Wednesday 29 September 2010

Better Late Than Never

After collecting a Major League best 25 last at bat wins why did any of us even consider that this Braves team might make it easy on us. After entering last week easily within striking distance of the NL East lead they proceeded to get swept in Philadelphia and drop two of three against the Washington Nationals. The black cloud that enveloped Braves country following the Nats series was all consuming and, despite only being half a game back in the wild card, it felt that the season had prematurely ended in the most depressing of ways. But it seemed like that in 25 games previously, the team was down and getting no offence before a timely contribution from an unlikely hero. Apparently the Braves had that script rewritten on a much larger scale. They entered the last month of the season a lock for the play-offs, they entered the final week of the season outside play-off position, were they disheartened? Downtrodden? Uninspired? Not in the slightest. In the span of 20 innings and two thirds of this Marlins series everything has changed.

It started on Monday with Tommy Hanson pitching like the ace he projects to be next year, he pitched 7 2/3 innings allowing five hits, no walks and a single earned run. Not that the offence gave him help as they scored 1 run while Tommy was in the game. This is something Hanson is starting to get used to, in 17 starts since the end of June Tommy has posted a 2.51 ERA and collected just three wins. A side note on that is how classy Tommy as been throughout it all, he has never complained, never sniped about it, he just goes out every 5 days and does his job. Even when Hanson left the game with two outs in the eighth, and with the possibility of pitching on three days’ rest on Friday, the team could not muster any runs until deep into the cold Atlanta night. When the moment came, as it repeatedly has late in games for the Braves, Omar Infante delivered as big a hit as he has all season driving Nate McLouth on a two out RBI single and somewhat softened the blow of losing Martin Prado. It also put the Braves into the wild care lead thanks to the Padres losing to the Cubs.

After the late drama Monday the second game of the series Tuesday night was a little less dramatic, but a whole lot more important. Once again starting pitching set the tone with staff ace Tim Hudson going on three days’ rest and spinning a gem, he went six innings and allowed only 1 run despite giving up 11 base runners. He wasn’t dominant but he was good enough to keep the Braves in the ball game and, in that situation, is all the management could ask for. Then came the explosive seventh inning that started with the introduction of young closer-in-waiting Craig Kimbrel, more on that later, followed by Melky Cabrera’s lead-off single that started the biggest rally of the Braves season. Following Alex Gonzalez’s sac bunt came Brooks Conrad who has turned the seventh inning and beyond into ‘Brooks time’ and, as he has done all year, he delivered a devastating RBI triple to right center field that tied the game. With Conrad stood on third Eric Hinske followed Brooks’ shot with one of his own that travelled higher and deeper and a long way out of the ballpark. As it sailed out Eric let out all the pent up emotion that has built up within all the Braves players, it was the big hit the team had needed all month.

The key however to these first two games against the fish has been the sterling work of the bullpen, and the use of it by Bobby Cox. This series especially has seen the bullpen used as if this was a play-off series and given hope that the season may end with Jonny Venters arm still attached to his body. Bobby as begun using match ups a lot more, using lefty’s like Michael Dunn against lefty hitters. What has impressed most about the bullpen has been the fireballing duo of Billy Wagner and the aforementioned Craig Kimbrel; they have so far combined to pitch three innings in this Marlins series, all when the game was on the line and have allowed no hit, no runs and struck out 8 of the 9 outs via strikeout. In September Wagner has pitched 11.1 innings without allowing an earned run, picking up 6 saves and striking out 20, the Wagner mini-me that Kimbrel has become has pitched 9.2 innings has not allowed an earned run either and has struck out 20 while only allowing 6 base runners (3 hits, 3 walks). The effectiveness of the bullpen has also been helped by Bobby’s realisation that Kyle Farnsworth should not pitch in any games outside of spring training.

The likelihood is that Hanson, Hudson and Lowe will all start the Phillies series on three days’ rest which means that, as impressive as the bullpen has been, it will have be even better for the season’s final four games. Great teams have great bullpens and win tight games; the Braves have ticked both boxes so far this week.