Kansas City Royals @ Atlanta Braves Game Thread (4/16)

[alnorth]

Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
KC (7-6)	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	3	9	1
ATL (12-1)	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	4	X	6	9	3

Chris Getz hits his first home run since July 19, 2009



Jeremy Guthrie 7IP 2R 2ER 1BB 6K 2HR
Loss, (1-1) Kelvin Herrera ⅔IP 4R 4ER 1BB 0K 3HR
Aaron Crow ⅓IP 0R 0ER 0BB 0K

VS.



Kris Medlen 7IP 2R 1ER 0BB 5K 1HR
Win, (3-0) Eric O'Flaherty 1IP 0R 0ER 0BB 2K
Luis Avilan ⅓IP 1R 1ER 0BB 0K
Craig Kimbrel ⅔IP 0R 0ER 0BB 1K

Home Runs

KC

Chris Getz, yes that Chris Getz. Really, I'm serious, (1) - Top 3rd solo shot to right

ATL

Juan Francisco, (2) - Bottom 2nd solo shot to right
Juan Francisco, (3) - Bottom 7th solo shot to center
Jason Heyward, (2) - Bottom 8th solo shot to left
Justin Upton, (8) - Bottom 8th solo shot to left
Dan Uggla, (3) - Bottom 8th solo shot to left

AL Central

Final: BOS 7, CLE 2
Final: CWS 4, TOR 3
Final: LAA 6, MIN 8
Final: DET 6, SEA 2

Starting Lineups

KC

1. Alex Gordon, LF
2. Alcides Escobar, SS
3. Eric Hosmer, 1B
4. Salvador Perez, C
5. Lorenzo Cain, CF
6. Mike Moustakas, 3B
7. Jeff Francoeur, RF
8. Chris Getz, 2B
9. Jeremy Guthrie, P
9. Kelvin Herrera, P
9. Aaron Crow, P
9. Billy Butler, ph

ATL

1. B.J. Upton, CF
2. Jason Heyward, RF
3. Justin Upton, LF
4. Evan Gattis, C
5. Dan Uggla, 2B
6. Juan Francisco, 3B
6. Jordan Schafer, pr
6. Luis Avilan, P
6. Craig Kimbrel, P
7. Chris Johnson, 1B
8. Andrelton Simmons, SS
9. Kris Medlen, P
9. Blake DeWitt, ph
9. Eric O'Flaherty, P
9. Ramiro Pena, 3B

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Huh?

Upton's blast was an inside changeup at his eyes. Uggla's was 99 and center-cut.

They weren't diving out there at all - Herrera was making it easy for them.

Watching that swing from Uggla makes me wonder if Alnorth wasn't right, though. Uggla was absolutely sitting dead red there. I don't really think Upton was (afterall, a righty hitting a hung changeup from another righty is about the easiest thing in the world). Heyward...I dunno - he looked like he was just doing what you were supposed to do against a power pitcher - sit fastball and adjust breaking ball. Heywards shown a slider-speed bat all year and he just happened to use Herrera's velocity against him.

I don't see that the Braves batters did anything 'wrong'.

They weren't. They knew what was coming and swung for the fences. They were hacking without a care in the world, knowing Herrera wasn't going to throw inside. The fact in this game was that the Braves wanted to hit home runs to win the game... and the Royals were trying to hit singles all game.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Al Bundy

They weren't. They knew what was coming and swung for the fences. They were hacking without a care in the world, knowing Herrera wasn't going to throw inside. The fact in this game was that the Braves wanted to hit home runs to win the game... and the Royals were trying to hit singles all game.

Herrera rattled quickly.

I mentioned it in that game where he closed the sweep against the Twins. He came in during that save situation and man, when he stayed within himself his stuff was as filthy as anyone you'll see.

But every 3-4 pitches or so he'd just uncork one. And that was with a 3-run lead. I wondered at the time if maybe he wasn't putting a little too much pressure on himself and if he needed to relax a little.

Today was the same thing. He gave up a HR on what was really a pitchers pitch (I mean c'mon - Heyward had no business getting that ball out) and as a result he started overthrowing.

And Sal could learn a little bit from that as well. I think it was someone in this thread that mentioned he looked a little over-amped after the Heyward bomb. If you can see it, Perez can as well. It might not have hurt for him to take a trip to the mound to calm his young pitcher down.

I said it when he gave it up - the Braves are good. There's no shame in losing to these guys. And 2 great young players you guys have can learn a lot from it, IMO.

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Herrera rattled quickly.

I mentioned it in that game where he closed the sweep against the Twins. He came in during that save situation and man, when he stayed within himself his stuff was as filthy as anyone you'll see.

But every 3-4 pitches or so he'd just uncork one. And that was with a 3-run lead. I wondered at the time if maybe he wasn't putting a little too much pressure on himself and if he needed to relax a little.

Today was the same thing. He gave up a HR on what was really a pitchers pitch (I mean c'mon - Heyward had no business getting that ball out) and as a result he started overthrowing.

And Sal could learn a little bit from that as well. I think it was someone in this thread that mentioned he looked a little over-amped after the Heyward bomb. If you can see it, Perez can as well. It might not have hurt for him to take a trip to the mound to calm his young pitcher down.

I said it when he gave it up - the Braves are good. There's no shame in losing to these guys. And 2 great young players you guys have can learn a lot from it, IMO.

Not if they don't give a shit. Like I said, most of the guys on the team are there to simply cash a paycheck. Perez saw Herrera shitting himself and showed he didn't care. Hell Ned didn't give a **** either, he just wanted to get home and sleep in his own bed. Maybe someone will sack up from the Royals and not let this turn into an 0-8 roadie, but I doubt it. I saw a lot of quit tonight. The Braves look like a good team, but not a team that should hit 4 home runs within a couple of innings and blow a game wide open.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Al Bundy

Not if they don't give a shit. Like I said, most of the guys on the team are there to simply cash a paycheck. Perez saw Herrera shitting himself and showed he didn't care. Hell Ned didn't give a **** either, he just wanted to get home and sleep in his own bed. Maybe someone will sack up from the Royals and not let this turn into an 0-8 roadie, but I doubt it. I saw a lot of quit tonight. The Braves look like a good team, but not a team that should hit 4 home runs within a couple of innings and blow a game wide open.

I think you're being awfully hard on a young team.

There's no tougher position to really learn than catcher. Look at the history of teams starting rookie catchers - it's generally pretty awful. The Giants have bucked the trend, but I remember when the Cards were breaking in Molina after letting Matheny walk in 2005; I don't recall the numbers, but essentially teams were all but giving up on a legitimate playoff run if they were starting a rookie catcher.

It's just such a tough position to really learn the nuances of. And if you have a cannon like Perez, you get a little cocky back there and think that the big arm makes you a big swinging dick of a catcher. Those guys get a little complacent until they mature a bit (Pudge Rodriguez is a classic example of this; guy couldn't call a game for shit until he went to Florida and finally started trying to learn how). I don't think Perez didn't care - I think he simply didn't realize the gravity of the situation.

I've never thought that Moose, Escobar, Gordon, or Cain were jaking it either. Frenchie...hell, I don't know. Hosmer, OTOH, you may be onto something with. I always get the feeling when I'm watching him that he's a kid that will float until a contract year and then turn into a machine for a season before he sees his baseball mortality creeping up on him in his late 20s and dials up his effort (the Adrian Beltre model).

It's a young team. It's going to be a good team. Even now it's a team that fell to .500 by losing to the best team in baseball after going toe to toe with them for 7 innings. Seems a little hysterical to quit on them already.

[Al Bundy]

A good 10 game losing streak would do them some good. Would knock any sort of cockiness they might have right out of them. I don't know why this loss irks me so, but I see the writing on the wall and that the lack of caring to hit is shining through and it will get them blown the **** out in many of these games.

[Simply Red]

I wasn't trying to troll the Royals earlier - I'd like my name cleared.

[teedubya]

I'm going to Atlanta in May. I'm going to take a shit there.