Braves Lose Three in Dodger Series

I watched the walk off home run from Matt Kemp not one hour ago and I'm not exactly a happy person right now. The biggest problem here is that first base was empty, and they decide to pitch to Matt Kemp, who is probably having the best season to date in all of baseball! Ever heard of intentionally walking a guy to face a lesser batter?

I'm going to take a different approach in this article. I'm actually thinking of taking a little break from game recaps until (if) they start putting something together. It's frustration and even a little anger that I don't really need to deal with. Best to avoid it all together.

Wednesday

Braves 1, Dodgers 6

So I was right about not getting too excited about some eight runs in the 9th inning the night before. The Braves decided to go to sleep again against a fairly mediocre pitcher named Jon Garland. The guy pitched a complete game. Derek Lowe, who was pitching off three days rest (who knows why) got knocked around. The bullpen has been pitching an awful lot lately. Any team that has a struggling pitcher is eagerly waiting in line to face the Braves, because this team is making every pitcher look like a Cy Young winner. The same can be said for any struggling hitters. "Hey, I can't wait till I face that Braves starting pitching." they say to their teammates before the series. The boxscore is linked in "Wednesday" so take a look.

Thursday

Braves 3, Dodgers 5

The Braves actually managed to score three runs off of Clayton Kershaw, who is a nasty and good pitcher. I expected to come home from work seeing the usual 0 in the box next to ATL. Manger Fredi Gonzalez decided to sit a couple of players for rest/off day. They were good choices after all. Jason Heyward is in a pretty good slump at the moment. He's not even hitting .200. Brian McCann was the other, and usually when there is a day game following a night game, he gets a day off. Kershaw is a lefty pitcher and both Heyward and McCann are lefty batters.

They were in extra innings when I got home, and then I realized that the Dodgers scored a run in the bottom of the 9th to tie it. Well, blown save for Craig Kimbrel. He's going to allow a run once in a while, but this was definitely the wrong time to do it. I read on a message board that he was getting squeezed pretty good by the ump. Who knows, probably just excuses.

The only positive in Thursday game was Freddie Freeman. He was 2-3 with two walks and a home run. Funny how this works. There only seems to be one player in the lineup doing really well while the rest is doing o-fers.

* The schedule isn't getting any easier. The Braves will be playing World Series Champion San Francisco Giants for the next series. Tommy Hanson will be on the mound tomorrow. Madison Bumgarner will be the opposing pitcher. Bumgarner is 0-2 with a 7.36 ERA to start the season. So, if I had to take a guess. He will turn it around rather easily tomorrow throwing at least seven scoreless innings.

I realized I feel slightly better about the Braves after writing this.