Braves conclude ‘terrible road trip’ with loss
Such is the state of the free-falling Braves, when a 1-5 road trip seems rather typical and doesn’t have any noticeable effect in the clubhouse.
The Braves blew an early lead against St. Louis in a 6-3 loss Sunday at Busch Stadium, where Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols went 2-for-2 with a homer and three walks to pull even with Chipper Jones in the National League batting race.
“Terrible road trip not good at all,” said manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves have lost 12 of their past 14 games, posting a 7.11 ERA in that stretch while scoring three runs or fewer in 10 games.
Jo-Jo Reyes (3-10) extended his winless streak to nine starts, giving up nine hits and six runs (five earned) in 5-2/3 innings, including a two-run homer by Pujols in the first inning.
“He’s an unbelievable hitter, and he’s hot right now,” said Reyes, who had observed Pujols taking pitches until he got a strike in the first two games of the series, and decided to throw him a get-ahead first-pitch fastball.
Big mistake.
Pujols was 8-for-10 with two homers and eight RBIs in the series to pull even with Jones for the batting lead at .359. Jones went 4-for-12 in the series with two doubles, the third baseman’s only extra-base hits in 14 games since Aug. 9.
Jones has hit .284 in his past 33 games. He still held a 22-point lead in the batting race two weeks ago, but Pujols has reeled him in, batting .404 with 10 homers and 31 RBIs in his past 27 games.
Twice during the weekend Jones called Pujols the best hitter in the league, regardless of who wins the batting title. He wouldn’t get any argument from Cox, who can’t find a way to even slow Pujols, much less stop him.
In his past 30 games against the Braves, Pujols has hit .419 (44-for-105) with 14 doubles, 13 homers, 34 RBI, 26 walks and only eight strikeouts. A St. Louis reporter asked Cox if he had a strategy to try to stop Pujols.
“If I did, I would tell everyone how to get him out,” Cox said. “I don’t know. He’s a good hitter. He’s disciplined, he’s strong, he’s smart, and he’s strong.”
After Pujols hit his 28th homer in the first inning Sunday, the Braves answered with three runs in the second inning, including Reyes’ two-run single.
But Reyes gave the lead back in the bottom of the inning when three of the first four Cardinals got hits, including Brian Barton’s two-run double.
“I wish I would have had a couple of pitches back,” said Reyes, who is 0-6 with a 6.53 ERA in his past nine starts. The left-hander isn’t progressing as the Braves hoped he would after making 10 starts in 2007.
“Got us down real quick,” Cox said of the early deficit, a familiar storyline lately. “We came right back, and then we got down again. They scored in four of the six innings that he pitched. Got to get some outs some time.
“He pitched alright. Lot of hits and six runs, that’s not a good day. But I think he pitched a little bit better than the line score.”
Tags: bet, game, games, pitches, Road Trip, Trip, winless streak
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Sunday, August 24th, 2008 at 7:03 pm under