Jay 7 Braves 5
I got my first look at Brad Mills today, I missed the first inning but saw the rest of time out there. I was impressed...nice curve, good change up, seemed to get first pitch strikes, changed speeds well. He got hit a bit, 10 hits in 6 innings, but only 2 doubles and the rest were ground ball singles. Many of the singles should have been outs, as various back up infielders showed why they are back up infielders. There was a single up the middle that Mills should have had but it glanced off his glove. Next batter he made a nice play on a slow roller near the first base line, picking it up, looking the runner back to third and making a double play off it. There was one that Millar missed at first that was called a single, one that Inglett just didn't get to at second base and one that went thru a draw in infield that would have been an out if they were back. So easily could have been 5 hits instead of 10.
He struck out 3, gave up 4 runs, 10 ground outs to 5 fly outs, so a nice ratio. I didn't notice any fly outs until his last inning of work, I though he tired a little and the ball was a little up, got a couple of fly ball outs and there were two pop fly outs that Michael Barrett caught in the fifth. I thought he looked good. Dirk Hayhurst gave up his first run of the spring on a single, a steal and a single in his inning. Jeremy Accardo pitched a scoreless inning despite giving up a triple. Apparently Zach Dials pitched the 9th to get the save. I say apparently because that is the name on MLB's boxscore but the Braves announcers said it was Robert Ray in in the 9th. And since I've never seen either guy, I took it for granted the announcers were right, at the time. Of course those announcers also identified Raul Chavez as Michael Barrett. Have I ever mentioned how much I love hearing Chip Carrey do play by play? No? I guess there is a reason for that.
Offensively our minor leaguers scored 6 run in the last two innings to win the game for us. We had a terrible time against Braves starter Derek Lowe, he struck out 7 in 6 innings. Aaron Mathews and David Cooper were each 2 for 3. Jason Lane, Sean Shoffit, Jose Bautista, Scott Campbell, Raul Chavez, John MacDonald and Brian Dopirak each had a hit. All singles. Notable ofers: Inglett (0 for 4, 3 strikeouts and a walk), Aaron Hill (0 for 2), Kevin Millar (0 for 2, despite Chip Carrey spending 5 minutes telling us what a wonderful guy he is).
Tomorrow Doc is starting for the Jays against the Pirates and BJ Ryan is to pitch.
There were a couple of interesting stories in this week's SI. One about JP's favorite player Adam Dunn talking about the perception that he doesn't like baseball. Did you know that Dunn has averaged more than 158 games played a season over the last 5 years. Yeah, he doesn't like baseball. And there was a longer piece on why athletes go broke despite how much money they are making. They compared it to people who win lotteries. Main troubles seem to be that they use friends as financial advisers and, of course, they like to lead the Entourage life style. Biggest problem? Divorce. Rarely do they get prenuptial agreements and then when their career is over they end up at home and they have never learned to deal with their spouses because they always had to leave to practice or play. So divorces happen when they are no longer making millions of dollars and they lose half their estates. Another problem is that some of these guys just ain't that bright. Torii Hunter invested $70,000 in 'inflatable rafts' that sit under furniture so that if there is a flood the furniture can stay dry. Ummmmm yeah.