Sports Page Atlanta

Atlanta 11, Arizona 4 (box)
Richmond 3, Durham 2 (box)
Jacksonville 8, Mississippi 4 (box)
Lynchburg 5, Myrtle Beach 3 (box)
Rome 4, Charleston 2 (box)

MLB - Atlanta: The big club won their third straight against Arizona in big fashion. The team had 14 hits with four players (McCann, Escobar, Infante, and Kotsay) getting multiple hits in the game. Brian McCann drove in four and hit a home run in the first inning. He also stole his 4th base of the year. Jair Jurrjens won his 11th game as he pitched seven innings allowing three earned runs, seven hits, and striking out 6 while walking two.

AAA - Richmond: The R-Braves got ten hits yesterday with five players (Josh Anderson, Diory Hernandez, Jason Phillips, Corky Miller, Wes Timmons) each with two hits a piece. Phillips hit his 2nd home run of the season and Anderson stole his 35th base. Matt DeSalvo struck out 11 in 5.2 innings, but didn’t factor in the decision as Brad Nelson got the win in relief. Jorge Julio saved his 6th game.

AA - Mississippi: Mississippi scattered 11 hits with Reid Gorecki getting three of them but couldn’t score enough runs to overcome a late barrage by Jacksonville. Glavine took the loss in his rehab start where he threw five innings and gave up four hits and two earned runs. His start was solid and the Braves have announced that Glavine will come off the DL and start Thursday against the Cubs.

Adv. A - Myrtle Beach: Tyler Flowers hit two doubles and had three of the Pelicans seven hits in a losing effort against Lynchburg. Former Gainesville High School standout Jon Owings hit his 16th home run of the year. Jeff Lyman took his 6th loss of the year as he gave up two earned runs in three relief innings.

A - Rome: Rome had four runs on 11 hits last night, none bigger than the two runs in the top of the 10th driven in by Cody Johnson and Chad Lundahl to give Rome the go ahead runs they needed. Craig Kimbrel earned his 2nd win of the season as he pitched two scoreless innings to finish out the game and hold off Charleston. Kimbrel struck out three and didn’t walk a batter.

Brian McCann had 3 more hits yesterday and now is batting .303 this season. He also has a .298 career batting average. That average is the highest batting average by an Atlanta Braves catcher ever by players with at least 1,000 career at-bats in an Atlanta uniform.

Here are the top 4

1. Brian McCann: .298
2. Joe Torre: .290
3. Javy Lopez: .287
4. Biff Pocoroba: .257

By the way, McCann only trails Javy Lopez and Earl Williams for the most home runs by an Atlanta Braves catcher (but he will need a lot more homers… McCann has 67 and Lopez had 214).

San Francisco 3, Atlanta 2 (box)
Richmond 5, Durham 4 (box)
Jacksonville 10,  Mississippi 9 (box)
Myrtle Beach 9, Kinston 6 (box)
Rome 1, Charleston 0 (box)

MLB - Atlanta: This one-run game skid has got to stop soon. Today marked the 26th time in a row that the Braves lost a one-run ball game. Brian McCann collected three of the Braves five hits as Tim Lincecum is proving just hot tough of a pitcher he really is. Chuck James struggled again allowing three runs and five hits in four innings. James gave up another home run today (his 10th in seven starts) in the first inning to Aaron Rowand.

AAA - Richmond: Josh Anderson made it two games in a row with a home run as he led the R-Braves to a 5-4 victory going 3 for 4 with two doubles, a home run and two RBI. Brandon Jones kicked in another two RBI as he went 2 for 4. Damian Moss got the win in relief (his 4th) and Jorge Julio saved the game (his 5th). Starter Jo-Jo Reyes went only five innings giving up four runs and seven hits.

AA - Mississippi: Starter Calros Sencion only made it 3.2 innings as he gave up four earned runs, three hits, and struck out four while walking six. But, the M-Braves scored some runs, and Sencion wasn’t on the hook for the loss. Matt Young, Greg Creek, and Jose Camarena each had two RBI for the M-Braves and the team even took an 8-7 lead into the ninth inning. But Luis Valdez gave up three earned runs and three hits in the 9th to blow his 8th save of the year and take his third loss.

Adv. A - Myrtle Beach: Willie Cabrera was in left field instead of the DH spot tonight, but he continued to swing a hot bat going 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI in the Pelicans 9 to 6 victory. Most of the offense came from Randy Gress’s three RBI and Eric Campbell, who hit his 17th home run and went 1-4 with two RBI. Georgia Southern’s own Dustin Evans gave up a home run Carlos Rivero, but managed to lock it up and earn the win in relief (his 2nd). Nick Fellman earned his 6th save of the season as he struck out two and walked one in 0.2 innings.

A - Rome: 20-year-old Jeffrey Locke earned his fifth win of the season as he pitched six shutout innings, allowing five hits and striking out five while walking two. And continuing with the trend of 20-year-old pitchers, Craig Kimbrel earned his third save as he pitched a scoreless ninth inning, striking out two batters. Rome only managed five hits tonight, but scored on a fielding error by Charleston pitcher Jairo Heredia.

Brian McCann suffered a concussion in yesterday’s game against the Phillies when Shane Victorino crashed into him at a play at the plate in the 6th inning.

McCann will most likely be out for a few games.  His offensive output will certainly be missed as he is the leader of the Braves in a category that the team has struggled all season.

The Braves are batting a combined .264 with runners in scoring position this season. 

Here are the Braves leaders in batting average with runners in scoring position for players that have at least 50 at-bats in the situation…

Brian McCann - .310

Chipper Jones - .3099

Gregor Blanco - .297

Kelly Johnson - .293

Mark Teixeira - .284

The Braves resume playing tonight as they take on the Washington Nationals.

Here is how some of the current Braves have done at the all-star break the last 3 seasons…

Chipper Jones: 2008 - .376 avg  18 hr 51 rbi

                            2007 - .329 avg  15 hr 41 rbi

                            2006 - .315 avg  11 hr 50 rbi

Brian McCann: 2008 - .302 avg  18 hr 53 rbi

                            2007 - .262 avg   9 hr 49 rbi

                            2006 - .343 avg  6 hr 29 rbi

Mark Teixeira: 2008 - .271 avg  17 hr 69 rbi

                            2007 - .302 avg  12 hr 41 rbi

                            2006 - .275 avg    9 hr 49 rbi 

Jeff Francoeur: 2008 - .234 avg    9 hr 44 rbi

                            2007 - .289 avg   10 hr 58 rbi

                            2006 - .260 avg   17 hr 63 rbi

Colin, over at Braves Blast, just posted the first part of a two-part serialized article concerning whether or not the Braves should make a run for the championship this season or cut their losses and rebuild for 2009. Today, he posted 10 Reasons To Pull Out The Stops. Tomorrow, he’ll go in reverse and tell us why the Braves should rebuild.

This is good stuff here, and I’d like to comment on a few of his reasons from today.

• “They have Mark Teixeira until the end of the year and he’ll make a huge contract year push.”

I think Colin is right here. Teixeira will have a great second half, due in part to his impending free agency. He’s already begun to feel his power stroke as his nine home runs in June more than doubled his power output for the season. There’s no reason to believe that Teixeira cannot approach 40 dingers this season. My worry is that Scott Boras over prices Teixeira, and the Braves are left searching for a clean-up hitter and first baseman in the off-season. But, to make a run in 2008, the Braves must have “Big Teix”, or receive one hell of a hitter in return.

• “Chipper is chasing .400″

While this was neat as Chipper was above the .400 mark, it’s kind of a moot point now. His June batting average was almost 100 points lower than his March through May batting average, and his July batting average, although we’re only nine days in, is 70 points lower than his June. However, he’s having a superb season, and staying relatively injury-free. It’ll be fun to watch Chipper just do the things that make him a Hall of Fame worthy third baseman. But, Chipper is done flirting with .400, so don’t expect those kind of heroics.

• “Brian McCann is showing everybody why the Braves traded away their starting catcher so he could play as a rookie.”

McCann is the biggest ray of hope that this Braves team has. He’s arguably the best offensive catcher in Major League Baseball, and if it weren’t for the fan support for Cubs rookie Geovany Soto, should have been the NL All-Star starting catcher. His batting average (.293) is higher, his slugging percentage is higher (.547), he’s scored more runs (39), hit more homes (17), and even stolen a base. I’m not taking anything away from Soto, as his numbers are very similar to McCann’s. But McCann should be starting in NYC, and he’s definitely a reason for anyone to come out to “The Ted” to see one of the essential cogs for this 2008 Braves team.

Chipper Jones and Brian McCann made the all-star game roster this season.

Chipper is making his 6th appearance and Brian his 3rd.  Both players have a long way to go to catch up to the great Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Stan Musial.  Those 3 Hall of Famers made it 24 mid-summer classic’s each.

Although Hank Aaron made it 24 games, he represented the Atlanta Braves in 9 of those games.  The 9 games is the most by an Atlanta Brave…

Most games in the all-star game as an Atlanta Brave…

Hank Aaron - 9

Tom Glavine - 8

John Smoltz - 8

Dale Murphy - 7

Chipper Jones - 6

Greg Maddux - 6

Chipper Jones and Brian McCann are going to represent the National League in the 2008 All-Star Game this month at Yankee Stadium. 

This is Chipper’s 6th all-star game and 5th as a starter.  To no suprise, he is a .400 hitter in all-star competition as well.  He is batting 4-for-10 with a home run.  1996 was his first all-star game and 2001 was his last.   In 2000, he went 3-for-3 with that home run which came off of James Baldwin in a game that was played at Turner Field.

McCann is making his 3rd all-star game as a reserve.   He is a career 0-for-2 in the classic.  He grounded out to short in 2006 and flew out to short in 2007.

The Braves made it kind of interesting last night, but fell short to the Phillies by the score of 7 to 3.  The game could have been tied, but Mark Teixeira struck out with 2 outs in the 9th with the bases loaded.  A few pitches earlier, Teixeira blasted a shot that was just foul.

It would have been the 2nd grand slam hit by a Brave this year.  Kelly Johnson hit a pinch hit grand slam against the Mets back during the first week of the season.

Here are the number of grand slams hit by the current Atlanta Braves…

Chipper Jones - 6 (although last one was back in 2001)

Brian McCann - 4

Mark Teixeira - 3

Mark Kotsay - 3

Kelly Johnson - 2

Greg Norton - 2

Jeff Francoeur - 1

Charlie Morton did more than what was asked for when he took the mound in his major league debut on Saturday. The 24-year old got the victory over the first place Los Angeles Angels throwing 6 strong innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, striking out 4 while walking just one.

Morton was a 3rd round pick of the Braves back in 2002. That draft has worked well for the Braves.

Jeff Francoeur was their first pick overall in that draft going 23rd. Pitcher Dan Meyer was the supplemental first rounder that year. In the 2nd round the Braves picked up Brian McCann. Later in the 2nd they picked up shortstop James Greene, but in the 3rd came Charlie Morton. In the 20th round they picked up Chuck James who has had on-and-off success for Atlanta.