Let's win this and head back to Atlanta!
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Let's win this and head back to Atlanta!
Must win. I work til 8 today so I'll be running home drom work grabbing dinner on the way so that I don't have to risk missing any of the action. I'll be more into this game than yesterdays even if it's a blowout simply because this may be the last time I watch the Braves until next April. (Don't count preseason)
I took the day off tomorrow because this is going to be a late night. Hopefully my loyalty to the team will be rewarded lol.
I think we'll score some runs off Nolasco. Five solid innings, or even four, from Garcia would be great. Carpenter and Kimbrel were not used last night. I expect those two to pitch three innings between them.
Rally caps ENGAGE!
Our season has come down to the community consensus negative poster making our GDT.
Oh my lord. :Bunchie1:
I'm not advocating either one really. But with the season on the line, I'd like to see us use our ace of the past 2 months, even if it's only on 3 days rest. I have no idea what to expect out of Garcia. He wasn't very good last year with the Yankees in the playoffs, and wasn't very good before we picked him up.
For many, it's the principle of go with what got you to the dance, not the scraps you found on the side of the road that was left for dead.
I personally would rather have Medlen in there just because, he helped us get to the dance. At the same time I'm not bashing Fredi for using Freddy.
Hopefully Fredi has Medlen in the pen ready to go if it's a close game and we need multiple innings. I'd rather burn him today than get eliminated while trying to stretch Garcia or by putting someone like Hale in there for too long. We won't have Wood available I presume, Avilan may not be available, so we're a little low on options.
Here's the best I can find on 3 days rest stats, draw your own conclusions:
http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/76...est_medium.jpg
I saw nothing out of Medlen that makes me think he would be more effective on short rest than Garcia will be.
Having said that, if Garcia's spot in the lineup comes up in the 2nd or 3rd with men on base, Fredi better PH for him. The BP should be able to handle 6-7 innings in an elimination game. They have all offseasone to rest if they fail.
Avilan threw 9 pitches last night. He will be available.
We are assuming that Avilan, Walden, Carpenter, and Ayala do not give up any runs at all.
Kimbrel likely pitches the 8th if we're down by a run me thinks.
All except the last three.
What are the chances you can get this or better than Garcia: 5 IP 3 Runs 3 Earned Runs
To be honest, my own expection from Medlen on three days rest and Garcia are about the same. I'm sort of neutral on this issue. Which makes me take exception to those claiming a compelling case one way or the other.
Probably not.
I'd still probably rather watch Medlen pitch. He didn't throw that many innings or pitches the other day anyways.
Like I said, I'm not gonna bash Fredi for going with Freddy because if Huddy or Beachy is not out for the rest of the season we're probably looking at a different scenario anyways.
I may or may not be able to post the lineups. My phone gets awful service inside, but I will try and take my lunch around 4:00 and I will check if they have been posted.
Lineup should be the same as it has been if we're trying to get maximum offense.
Crap. I take full responsibility for the loss last night. Friday night at the game around the 4th inning I took my hat, flipped it inside out and wore it for the remainder of the game. They played excellent since I made the change. Vowed I'd wear it the same way all through game 3. Totally forgot and look what happened. Crap. Someone remind me to wear my rally cap tonight, please.
Yup
Though I'll make a strong case for game 5 to start the game is put Gattis behind the plate and Bossman in CF. While we're taking a big hit losing Mac there, we massively improve our OF defense which really hurt us in game one costing us 2 runs minimum that normal defensive OF probably saves. Games when facing someone like Kershaw, defense is Magnified as is situational hitting. So having Mac off the bench may prove even more valuable. While he made solid contact against Kershaw in game one I'd take my defensive improving chances then bring Mac in later in the game as a PH for the pitcher/defensive replacement for Gattis. If we're in say the 7th and tied and there's a runner on second who would you want to call on more, Mac, or Reed?
There's of course a huge offensive risk to this strategy but given what our offense looked like on Thursday, I'll take my crack with the defensive first play.
This could be Garcia's last chance at a postseason start becuase chances are if we cut him, he's only going to go to a team desperate like Cubs or Twins or Miami.
Let's hope he's locked in.
Getting Hanley out would appear to be essential to our success tonight. He's 3-8 vs Freddy and 5-9 vs Medlen.
This isn't helping much, I know.
IBB Hanley every opportunity you can.
Problem is that right after him you have Adrian. So it's not like you get rest. I think we need to approach Hanley in a similar manner we approached Ryan Howard, heavy diet of breaking balls, preferably out of the zone. He kills fastballs, and he hits breaking balls well, but he smokes fastballs, we're more likely to contain him with breakingballs and hoping he chases a few bad pitches. He's the guy we have to focus all our attention on because keeping him off the bases makes life easier for handling the guys behind him.
Adrian other than the homerun and fisted single he hit, has looked somewhat human.
Hanley on the other hand... every swing he takes I cringe.
That's the problem, with maximum offense we're getting killed defensively. Balls that should be caught in left are dropping. Weather that be bloops where Gattis is playing so deep, or he misplays a ball off the wall (see Hanley's triple last night). I just think we have to find a happy medium. Two out of the three games there have been runs scored and innings extended bc his lack of defense has hurt us. Literally every ball is finding him. I don't want to lose his bat or take Mac out since he's hit Nolasco hard but damn if we lose tonight bc an inning was extended or a ball wasn't caught I don't know if I can handle that.
I agree that Hanley is the biggest threat, but putting him on 100% of the time isn't the solution either. Now if there's a runner on second, I'd probably agree with you I wouldn't throw him a pitch withing 6 inches of the plate. I'd try to get him to chase ball one and 2 and if he doesn't then I'd put him on.
Right now the Dodgers have 4 guys who're killing it so far, Hanley, Puig, A-Gon, and Uribe. They're the guys we have to gameplan for they're the ones who hurt us the most. Crawford has done well, AJ Ellis has done well (though I believe he was the benefactor of our OF defense game one IIRC)
BTW this is how our hitters are doing for ****s and giggles in OPS
Gattis 1.083
Freeman .801
Simmons .750
Heyward .692
Johnson .667
Justin .580
Mac .250
Elliot .091
Elliot and Mac are also the only players not on the Reds in the NL to not have a hit. 2 other Braves don't have extra base hits (Gattis and CJ)
The dodgers have basically power drained the Braves so far, so it would be really nice to have a power surge tonight. We have a lot of guys walking, a lot of guys hitting for decent averages. But no one is hitting for power since we have only 1 homer and 3 doubles through 3 games. Same total that the Reds had in their elimination game.
If we must lose, I want it to be in LA because I can't stomach another game 5 loss in Atlanta, and I want it to not be heartbreaking because I've had enough of that recently between this team, the Falcons and UGA in the postseason.
Now that we got that out the way,
let's go win us a damn baseball game. :tchop::rock:
MLBN is showing Garcia vs Nolasco in their trailer for the Tigers, A's game. Personally, I'd much rather see Nolasco/Kershaw than Kershaw/Grienke.
Media would know by now if he's throwing Kershaw, wouldn't they?