A Massacre at Hook Park
Braves pitchers wild in the strike zone,
Dodgers capitalize with 11-0 Victory
It's never a good sign when you arrive late to a game to find players from the team headed toward the parking lot, heads down, not saying much of anything. It's really bad when these same players, stars of the team appear to have just put on their uniform, no grass stains, no rips no blood, (I think they still had that spring fresh smell to them.)
But such was the case last Thursday as the Braves fell hard to the Dodgers in yet another bame which featured the Dodgers big three all hitting big flys. For Saxon Andross, it was his third of the season, gave him four RBI on the day and proved to provide the runs necessary to show mercy to a Braves squad which was shut out for only the second time all season. Eric Turner started the Party with a two run shot in the first, his fourth round tripper this season and one of his three hits on the day. Turner would finish the day with 3 RBI as well. The hottest Dodger of late however dare I say turned "white hot", with a three for four day at the plate that included his fourth homerun of the season and three more RBI's. 10 RBI's from three guys is never a good thing, although 8 from one player (as Braves fans know) is even worse.
Equally as impressive was the performance of the pitching staff for Tye Andross' Dodgers.
Reggie Lawson simply over matched the Braves bats, allowing one hit and two walks over 5 innings. Lucky as the Braves have been this season, winning 9-0 the Dodgers decided to bring in Andross for an inning of work. Andross Worked a scoreless 6th to seal the shutout for the Dodgers. Reports indicated that both Lawson and Andross were throwing hard enough to break in a catchers mitt made out of steel
The Report is very aware of this being the Braves page, very aware that in most cases this page favors the Braves squad, however this particular game featured very few highlights to speak of for Ken Woods Squad. Johnny Huizar lasted 3.1 innings, but allowed 8 earned runs on six hits, two walks and a hit batter. Josh Marquez finished up the game allowing another 3 runs on five hits and a walk over 1.2 innings. Marquez may have been the one positive in the field for the Braves (Other than a couple of nice plays in center by Rick Rivera). Marquez by no means shut down the Dodgers, but numerous reports indicate Josh was throwing his hardest all season Thursday. A positive to build on in the demoralizing defeat.
At the plate, more of the same. Two hits....in six innings. The first a double off the bat of Bryant Valenzuela and the second, a lead off single off Andross by Rivera in the sixth. Braves hitters also only drew three walks. One of those three was an intentional one to Jose Martinez in the first inning. All and all its a game all Braves need to just forget and move on to Saturdays contest against the Padres. Yes the Padres.....again!
In searching for some positive to build on for the Braves Coaching staff, THE REPORTS statistical department compiled some very interesting information. If it is fair to say that the hardest throwing pitchers in the league are Bates, Lawson, Andross, Turner and Anderson (not necessarly in that order guys, calm down) than it would be fair to see how each teams top players faired against them. We pulled the numbers for a handful of the regular players on each team vs these pitchers, the rest of the league and overall. In calculating the success rate we discovered something far more interesting. At Bats vs the flame throwing arms of Ribbons were amazing. On average, Braves hitters have seen serious Ribbons heat some three times as many as any Padre or Dodger bats. While Dodgers and Padres faced these hard throwing righties, an
average of 4 plate appearances. None of the big three arms on the Dodgers ever faced Saxon Reggie or ET, because they are them. Solomon may have roped Kaleyl and vice versa but they never faced each other either. But Jose Martinez had 13 at bats against those five arms. The Braves saw one of those arms in all 19 innings against the Dodgers and in the three games vs the Padres so far..... Bates pitched the entire first game, and Bates and Kaleyl combined on the mound in two and three. The Braves starting 9 on average encountered this dominance on the hill, in Braves batters faced theses same pitchers an average of 13 times during the same season. This is not an excuse for Ken and his team, just a reminder that the Braves are one shut down arm like Reggie or Solomon away from . With a little luck, the Braves Report may have some proce tags more.we could have some six pitchers still returning
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