Braves Blunder

If you didn't see how the Braves game ended a couple days ago, you missed an odd one.

Atlanta was riding a 3 game win streak trying to put together a miracle to attain the wild-card (5 games out but about 8 teams out).

It is the ninth inning. Francoeur was on 2nd, Diaz on 1st, 0 outs, and the Braves are down by one. Adam LaRoche is now up to bat. Since the All-Star game he has a .321 avg. and leads the team with 12 Dongs since the break. So of course HE decides to BUNT (Bobby didn't call for a bunt).

LaRoche preceded to barely get the bunt out of the dirt and catcher Miguel Olivo picked it up to turn the rare 2-5-3 double play. McCann was intentionally walked, and then Langerhans popped out. Game Over.

If a successful bunt was laid down to get the tying run at third with one out, it would not have been awful, but Laroche is not a skilled bunter and he runs like he's got a piano strapped to his back. He has one sac bunt on the year and Frenchy was caught off gaurd at 2nd. Add to that, the fact that LaRoche was 3-4 lifetime with a homer off of pitcher Joe Borowski. Frenchy, Chipper, and Bobby were pretty shocked afterwards.

Here are some good quotes from both teams after the game.

''We just gave a game away we should have won,'' Cox said. "I don’t what the [heck] he’s doing,”

''I can't imagine why a guy with 25 homers would be bunting, especially when the lineup behind him doesn’t favor it'' Chipper said.

''I don't think I've ever seen that,'' Marlins manager Joe Girardi said

''If you're going to draw it up, that's about as perfect as it has to be,'' Marlins Pitcher Borowski said.

''I wanted to take the double play or fly ball out of it,'' LaRoche said. ''I knew I could get the bunt down, but I didn't do it.''

I told him that even if you were successful [bunting the two runners over], they're still going to walk Mac [McCann]. ... He was just trying to do too much." said Cox

"That's what I was trying to do. I thought, if I get this down, Mac's not going to get pitched to, we've got bases loaded with one out, go from there." said LaRoche

"Obviously, if I could do it over again, I'm swinging at it," said LaRoche, whose bunt against closer Joe Borowski was fielded a few feet in front of the plate by catcher Miguel Olivo.

This will not help Adam's popularity with the fans which has never seemingly been high. A play at first, here is the VIDEO of it, where Adam walked over to the bag and was beaten by the runner fueled the fans ire. Later, he made some questionable COMMENTS about Braves fans.

"If you're going to boo me when I'm struggling, then boo me now or don't do anything," the affable LaRoche said in a quiet monotone. "If you're going to call in [to talk shows] and say you don't want me here, that's fine."

"But I don't want those same guys to be standing up for me when things are going well. That's just the way I am. I've got no problem with you if you hate me. But stick to your guns; don't go back and forth."

Of course if he keeps hitting like he's one of the premier 1st basemen in the game these things seem to fade away a litlle quicker.

nytimes.com
ajc.com
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