I had the great fortune of seeing one of the best games the Atlanta Braves have played all year last night. I made the three and a half hour drive down to Turner Field and was treated to a great 9-8 extra inning affair with more twists, turns, homeruns, and Tomahawk Chops than I can remember. We had walk off balks, late inning heroics from a Dirt Dog, knuckleballs, and front row seats. I’ll give a few observations from last night’s game for those of you who may not have seen it, or been wise enough to go.
We’ll start with the pitching matchup. We had Mike Minor going against R.A. Dickey. Minor is looking less like the guy he did when he came up in 2010 and more like the guy that draft experts thought the Braves had reached for in the 2009 draft with the No. 9 pick overall. Minor better get it together or he’ll be stuck in that spot start spot for
Dickey throwing his knuckle from about 120 feet...Good luck
the Braves or another team going forward. R.A. Dickey however is one of my favorite baseball players for a few reasons. First, his name. Dickey is such an easy name to make fun of, its got to get old being R.A. Dickey. Second, I had a great view of him warming up yesterday and his knuckleball is awesome. The poor catcher was in full gear, had a first baseman mitt and still missed the ball three times. Dickey’s last pitch before going into the bullpen baffled his catcher so badly that he completely missed it and it hit off his chest protector. From my view, I could see the ball diving, shooting, rising, squirting, and staying straight. That seemed to be the problem from the get go: Dickey didn’t have control of his Knuck. He threw just 54 of his 90 pitches for strikes.
The Braves kicked off the scoring in the first with a loop single by Jordan Schafer, a walk from Jason Heyward and an RBI single from Chipper Jones. The Mets quickly rebounded posting 2 of their own in the 3rd. The Braves countered with a three run bomb by Chipper Jones on a 3-0 pitch from Dickey. I was sitting there quietly eating entirely too many peanut M&M’s when it went to 3-0, I turned to the person on my right and said homerun. Sure enough, Chipper smacks the first homerun of the game. If you’ve never been to a Braves game at Turner Field, you have no idea just how much Chipper is revered. Everyone in the stands loves the guy and absolutely hopes the best for everything he does. The place erupts when he walks up to bat and his strut to the plate oozes confidence (despite the fact that he’s a .266 hitter this year).
Anyway, top of the fifth and Mike Minor looses control. He walks two and gives up a single to Jason Bay. At 90 pitches, its time for the Braves to call on Scott Proctor. I thought Proctor looked really good. He was 94 with a slider and 77 mph curve mixed in. He made a mistake to Scott Hairston that was deposited into the left field stands for a 3 run bomb (tie game) but, struck out the other two guys he faced.
The PaintBrush won the tool race by a bristle
Jonny Venters comes in in the top of the 7th for a 2 inning hold. I saw Jonny before the game signing autographs and that just bumped his awesomeness up in my book. Venters hadn’t pitched in 4 whole days and it showed. His sinker was all the ay up to 96 and he was having some control issues. He walked two and allowed a run to score on a wild pitch. He gave up another run on a failed double play turn by Dan Uggla (great takeout
slide by someone on the Mets) that saw his ERA RISE to 0.63.
So, now its bottom of the 9th with the Braves down two. In comes K-ROD, who has been great so far this year. He faces Jordan Schafer and Jordan did not have a chance. Fastball, slider, chageup: Go sit down. Heyward singles and in come Brooks Conrad for the injured Chipper Jones (slight adductor strain after going 3-4). Brooks homers on the first pitch to deep right-center and Turner Field erupts. All is not forgiven, or forgotten, with Brooks but a few more homeruns like this will help Braves fans remember why we loved this guy through much of last season. The energy of a tying homerun like that is indescribable.
Bottom 10, Jordan Schafer follows a Diory Hernandez pinch hit double with his 5th single of the game. Schafer saw his average climb from .211 to .256 with his 5-6 performance. So we’ve got runners on first and third and all of a sudden, Jason Heyward starts celebrating. Many fans in the stadium had no idea what just happened but yours truly stood up, exclaimed “Thats a balk!” and began celebrating. The subdued excitement in the stadium underscored just how little these people know about the game or how much they pay attention.
Anyway, awesome awesome game. Its games like these that keep you coming back to the ballpark or keep you in tune with baseball. The excitement and tension is why I love baseball. Its such a simple game, but with so many different possibilities, you never know what you’re going to see. Go out to the game this week. You won’t be disappointed.
-Sean Morash
