Saturday, June 25, 2011

Baseball happenings...

I've been out of the sports loop the last couple days. Reason? Sitting here in our Nation's capital, and right across the street from my hotel, on one side, the White House, and on the other, the capital. Wow, what a wonderful site with everything lit up at night, with the Washington Monument in the background. So, I arrive at my hotel this past Thursday, and when settled, I turn on the tube and see that the Washington Nationals manager, Jim Riggleman resigns. I'm like why? They had moved up to the third spot in the NL East behind the Phillies and Braves, and at that point had won 11 out of 12, now 12 out of 13. But read that Riggleman was in a contract dispute with the organization for next year, and the team wouldn't give him an idea that he would be back. So, Riggleman had to do what he had to do. Long-time manager Davey Johnson, who already works in the Nationals organization, will take over as Manager.

Okay, now to te team I really follow. The Braves are on the road playing a three game series against the San Diego Padres in California. Since I don't get the coverage here in DC, I was following the updates until I fell asleep because it was a late game. I woke up this morning, and it was the same old, same old. No offense and only connecting on four hits. But one of those hits came off the bat of first baseman Freddie Freeman's two-run blast. But that was all the Braves could muster, getting outplayed in a 2-11 loss. Braves still have a good record, compounding a 43-34 record, including last night's loss. Braves starting pitcher Derek Lowe is still struggling falling to a 3-6 record and 4.33 era. Hopefully, Lowe is just going through a tough stretch of the season, and he will start to turn it on in his next few starts. Lowe has always been a pretty good pitcher, but the last couple starts, looks like he has lost a little velocity on his pitches. Either it's due to that, or just good scouting with his last two starts against the Texas Rangers and the Padres.

Braves are still in a good position, still holding pace with the Phillies. Braves still have two more with the Padres, gametime tonight is 6:30 pm EST with Braves winningest pitcher this season, Jair Jurrjens (9-3, 2.11 era) taking the mound.

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