To be honest, since it’s only the first day of May and the Braves are a half-game ahead of the Mets in first place in the NL East, little was needed to right the ship, but last week was a rough one.

The previously-blogged Hudson-’splosion, Bob Wickman blowing two saves, falling behind the Mets.

But last night Andruw’s walk-off homer was a huge lift. A nice punctuation to the beginning of a long homestand. Not quite a win for Hudson, but still a win for the Braves.

And Wickman may be on the DL, but better now than September.

Go Braves (and go home haters)!

Not today’s weather, but my tears last night as the Braves blew a lead in the ninth in the worst possible way.

Tim Hudson, bidding for a complete game, loaded the bases on 3 consecutive singles with no outs and Bob Wickman couldn’t stop the bleeding.

Talk about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

My question: If the Braves bullpen got so much better in the off-season (and has performed so well this season) why risk Hudson in a 3-run game? Why not just give Wickman the save opportunity earlier?

Or am I daft? Should I be armchair managing against Bobby Cox?

. . . is one month from today. Nothing says to me, “Spring is here!” like baseball season.

Friday, April 6th
7:35 PM
Vs. The Mets

You can see the full schedule here.

Sure, I’m one of those vocal Braves fans who thinks this is the year they finally lose their perch as a division winner. For me, it’s been a foregone conclusion since early June.

But the Braves, those wily Braves, have me doubting myself (and secretly chastising myself for losing my religion).

They’ve won 6 in a row, scoring 10 runs or more in the last 4.

Chipper had that 14-game extra base hitting streak, and still has a 17-game hitting streak alive.

The Bravos are only 5 games out of the wildcard.

Is there still time? Or are they just toying with all us with some kind of post-All Star trickery?

First, can (and will) the Braves make the playoffs and second, can (and will) they win the NL East?

Is it too late for me to say I’m sorry for falling off the Braves bandwagon? Is it too late to get back on?

Please forgive me and Go Braves! (And I apologize for all the questions.)

I was at the Braves game yesterday (groan!) so I’m glad to see this news:

“LaRoche said when he got to the dugout, Cox told him, “[Johnson] was out. But it shouldn’t have been close. You have got to start hustling.”
Cox said he wouldn’t discuss publicly any disciplinary measures or elaborate on the situation. He once famously pulled a young Andruw Jones off the field for not hustling, but there haven’t been any comparable incidents since.
LaRoche finished the game, then went to Cox’s office to apologize. Cox told him Brian Jordan would be in the lineup today for the series opener against Florida, and that he didn’t know what he would do beyond that.

Good. LaRoche should have been pulled out immediately for not hustling. The thing is I actually like LaRoche. When he’s hitting, he’s pretty good and he is, when he hustles, a pretty decent first basemen. Hopefully being benched today and all the booing he got from the fans yesterday will teach him his lesson.

The Hawks finished up their season tonight with a close loss to Cleveland, who rested most of their stars for the playoffs.

The Thrashers, in turn, also came up short in their bid to become a playoff team, narrowly missing their first trip to the playoffs but setting some wonderful team and individual records.

The Braves are looking to extend their streak of playoff appearances/division titles and held off the Mets 2-1 today.

My question is this: is anyone excited at all about the prospect of pro sports in Atlanta or are we all biding our time until October to witness another fizzle by the Braves and the return of Mike Vick and the Falcons to our Sunday afternoons?
(more…)

Well, they say that you try for a .500 win-loss record on road trips, so I guess going 3-4 isn’t too bad. But it was an ugly trip all the way through, I’m glad the Bravos are coming home. In fact, today’s loss was, I think, our best loss of the trip. Smoltz went 7 innings – the longest start so far – and apart from one inning (the 2nd) he was great. Chipper got injured, but it looks like he’s only going to be out a couple days.

On the plus side, Mickelson won the Masters again. So now we have the Phillies coming to town. Monday is opening night (but, remember, every day is opening day in Atlanta) and Wednesday is the 1966 team reunion night.

What a frustrating series. Sure, we won the series and all I ever ask for is two out of three games, but we won each game by one run. Note, we were up 11-5 in the first game and 8-5 in the third. The offense was great, scoring 24 runs in three games. Hopefully they can keep up this high level of production all year. It would also be easy to blame the bullpen for the high Dodgers scores, but the starting pitching wasn’t all that great either. Tim Hudson, Smoltz, and Horacio each gave up 5 in 4, 5, and 3 innings respectively. These are far from quality starts. However, yesterday showed some signs of hope. The Bravos battled back from a 5=0 deficit; the bullpen did a good job (especially considering how worked they’d been the last two games; and the offense kept clicking. And they did win 2 out of 3 – the only stat that really matters. We just need the starting pitchers to go pretty deep in this next series against the Giants – give the relievers some rest.

Next up is the steroid Bonds show in SanFran. Could there be a player who brings disrespect to the game and the fans any more than he does?

…in about 63 minutes.. Though it’ll be weird seeing Rafael on the other side of the diamond, I pretty psyched about opening day.

They start on Monday. Last night you could’ve gotten a preview at Turner Field. If you missed it, here’s a picture. And you can see them in 15 minutes also.