Gonzalez's Bullpen MGMT Costs Braves, Lose 6-4

The Atlanta Braves split their four-game set with the San Diego Padres by blowing a 4-1 lead, losing 6-4 Thursday afternoon. Julio Teheran pitched seven great innings in his start today, but Fredi Gonzalez though it was a good idea to send Julio back out into the eighth inning despite being close to 100 pitches. Teheran ended up loading the bases before being pulled in the eighth with nobody out before the madness really began.

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Fredi Gonzalez used five Braves pitchers to get three outs in the top of the eighth inning. The Atlanta Braves franchise had not used five pitchers in one inning since 1967 when the team was on the road against the St. Louis Cardinals. I understand giving Teheran an opportunity to go eight, but why on Earth was the bullpen run through that quickly for no reason? Instead of using Dana Eveland, Nick Masset, Luis Avilan, and David Aardsma to get three outs, why couldn’t the Braves just have used either Masset or Aardsma to record all three? Fredi Gonzalez cost his team the game with his abysmal bullpen management this afternoon. It was 2003 ALCS Grady Little bad.

So the bullpen had no room for error when the game went into extras. Jason Grilli had to pitch the ninth and Brandon Cunniff had to pitch two innings of relief. I’m not mad at Cunniff for giving up the go-ahead two-run single to Yangervis Solarte in the top of the eleventh. He shouldn’t have pitched that second inning of relief to begin with. When RP Jim Johnson is getting ready to pitch in his fourth game in a row, SP Alex Wood relocates from the dugout to the bullpen, and 3B Chris Johnson is warming up in the bullpen, your relief corps is in shambles due to mismanagement. Just unbelievable.

The silver linings today were Teheran’s terrific start, going 7+ innings, allowing 3 earned runs on four hits, three walks, and striking out seven. His ERA would have been lower had he not pitched into the eighth inning. Freddie Freeman had a great day at the plate, going 3-5 with an opposite field solo homer and two RBI’s. Freeman’s numbers on the year are .304 BA, 11 HR’s, and 37 RBI’s. He’s quietly having another strong year at the plate for the Atlanta Braves.

This was a game that Fredi Gonzalez single-handedly threw away for the Braves. Atlanta should have won this ideally 4-3. Wasting five pitchers in the eighth inning cost the Braves greatly Thursday afternoon. I’ve been on Fredi’s side all season long for doing well with what he’s had to work with, but I don’t think you can use five pitchers in a single inning in a baseball video game. Atlanta sports, you continue to amaze me with these newer and crueler ways to have our teams collapse. If this was a playoff game, I don’t know if we could ever mentally come back from this one.

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Gonzalez’s Bullpen MGMT Costs Braves, Lose 6-4

By John Buhler | Jun 11, 2015

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