Can't even beat the bad teams

The Braves were beaten by the Nationals last night, 7-3. The Nationals have the worst record in all of baseball. Jorge Campillo was rocked, giving up 5 runs in 3-2/3 innings. Newly acquired Elmer Dessens gave up 2 runs in 1-2/3 innings in his season debut. Brian McCann had 2 hits and Greg Norton hit a pinch-hit homer. The two teams play again tonight at 710p. Jo-Jo Reyes pitched for the Braves. Jason Bergman pitches for Washington.

There are two games between ranked team in college football this weekend. Alabama plays Clemson and Missouri plays Illinois. Most of the other ranked teams are playing a soft opponent this week.

Quick post today

The Braves beat the Marlins, 4-2. That's a big surprise.

Ball State beat Division 1-AA Northeastern 48-14, no surprise at all.

See you tomorrow.

Out with the old, in with the new

The Braves lost to the Marlins last night, 4-1. Mike Hampton pitched a great game, giving up 3 runs in 8 innings. Blaine Boyer gave up a run in the ninth. Boyer has given up 10 runs in his last 7-2/3 innings.....not good! Jeff Francoeur had 2 hits and Martin Prado had the only RBI. Game three of the series is tonight at 710p. Charlie Morton will pitch for the Braves and Anibal Sanchez will pitch for the Marlins.

Mark Kotsay was traded to the Red Sox yesterday for minor league outfielder Luis Sumoza. Sumoza has just turned 20 and is playing pretty well in low class A ball. He is batting .301 with 11 homers in 51 games. Josh Anderson was called up from Richmond to take Kotsay's spot on the roster. Chipper Jones is second in the league in batting average, just .001 behind Albert Pujols.

But, the big story of the day is the start of college football. My alma mater, Ball State, starts it season tonight by hosting Northeastern. BSU is coming off of a season where they went to their first bowl game since 1996, which happened to be the fall of my senior year. According to the Sagarin ratings, BSU is a 13 point favorite. Game time is 7pm. GO CARDS!!!!

Great at the ends, bad in the middle

The Braves started the game off well against the Marlins, taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning. However, they were down 9-6 going into the bottom of the ninth. But, in a game reminiscent of the great teams of the 90's, the Braves scored 4 runs in the ninth to win the game 10-9. Yunel Escobar had the game winning single. All 8 starters had hits and 7 of the 8 had a RBI. Will Ohman got the win, taking Jair Jurrjens off the hook for his 6 run, 3 inning performance. Chipper Jones played in his 2,000th game, setting an Atlanta record. He is third in Braves history behind Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews in games played. The Braves and Marlins play again on Wednesday at 710p. Mike Hampton will pitch for the Braves and Josh Johnson will pitch for the Marlins.

There is news hitting the wire that Mark Kotsay could be traded to the Red Sox in the next few days. With Manny Ramirez gone, JD Drew hurt, and Coco Crisp not producing, the Red Sox need another outfielder to fill a spot. Kotsay probably was not going to stay on the Braves roster past this year anyway, so if we can get something for him, that would be a good thing.

It can't get much worse...

The Braves play the Marlins tonight at 710p. Jair Jurrjens pitches for Atlanta, Scott Olsen for Florida. The Braves are 9-21 in their last 30 games. But, it's almost time for the rosters to expand to 40 players so that we can see some of the young talent coming up through the ranks, so that could give us some hope for next year.

Is it bad that 2 Atlanta pitchers lead the league in appearances? Blaine Boyer and Will Ohman both have pitched in 69 games. However, Ohman has been decent with a 3.35 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. On the other hand, Boyer has not been good. His ERA is 5.16 and his WHIP is 1.27. On offense, Chipper Jones leads the league in batting average, but just barely, over Albert Pujols. Those are the only Braves on top of the leader board in the NL.

Some bright spots, but still a loss

The Braves were beaten by the Cardinals yesterday, 6-3. Jo Jo Reyes had a rough outing, giving up 5 earned runs in 5-2/3 innings. Manny Acosta pitched for the first time since July 6th and threw two scoreless innings. Martin Prado had 2 hits to raise his average to .339 for the season and .405 in his last 10 games. Chipper Jones was 1 for 3 and is now tied for the league lead in batting average with Albert Pujols. The minor league season ends next Monday, so it should be time to see some of our younger stars get some playing time for the big club. The Braves have an off day today, then play Florida on Tuesday.

The minor league teams for the Braves have not done very well this season. There are a few good teams, Myrtle Beach is 84-48 and is 15 games ahead of second place. The Danville Braves are 33-32. Mississippi and the GCL Braves are in second place. Rome, the DSL Braves, and the AAA Richmond Braves are all 12-27 games out of first place, so this is their last week of games.

Braves win! Braves win!

One day after getting blown out by the Cardinals, the Braves showed some fight in scratching out a 8-4 victory yesterday afternoon. Jorge Campillo started and gave up 3 runs in 5 innings, but ended without a decision. Buddy Carlyle threw two innings of scoreless relief to pick up his first win of the season. Carlyle has been great out of the bullpen only giving up 2 runs in his last 15 innings. Yunel Escobar and Martin Prado each had three hits. The guys really hustled in the game. Prado beat out a simple grounder to second for a base hit and Kelly Johnson had a 14 pitch at-bat in the ninth inning as the Braves added three insurance runs in the inning. Game three of the series is at 215p today. Jo Jo Reyes pitches for the Braves, Braden Looper pitches for the Cards.

The US mens basketball team beat Spain for the gold medal, 118-107. The US womens basketball team beat Australia 92-67 to win their gold medal. The closing ceremonies are tonight. The US will win the total medal count, but the Chinese will have to most gold medals. Most of China's medals have come in events that are judged.