Braves-Nats series thread

[ATLien]

ESPN says Chipper had a stomach virus.

LMAO @ Frank Robinson and the ump starring.

[General]

Todd Hollandsworth made his first start for the Braves tonight and went 1-for-3 with a walk.
But he blew it in the seventh when he wandered too far off second after a failed bunt attempt and wound up getting thrown out when he broke for third. Hollandsworth will steal a little playing time from Kelly Johnson and/or Ryan Langerhans, but it won't be enough to give him any value in NL-only league

[General]

We lost, 4-3. Booo.

[General]

Braves owning Armas..batted around! Frenchy hit a HR! So did Chip! 7-1 Braves. Smoltzie on the mound, shouldn't be a problem for him.

[ATLien]

7-3 now

Castilla was caught running back to first after a routine pop fly, though.

[ATLien]

7-7 now

Can the BP not walk every batter they face for once?

[General]

I swear to ****ing god..if the Braves can ever get 20 saves in a row, I'll eat my pants.

[General]

I hate Brower. I ****ing HATE HIM.

[ATLien]

They call him Mr MVP.

Andruw walk off HR, Bravos win.

[General]

That was awesome right there!

[General]

ATLANTA (AP) -- Andruw Jones trotted slowly toward first, admiring the flight of his high drive. By the time he reached home plate, his grateful teammates were there to swallow him up.

NL wild-card standingsTeam W L Pct. GB Phillies 72 62 .537 -- Astros 71 62 .534 ½ Marlins 70 63 .526 1½ Mets 69 64 .519 2½ Nationals 69 65 .515 3

Jones led off the bottom of the 10th inning with his 44th homer, giving the Atlanta Braves an 8-7 victory over the Washington Nationals on Thursday night.

The Braves squandered a 7-1 lead before salvaging a split of the four-game series with their NL East rival.

Jones was mobbed at the plate, his teammates jumping on top of him and pounding his helmet. After he finally escaped the pile, Chipper Jones came over for one more playful shove.

"Andruw," manager Bobby Cox said, "without him, we might be smelling trail dust out there."

The crowds at Turner Field have certainly gotten behind their Gold Glove center fielder, chanting "MVP! MVP! MVP!" every time he comes to the plate. He leads the majors in homers and the NL with 110 RBI, not to mention his always-spectacular play in the field.

"Those are the things that MVPs are made of," Chipper Jones said.

Luis Ayala (8-7), pitching for the first time since Aug. 21, got ahead in the count 1-2 and then tried to blow a high fastball by Andruw Jones.

Big mistake.

He sent a drive toward the seats in left-center, the ball seeming to hang up forever as he watched it along the first base line. Brad Wilkerson and Marlon Byrd both leaped at the wall, but the ball settled in the first row.

"I just looked for a pitch to drive," Jones said. "I had a couple of swings at it. I missed the first, then he came back with a high [pitch] and I had a good swing on it."

Kyle Davies (7-3), called up from the minors earlier in the day, got the win with three scoreless innings. He watched the game-winning homer from the on-deck circle.

"Welcome back," Davies said. "That's got to be at least the fourth time I've seen him do that. They keep trying to sneak a fastball by him, and he keeps hitting it a mile."

Jeff Francoeur hit a three-run homer and Chipper Jones added a two-run shot for the Braves, who were cruising early.

Chipper Jones' homer came in the first, and the Braves scored five more times in the third, highlighted by Francoeur's 11th homer since being called up from Double-A in early July. Also in the inning, Rafael Furcal scored on a wild pitch and Andruw Jones drove in his first run of the night with a groundout.

Vinny Castilla had four RBI as Washington fought back to tie it, despite a couple embarrassing blunders on the bases.

Castilla hit a two-run single off John Smoltz in the fourth but then took off running on a one-out fly to center and was easily doubled off by Andruw Jones' throw back to first.

In the fifth, the Nationals put the first two runners on, and newcomer Deivi Cruz lined a single to right with one out. Coach Dave Huppert wisely held up Byrd coming around third rather than challenge Francoeur's strong arm in right.

But Huppert appeared to throw up his hands a little too late, and Carlos Baerga got caught in a rundown between second and third. Byrd and Baerga both wound up at third -- Baerga was out -- and Smoltz escaped the inning when Jamey Carroll flied out to right.

The Braves then turned things over to the bullpen, which couldn't hold the lead.

Washington scored four runs in the seventh with two outs. Jim Brower, another of the Sept. 1 call-ups, walked Jose Guillen with the bases loaded. Macay McBride did the same with Nick Johnson. Dan Kolb took over and did even worse, giving up a two-run single to Castilla that tied it.

But the stirring comeback didn't matter. Andruw Jones made sure the Braves still won.

"He's carrying that team by himself," Castilla said. "You always knew he has great talent. He has all the tools to become MVP."

Jones drove in all five runs in Atlanta's other win in the series, one in which the Nationals desperately needed to take at least three of four to make up ground on the division-leading Braves. Washington remains seven games back, in last place in the highly competitive NL East.

"He beat us both games," Castilla said.

Tony Armas lasted only four innings for the Nationals, giving up seven runs.

Smoltz wasn't his usual overpowering self and said afterward that he was bothered by a sore neck. He labored through five innings, giving up seven hits, three runs and striking out only two.

[General]

Yet another Braves-Nats series..and yet another ownage HR by Andruw! Numero 46 was a 3 run shot and put the Braves up by 4. Laroche also has an RBI.

[General]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jose Guillen broke a tie with a two-run double in the eighth inning for his 1,000th career hit, capping the Washington Nationals' comeback for an 8-6 victory over the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves on Friday night.

Guillen's big hit came on the first pitch from reliever Dan Kolb. As he stood on second base, Guillen pumped his fist, then clapped his hands over his head, while the portable stands at RFK Stadium shook as they haven't for some time.

"I'm pretty sure if we lost, the season was done," Guillen said.

Gary Majewski (3-3) pitched a perfect eighth for the win, then gave way to closer Chad Cordero. He got three outs for his franchise-record 44th save, striking out Todd Hollandsworth and Rafael Furcal to end it.

Washington snapped a three-game losing streak that left them fourth in the NL wild-card race.

And things sure looked bad Friday for the Nationals, who faced a 6-2 deficit after Andruw Jones hit his major league-leading 46th homer in the fifth off starter Esteban Loaiza.

It wasn't just that deficit. It was also that Washington's bullpen was worn down and its offense has been the worst in baseball. But the Nationals fought back.

Jones doubled in a run in the first off Loaiza, then scored on Adam LaRoche's double to make it 2-0. After the Nationals tied it 2-all against starter Horacio Ramirez, the Braves got to Loaiza for four runs in the fifth.

The big hit was Jones' three-run homer on a 3-2 pitch. Left fielder Marlon Byrd grabbed the wall and jumped, the top of the padding peeling away in his hand, and the ball sailed just beyond his glove.

As Jones rounded the bases, the score 6-2 and his NL-best RBI total at 118, a contingent of Braves fans down the right-field line yelled "MVP!" over and over while doing the tomahawk chop -- making the outfielder right at home and drawing jeers from other parts of the announced crowd of 36,295.

Jones is one homer shy of tying the franchise mark, set by Eddie Matthews in 1953 and equaled by Hank Aaron in 1971.

The Nationals cut their deficit with Preston Wilson's RBI single in the fifth off Ramirez, and Vinny Castilla's 11th homer, a solo shot in the seventh off reliever Kyle Davies. The ball landed in the upper deck in left, and was the first homer off Braves pitching in 34 2-3 innings.

"We showed today that we still believe," Castilla said.

When Davies walked the first two batters in the eighth, he was replaced by John Foster (4-2). Pinch-hitter Jamey Carroll bunted the runners up, and Brad Wilkerson doubled down the right-field line to score both and tie it at 6.

Foster walked pinch-hitter Carlos Baerga and was lifted for Kolb, who started the season as Atlanta's closer.

Ramirez allowed three runs -- two earned -- on six hits and three walks over five innings.

Loaiza gave up six runs and 10 hits in six innings, his home ERA rising from 2.51 to 2.88. What was worst for Washington was that his exit meant more work for a bullpen that already had been forced to throw 19 innings over the previous three days.

But Jason Bergmann, Majewski and Cordero held Atlanta in check.

Game notes
Atlanta made two errors. ... John Wetteland saved 43 games for the Montreal Expos in 1993. ... Nationals OF Brandon Watson entered in the sixth as a pinch-hitter and singled, but was caught stealing by Johnny Estrada. Watson was charged with an error in the seventh on the first ball hit to him in left field, then was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the eighth.
---

Any more evidence that Kolb should not be pitching in the post season?

[General]

Andruw with his 48th HR, and Smoltz is owning the Nats. 6-2 so far.