks to swing the bat. It’s not that he’s a hacker; it’s just that he doesn’t take as many close pitches as someone like Heyward.
Against Washington, Freeman came up for his 2nd at bat with one out and no one on in the 5th. He had a decent at bat, taking the first 3 pitches for balls, and then taking a strike to make it 3-1. However, the 3-1 pitch from Hernandez was low and off the plate, but instead of taking it for a walk, Freeman chased and fouled it weakly behind him. He hammered the next pitch in the air to deep left center but Ankiel ran it down for the 2nd out. Freeman’s worst AB was his last. With two on and two out in the 7th, Freeman went after Clippard’s first pitch and flied out to shallow left to end the threat.
The Bullpen Protects
The Atlanta pen gave everybody a nice boost of confidence in the opener, protecting the 2-0 lead after Lowe came out in the 6th. Despite allowing a couple of hits, O’Flaherty looked sharp in his inning of work. Moylan came on and put away a left handed hitter in a tough spot with ease. Venters breezed through the 8th and Kimbrel was dominant in the 9th. The 4 relievers combined for 3.1 scoreless innings on 2 hits with 3 strikeouts and (most importantly for me) no walks.
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