I've got a fever of 101, tons of work I need to get done by Monday morning, and, oh yea, the braves lost. Now this wasn't a blow out, scratch that, it WAS a blow out! Consider this, before today the Pads had scored a wopping 14 runs this month. 14 runs in 6 games equates out to 2 1/3 runs a game and that includes the 4 we gave them yesterday. Today we gave them 8 runs. 8 runs! For god sakes people 8 runs is a huge blowout for the Pads. The Pads scored 8 or more runs 4 times last month. 1 each against the Nats, Rays, Cubs and Orioles. The cubs are the only team of the bunch over .500 and that's a recent development.
Now after ranting about how bad 8 runs is I want to point out who the worst culprit is. Yes JoJo was bad. 5 ER in 3 innings pitched does not bode well for the youngster. He's fighting for Davies's spot in the rotation but at this point it's not clear which is worse. Neither is looking good. HOWEVER, 4 of the 5 runs were the direct result of the longball. I think some of the problem actually came from a lack of scouting information on Reyes. How does that hurt a pitcher? Well, normally a pitcher making his first start has an advantage over hitters who haven't seen him before. But Reyes is a different beast from most pitchers. He LIKES to throw a lot of pitches. He tosses all over the zone to try an keep hitters guessing. Most of the time in the minors, hitters will take a hack at something that looks decent. In the majors that doesn't happen. Thus you walk batters while showing them more of your pitches.
On the flip side, a catcher that has never caught you before has to adapt to how you pitch. Reyes has a big delivery and the ball moves. It looked like Brian git a little frustrated over how JoJo was all over the zone and began stetting up more in the middle. You give a pitcher a target he tries to hit it. That seems to be exactly what happened to Reyes. Second time through the order McCann is setting up over the plate and the Pads are hitting it. I don't want to knock Brian's skills, but Salty should have been behind the plate today. He knows JoJo and at this point the defence between the two is comparable. Put Brian at 1b and let him rest his knee (JK, you never move an Allstar to a new position midyear).
W: Bell (3-2)
L: Yates (2-1)
S: Hoffman (25)
HR: J. Francoeur (10), M. Cameron (11), K. Greene (15)
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