May 31 2008
Road mojo catches up to Chipper in extra-inning loss at Cincy
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
Reds 3, Braves 2 (11 innings)
Top of the Order: Just when you think Chipper Jones is immune to the Braves’ road woes, the best player in the majors this season goes 0-for-5 and makes an error to allow the winning run to score as the Braves dropped the opener of a three-game set.
The Good: Tom Glavine bounced back from his worst start of the season with a solid performance: five hits, two runs, two walks and five strikeouts in six innings. Will Ohman, Manny Acosta and Jeff Bennett combined for four scoreless innings of relief. Kelly Johnson and Brian McCann each had two hits, McCann raising his average to .326. Mark Teixeira drove in a run, giving him nine RBIs in the past five games.
The Bad: Jones hasn’t spent much time here this season, but he falls squarely in the bad category this morning following his worst game of the season: zero hits (his major-league lead average “plunging” to .409), four runners left on base, and the error on Brandon Phillips’ grounder that allowed super-phenom Jay Bruce to score the game winner. Royce Ring took the loss, allowing two hits in facing three batters in the 11th. Yunel Escobar had a rough night on the bases: a caught stealing, and then he tried to catch Francisco Cordero napping on the mound (much as he did to Jose Valverde in Arizona last year), but was cut down. Mark Kotsay finally was placed on the disabled list (Josh Anderson was promoted from Triple-A Richmond).
View from the Sports Garage: Well, everybody’s going to have one of those nights at some point in time. We’ve become so accustom to Jones getting two and three hits a game and playing great defense, that a night like Friday is just shocking to the soul. Truth be told, no one player wins or loses a baseball game by himself (although the Bruce kid in Cincinnati looks like he may win a few by himself; man, that dude is special). It’s almost funny in a way, when you consider Chipper has been unstoppable everywhere, even as poorly as the Braves have played away from him. I guess the road mojo (or lack thereof) finally caught up with Larry Wayne. What can you do? Glavine pitched well. So did Cincinnati starter Edinson Volquez, although the Braves became the first team this season to score more than one earned run off the majors’ ERA leader. The real shame isn’t in Jones’ performance, it’s in the numbers after Friday: 7-19 on the road, 2-15 in one-run games (0-for-12 away from home), 0-4 in extra inning games. Do these sound like stats for a playoff team? Nope. The Braves opened the season two months ago today with a – you guessed it – one-run loss on the road. Who could know that night in D.C. would be such an ominous omen for a team that finds itself 2 ½ games out of first place?
On deck
Braves at Reds
3:55 p.m. today, Great American Ball Park
The Skinny: Jair Jurrjens (5-3, 2.86 ERA) looks to bounce back from a less-than-Jurrjens-like (let’s invent an adjective here on a Saturday morning) outing vs. Arizona on Monday, when he allowed eight hits and three runs in 4 2/3 innings. More problematic than his line were the two blisters that formed on his thumb. Better believe the Braves will be watching Jurrjens closely today to see if those blisters give the 22-year-old problems. Yet again, JJJ is pitching after a Braves’ loss, and his team needs a good performance. Climbing the bump for the Reds will be Josh Fogg (1-2, 9.00 ERA), who found out Thursday night he would make the start today. He’s pitched this season as if in a fog (I know, that was horrible, but it’s early). Fogg started the season in the rotation before being banished to the bullpen after three horrid starts. The Braves lit him up for six hits and five runs in relief on May 4, and need to put the hammer down on him again today.
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