We ran into a buzzsaw named Beckett

The Braves lost to the Red Sox last night 4-1. Josh Beckett continued his dominance of Atlanta by throwing 7 innings of shutout ball. Jair Jurrjens pitched for the Braves and did well, as usual, and did not get any run support, as ususal. Jurrjens pitched 8 innings and gave up 3 runs, but the offense was non-existent. Casey Kotchman had 3 hits and David Ross had a solo homer. The teams play today at 415p. Javier Vasquez will pitch for the Braves while Tim Wakefield will pitch for the Red Sox.

Drew Storen pitched his first scoreless inning in pro ball last night. He gave up one hit and struck out one batter. In three innings of work this season, he has a 9.00 ERA and 5 strikeouts.

What the hell is wrong with Derek Lowe???

The Braves started off poorly and never got on track, losing to the Yankees 11-7. Derek Lowe gave up 6 earned runs over three innings to continue what has been a rough last few weeks for him. I wonder if he is hurt of if he is just getting fatigued? In the 2009 season, when Lowe pitches on four days rest his ERA is 6.48, but when he has more than 4 days rest his ERA is 2.51. Maybe that extra day helps him rest a little bit, he is 37 years old. Anyways, the bullpen tried to keep the game close and only gave up 2 earned runs over the last 6 innings. Fielding was an issue as 3 errors, two by Yunel Escobar and one by Chipper Jones, led to 3 unearned runs. The offense was good against Yankees starter Andy Pettite. The Braves pounded out 13 hits with 4 players having two hits each (Martin Prado, Escobar, Garrett Anderson, and Jeff Francoeur). Escobar added 3 RBI. Right now, the Braves are 4 games behind Philly in the NL East and 5.5 games back in the wild card race. The Braves host Boston tonight at 735p. Jair Jurrjens will pitch for the Braves and Josh Beckett will pitch for the Red Sox.

I will be in Alaska for the next week, so my posts may be spotty. Have a great week!!!!

A line drive to the neck changed the ballgame

The Braves lost to the Yankees last night 8-4. Kenshin Kawakami pitched 3 innings of no-hit ball until he was struck in the neck with a line drive off the bat of Joba Chamberlain. Kawakami walked off the field, but was replaced on the mound by Kris Medlen. Medlen and the rest of the bullpen proceeded to give up 8 runs over the next six innings. You can't use the bullpen's big three (Moylan, Gonzalez, Soriano) every night, but it would be nice to get some help from the others every once in a while. The offense got 8 hits, 2 each from Jeff Francoeur and Chipper Jones. One of Francoeur's hits was his fifth home run of the year. The rubber game of the series is tonight at 710p. Derek Lowe will pitch for the Braves and Andy Pettite will pitch for the Yankees.

LSU scored 5 runs in the sixth inning to beat Texas 11-4 to win it's 6th NCAA baseball title.

The best way to win a game is to hold the other team scoreless

The Braves had back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 2005 in beating the New York Yankees 4-0. Tommy Hanson pitched very well, throwing 5 1/3 shutout innings to increase his scoreless streak to 13 2/3 innings. The three-headed bullpen monster of Peter Moylan, Mike Gonzalez, and Rafael Soriano threw 3 2/3 innings of hitless baseball to seal the deal. Brian McCann had 3 hits and 2 RBI, including a double and a home run. Garrett Anderson had a 2-RBI double. The teams play again tonight at 710p. Kenshin Kawakami will pitch for the Braves and Joba Chamberlain will pitch for the Yankees.

Texas beat LSU 5-1 in the second game of the College World Series championship series. Taylor Jungmann threw a complete game and Texas got all 5 runs over the first three innings to cruise to a victory. This sets up a winner-take-all game tonight at 700p.

Lance Lynn got his 6th win of the season as the Springfield Cardinals won 5-2. Lynn threw 91 pitches over 5 1/3 innings allowing 2 earned runs on 8 hits, no walks and striking out 4. Lance is 6-2 with a 4.04 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 55 innings.

Playing just well enough to win

The Braves struggled on offense again, crazy right?, but the pitching was brilliant as they beat the Cubs 2-0. Javier Vasquez scattered 9 hits in 6 2/3 innings to get his 5th win of the season. The usual bullpen of Peter Moylan, Mike Gonzalez, and Rafael Soriano pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, only giving up 1 hit. The pitching staff forced the Cubs to leave 12 men on base in the game. The Atlanta offense had 8 hits, but 4 of them were doubles. Tonight, the Braves host the Yankees at 710p. Tommy Hanson will pitch for Atlanta while the struggling Chien-Ming Wang will pitch for New York.

In the College World Series, Texas hit 5 home runs but could not hold on to leads of 3-1 and 6-4, eventually losing to LSU in 11 innings 7-6. Game two of the best-of-three series is tonight. If LSU wins, they will be the National Champions.

Lance Lynn will pitch tonight for the Springfield Cardinals. Lance is 5-2 with a 4.11 ERA and made the Double-A All-Star team. It is an important game for the Cardinals as they are tied for the first half lead and this is the last game of the first half of the season.

You have to defend the lead

The Braves started off well on Sunday afternoon, but could never defend the lead or get over the hump of a tie game and lost to the Red Sox 6-5. In the top of the first, Brian McCann had a two-run double that put Atlanta ahead 2-0. However, the Red Sox scored three in the bottom of the first to take a 3-2 lead after one inning. After the Red Sox added one run in the fourth inning to take a 4-3 lead, the Braves fought back and scored two runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Gregor Blanco and Nate McLouth. But, once again, Atlanta could not stay tied and gave up a run in the bottom of the seventh to go down 5-4 after 7 innings. A Garrett Anderson RBI single in the 8th tied the game at 5. But, for the third time in the game, the Red Sox came back. This time Nick Green hit the first pitch in the bottom of the ninth for a home run to give the Red Sox a 6-5 victory. The Braves hung in the game, but could not get hits when they needed them. The offense had 14 hits, led by Yunel Escobar and Martin Prado's 3 a piece. Jair Jurrjens gave up 2 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. However, the three unearned runs that he gave up were due to his error in the first inning. The Braves have a make-up game with the Cubs tonight at 710p. Javier Vasquez will pitch for the Braves. Atlanta is 4.5 games behind Philadelphia in the NL East and 5 games behind the Giants in the NL wild card race.

The College World Series best-of-three championship series starts tonight at 7pm. #3 seed LSU and #1 seed Texas will play for the title.

Drew Storen struggled again in an innings worth of work for the Class-A Hagerstown Suns last night. Storen was brought in to pitch the sixth inning with Hagerstown clinging to a 2-1 lead. He struck out the first two batters, but then gave up three straight hits (double, single, double) that led to two runs. He then struck out the last batter of the inning. His inning included 3 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 strikeout, a blown save and the loss.

When aces collide

The Braves sent their ace Derek Lowe to the mound on Saturday while the Red Sox sent their ace Josh Beckett. The Braves came out on the wrong side, losing to Boston 3-0. Lowe gave up 3 runs in 6 1/3 innings. He has 6 quality starts in his last 7 games, but only two wins in that stretch. That is mostly the problem of the offense, the same offense that got 5 singles, struck out 7 times, grounded into 2 double plays, and only got one runner into scoring position last night. The final game of the series is at 135p today. Jair Jurrjens will pitch for the Braves.

According to the Indianapolis Star, Brownsburg catcher Tucker Barnhart will sign with the Reds after being drafted in the 10th round of the MLB draft. Some of the reason for his decision were that he can always go to college after baseball, being drafted by a team that is close to home, and he will be given 4th round money as a signing bonus.