GDT 9/13/13: Padres (Kennedy) @ Braves (Hale) 7:30 PM

[bravesnumberone]

Like I said, you don't want this Washington team in the postseason in a short series. Braves do need to get their **** together and actually do something against the Padres. I'm ****ing sick of it.

[gcbraves]

In fairness, a lucky grab of Mac's line drive with runners on by Kennedy was flukish at best. The dude wasn't even looking and just stuck his glove up at the right time to avoid being killed by it. That inning and the game could have been very different had the ball not found his glove.

[Garmel]

In fairness, a lucky grab of Mac's line drive with runners on by Kennedy was flukish at best. The dude wasn't even looking and just stuck his glove up at the right time to avoid being killed by it. That inning and the game could have been very different had the ball not found his glove.

This. Also, look at the hits that the Padres had last night. In the inning when they scored two runs they had four soft hits in a row. You can't do anything about that. Pure luck.

[Braves1976]

One inning is ok.

In the 7th with Avilan/Walden/Carpenter ready, it just makes no sense at all.

Agreed. It cost us the game, it wasn't Walden being rusty or only scoring three runs. We had a three run lead late enough to hold on with our bullpen but mismanaging it cost us the game. Loe pitching in a one run game was bad too, but so is him being on the team. I just hope this Ayala usage is not a playoff preview. If it is we'll go out pretty fast IMO.

[Braves1976]

get cunningham in there in CF

terdoslavich has been garbage as well

Joey T's issue is similar to that of Gattis previously. He hasn't been starting enough to stay sharp (or to break a slump). Plus it's not easy to have success pinch hitting starting so little. But I guess he'll need to get use to it if being on our bench next year is his future.

[Braves1976]

I don't think any of what Fredi did last night was horrible. But there were three things we can nitpick at:

1) Leaving Ayala in for the second inning

2) Walden just pitched his first game in weeks in Thursday. Does it make sense to use him in back-to-back games right off the bat? To me there are risks of two kinds here. One is the risk of re-injury. You want to ease a guy back in especially when the regular season is not that big a deal anymore. Also there is the risk his arm needs a little time to round into the kind of shape it needs to be in for him to pitch effectively on consecutive days.

3) Twice Fredi made a move to get a platoon advantage relative to a hitter and twice Bud Black just burned that hitter by going to the bench. It seems to me that when the rosters expand in September, the kind of moves Fredi made to get the platoon advantage don't make much sense because the other manager has so many other options on his bench.

I was thinking the same on all three points.

[NYCBrave]

I don't think any of what Fredi did last night was horrible. But there were three things we can nitpick at:

1) Leaving Ayala in for the second inning

2) Walden just pitched his first game in weeks in Thursday. Does it make sense to use him in back-to-back games right off the bat? To me there are risks of two kinds here. One is the risk of re-injury. You want to ease a guy back in especially when the regular season is not that big a deal anymore. Also there is the risk his arm needs a little time to round into the kind of shape it needs to be in for him to pitch effectively on consecutive days.

3) Twice Fredi made a move to get a platoon advantage relative to a hitter and twice Bud Black just burned that hitter by going to the bench. It seems to me that when the rosters expand in September, the kind of moves Fredi made to get the platoon advantage don't make much sense because the other manager has so many other options on his bench.

Point number three was my biggest issue last night.

[Braves1976]

Point number three was my biggest issue last night.

Bud Black made Fredi look bad, that's for sure. The expanded rosters helped of course, but Fredi knows about that so no excuse.