posted July 20, 2008
ATLANTA -- The Atlanta Braves squandered multiple opportunities during Saturday night's 8-2 loss to the Nationals at Turner Field.
Although August has yet to arrive, the Braves know their clock is ticking and that they don't have the luxury of wasting many more opportunities.
"We can't hit the ball any better than we did tonight with men on base," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "If they run them down, we can't do anything about that."
If they weren't fighting to prove they should be buyers instead of sellers before the July 31 trade deadline, it might have been easier for the Braves to play the what-if game after losing to the last-place Nationals for the sixth time in 10 matchups this year.
Had Greg Norton not left the bases loaded in the fourth with a fly ball that carried Nationals center fielder Willie Harris to the warning track, things certainly might have been different.
The same could be said in reference to Brian McCann, after he ended the fifth inning with a bases-loaded lineout that went directly to a perfectly positioned Austin Kearns in right field.
"If those balls fall in, we could have won," Cox said. "Even if just one of them fell in, we might have won."
While sitting in fourth place and facing a 6 1/2-game deficit in the National League East race, the Braves don't have time to consistently think about "What might have been?" They have just 10 more games to play before the trade deadline, and without near-perfection during this stretch, they may be forced to concede the season by trading the likes of first baseman Mark Teixeira and left-handed reliever Will Ohman.
This certainly wasn't the greatest night for Jair Jurrjens, who allowed five earned runs and eight hits in 6 1/3 innings.
Still, the 22-year-old right-hander managed to keep the Braves within striking distance until allowing a couple of former Braves (Ryan Langerhans and Willie Harris) to highlight a two-run seventh inning that gave the Nationals a 5-1 lead.
Langerhans' second double of the evening began the seventh inning, and then two batters later, Harris, who is hitting .454 (10-for-22) against the Braves this year, highlighted his first three-hit game of the season with an RBI triple that managed to just stay fair along the right-field line.
While limiting the Braves to one earned run and seven hits in six innings, Nationals starter John Lannan received some rare luck on a couple of different fronts. This was his Major League rookie-best 14th quality start of the season. The fact that this was just his sixth win of the season was a product of the fact that the Nationals had scored one run or less in nine of his previous 18 starts.
By tallying three eighth-inning runs off Royce Ring, the Nationals provided Lannan even more run support. While this overdue support was much appreciated, the rookie left-hander had to credit this victory to the escape acts he enjoyed in the fourth and fifth innings.
If the losing continues, it won't be long before the Braves won't even be able to look forward to any tomorrows.
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Adapted from MLB.com
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