Another 1 run victory. That makes, what... 2 this year?

I think it's actually 3 now.

GG smoltzy.

Hope to see you on ESPN some day.

Listening to his press conference right now. He says that he hasn't lost his competitiveness, and that he still wants to compete. He's going to go through rehab, and he said if he can physically do it and help this team next year then he will.

Would love to see Smoltzy on the mound again, but if not see ya in Cooperstown!

Another solid start to the homestand. Let's keep it up vs. the Phils and we're in good shape.

Big big big series this weekend....we don't face Hamels or Myers (even though we normally hit him really well)....let's gogogogo

No words, only white hot rage...

I plan to molest Johnson's first child. I hate him. So. ****ing. Much.

wow brutal seriously what just happened are we cursed? by who? sick game

Was just dumbfounded last night.....so sick....who hates us??????

Wow we are really bad right now. I have no idea why Francoeur is hitting 3rd rather than McCann in Chipper's absence. He is just terrible right now. Hopefully Chipper is coming back tonight (they said it's a good possibility).

On to the good news....Glavine has an elbow strain and will miss his next start which hopefully means Morton will finally be called up and get a well deserved start. He has been sick in Richmond and looks like a top of the rotation guy.

Hudson, Jurrjens, JoJo, Campillo, Morton... I like the way that sounds, assuming they all live up to their potential. That rotation has a chance to have two legit aces, or a frontline starter and 4 rookies with too much pressure put on them.

Francoeur 3rd is unfathomable. Cox needs to put Blacno in right and Anderson in center to give Frenchy a chance to get it together.

Agree completely....Morton has ace-type stuff.

Really glad that Francoeur turned down our long term offer last spring and this spring right now. He has got to learn how to hit rather than just being a free swinger. He could take a few lessons on hitting from his best friend and ex-roommate.

The thing is, Frenchy has shown more patience this year than I've seen from him in the past. It's almost like he's selectively pressing, if that makes any sense.

It def makes sense. He still needs to learn how to "hit" though. I think it was the first game of the Phillies series last weekend and Chip and Texy had both just walked to load the bases. And instead of being patient and waiting on his pitch, he swings at the first pitch and grounds into a DP to end the inning. He has to learn when to be selective and when to be aggressive. All of the tools are def there, he just needs to learn how to use them. I think (hopefully) it will come with time, just have to be patient.

Hypothetical question: Frenchy struggles through the summer and Jordan Schaefer progress well, prompting a mid-season call up. Do you go with an outfield of Diaz/Blanco, Kotsay, and Schaefer, will Josh Anderson as a spare outfielder and look to deal Frenchy for some starting pitching?

Fuck these motherfucking fuckheads.

This is so bad that it's laughable right now. I can barely even watch this team play. If I were Huddy I would be extremely pissed off right now. They have now cost him at least 3 wins already this season. Wowwowowow I don't know what else to say anymore.

I still blame this all on Kelly Johnson, somehow.

Al you have to do is ask... Morton starts Saturday in Anaheim.

first ML start at Anaheim........gonna be tough, hope he fares well

watching this team in the 7-9th innings just makes me want to puke

My buddy that's a Cub's fan texted me this.

I replied: "Beating the Braves right now is like abusing a crippled person."

Fortunately, we managed to pull a win in Anaheim.

Morton looks good thus far. Outside of a rough 3rd, I don't think he's allowed a baserunner.

Was really happy with Morton's performance last night. Not many balls were hit hard and he missed a lot of barrels (We just got shut out while I'm typing this). Good series overall....won 2 out of 3. Maybe we can build on this......hopefully?

I really believe I could turn it all around for us if they'd put me at 2nd. I used to play when I was a kid. I was a .325 hitter one year, and though I didn't have a lot of power, that's pretty impressive. And my fielding is sensational. Kelly is a homo, Dutch is The Truth.

I really like how our new young starting rotation is looking right now. Now let's just hope that they can stay healthy and keep it up!!!

Another good outing for Jo Jo. Yunel's hitting and showed a little more patience. Good rebound from last night's loss, I guess.

JoJo seems to be progressing quite well. If we can win tonight we will end the road trip at .500 which seemed almost impossible after that dreadful start in Chicago.

Gonzo is finally back and we have a power arm at the back end of the bullpen! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Completely forgot about Gonzo. Is it just me, or is that rock in his motion new?

He says that it's not, but I don't remember it being that pronounced last season.

Once again another 1 run loss on the road....I might take Pat's lead and give a mid-season update of what I think of the Braves (Jeff Francoeur fans prolly won't want to read it). So frustrated with this team. I had really high expectations coming into this season. I know injuries have played a large part, but we have not gotten the job done late in games. So many words to describe how I feel are coming to mind right now, but they're not appropriate for a public forum.

I believe what you're trying to say is if that cocksucking ******* Franceour chokes one more time this season that you're going to drag both him and Kelly Johnson behind your car for a few hours, until the mother****ers learn to ****ing play baseball.

Well said. Don't think I could have said it any better myself (I might have a few more of them laying behind my car though).

I don't quite believe what I saw, but I think I just saw a Braves team that stepped up in key situations late in the game. Good sign or just a fluke?

Chipper prolly going on the DL...I have never seen a team have this many injuries in one year, but you have to play through it.

Yet another 1 run loss on the road....that makes 23 in a row, I think that has to be a record or at least close to it. The lineup that we have used the last few games wouldn't even be a good AAA lineup. Frenchy is terrible and maybe my most hated person on the planet right now.

I'm so glad that I have been out of town and not able to watch any of the games the past week.

(Just needed to vent and let off some frustration about this baseball season).

Frenchy to AA. I think this move came a little too late, but it's an encouraging sign at any rate.

Yeah but it only lasted 3 days. The move makes absolutely no sense to do for only 3 days, but whatever. On the bright side of the situation one of my good friends that played with me in high school got called up for a few days and got his first Major League experience (only for him to be sent back down tonight when we signed the great Julian Tavarez that nobody else wanted).

Looks like we might get a win tonight....most would think that this isn't a big deal, but any win we get on the road is news here in Atlanta....

You only won because it wasn't a 1 run game and the Dodgers are obviously emotionally deflated without Mark Sweeney available to strike out once a game.

Haha....we have now lost 24 1-run road games in a row. This is 3 more than the Royals lost in '00-'01. This really is laughable and I don't see it ending anytime soon. We find more ways to lose close road games than any team I've ever seen.

Yeah, pretty crazy. I can't imagine how frustrating that has been for the fans and for Bobby Cox...

Has it been an issue with the bullpen? I haven't paid close attention to the cause of that streak, but one would think that many 1 run losses would have a lot to do with the bullpen.

The bullpen has lost a few leads (for Huddy especially), we have only converted 13 out of 23 save opportunities this year. That is a very very few number of save opportunities this late in the season which shows that we rarely hold the lead in close games in the late innings.

But the main thing that it has been is our hitting in close and late situations. I don't have the numbers in front of me right now, but at least for most of the year we have been by far the worst in the league in these situations. This is just my personal opinion, but I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that it is very hard for us to manufacture runs. We have to either string 2 or 3 hits together or wait for a bomb to score a couple. Blanco is our only regular who can steal a base with any regularity and pretty much none of our position players are able to get a sacrifice down when asked to. Very very frustrating....end rant.

With Maddux struggling, Glavine out, and Smoltz out does this mean that they could all retire at the end of the season? If this were to happen this could pave the way for all three going into the HoF at the same time O_o

The Braves struggled quite a bit in June. Is this 2008? Or 2007? Or 2006?

Wait...those are different years???

I read on ESPN.com that they're predicting we'll trade Tex if we get too far out. =(

No way we make the playoffs....I hope I am wrong, but if we can get good return then I have to say be sellers. It hurts me to say that, but we're not going to resign him so get what we can.

I don't understand why we can't resign him him since Liberty says they're going to up the payroll and we're dropping the Hampton salary (15 mil) and Glav (8 mill)......ahhhh the life of a Braves fan................

Two words: Scott Boras. There's no way he would allow his client to take a hometown discount when his fee would be so much higher if he signed in Boston or New York. the only way it happens is if Tex's wife holds out on him.

Just crunched the numbers...

Braves since 2006 in non-June months: 178-159 (.528)
Braves since 2006 in June: 30-52 (.366)

On a side note, I am freaking sick of the NL finding new ways to lose the All-Star game. Props to Cook, Tejada, Ludwick, McClouth, and Martin for playing excellent defense. Uggla was pretty ugly, but really the blame here goes to Wagner and Lidge who proved that for all of the pomp, the NL's "best closers" can't close this game. They join Hoffman, Smoltz, and Gagne.

Wow! I knew it was bad, but I guess that I didn't imagine it ever being that bad. I guess now that I think about it we did go something like 6-20 in 2006. June -August are the most pivotal months in either making or breaking your season and we seem to get off on the wrong foot these past few seasons.

Wagner and Lidge have been the 2 most dominant NL closers this year and they def blew the game. We're not going to be in the playoffs this year so at least it doesn't really directly affect us.

I was almost hoping that we'd blow that 9-0 bottom of the 9th lead, just so I could have one more bit to harp about all the time, because Kelly's drop/inability to retrieve the ball from his own ****ing glove like ever has run out of steam.