Marching to Atlanta -- IGT 5/28, Game #1 of 2

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

All these curveballs up in the strike zone from Lugo are making me nervous.

[Edgy MD]

Well, Lugo had nothing.

[Guest Rockin' Doc]

Just like that a walk off home run to end it. On a hanging breaking ball up in the zone.

[Frayed Knot]

Charlie Culberson, really? A 29 y/o .204 hitting (.228 career) journeyman with 6 career HRs coming into today, half of them at Coors Field.

But that's the way Atlanta's season has gone so far. Their hits w/RiSP and late in games is ridiculously high even compared to their overall stats.
Streaks like that have to end sooner or later, it just would have been nice if it had done so today.

[ashie62]

Callaway is a friggin idiot.

Cespedes, Frazier Swarzak, back to work

[Edgy MD]

I take a back seat to nobody in supporting leaving an effective pitcher in the game and defaulting to roles. But Lugo looked lousy from the get-go.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Holy suckass bullpen, Batman!

Hello. 500, season on the brink in May again.

[Frayed Knot]

Also, if you're going to get as few baserunners as this team has been getting lately, you can't doing their hurler a favor by just gifting back four of them:
- two via GiDPs -- OK, those will happen and one of them was smoked (you could say the diff in this game was the hot shot Swanson turned into a DP vs the one Cabrera didn't ... although that takes Swanson off the hook for botching a 1st inning GiDP which led to the first NYM run)
- but there's no just saying 'eh, one of those things' to the back-to-back pickoffs. Fried faced three batters in that inning, retired just one of them, and still wound up with a 1-2-3 inning. That's just down right criminal.

[MFS62]

Do we know anything about that TBA guy who will be starting the second game?

Later

[Guest 41Forever]

TBA = PJ

[Edgy MD]

So, Mickey's philosophy of (1) not using the same reliever in both ends of a doubleheader, (2) keeping your #1 guy out of Game One, (3) sticking to that even if Game One is the classic relief ace situation of trying to preserve a one-run lead, and (4) sticking to that even if your Game One alternative is faltering ... seemingly needs work.

[Benjamin Grimm]