Boring Snoring: Braves 3, Phillies 1

This was a close game that took under three hours but it didn't actually feel like it was either close or short. I have a note for you, Phillies. If you're going to be bad, and I suspect you will be going forward, I beg of you, please be horrifically, flamboyantly, mind blowingly bad. Don't do what you did tonight. Don't be the boring and bland kind of bad.

I've accepted that you guys just aren't a very good team. And that's ok! I mean, it's not really ok, but it's not like I (or anyone else) have any control over that. But for the love of all that is holy and good on this green earth, please be entertaining. There are 43 games left this season. Please think of your fans.

I guess I should talk about the game. The Phillies were held to six hits and just one run tonight against Kris Medlen, who went seven innings, and the bullpen combo of David Carpenter and (insanely good) closer Craig Kimbrel. Their lone run came in the sixth inning. Chase Utley doubled with two outs (which ended a string of 15 straight Phillies that had been retired by Medlen), and then Domonic Brown singled him home. But instead of staying at first base, Brown tried to stretch that single into a double and was out at second base. Not optimal. Utley had two other hits tonight -- a single in the first and a single in the ninth. The strength and intensity of Chase Utley's awesomeness may be enough to power whole cities or cure diseases.

Ethan Martin, who grew up just an hour from Atlanta and had friends and family galore at the game, gave up three runs in five innings, but needed 96 pitches to do it. The first Braves run scored in the second inning, when Martin's penchant for being wild and throwing a lot of pitches combined with Ruf's inexperience in right field (where, again, he has *barely played ever*). The second and third runs, scored on a Chris Johnson home run in the third inning, were the result of Martin getting hurt when pitching behind hitters, which is something he does more frequently than he should.

I will give credit to the bullpen, though. The Phillies needed three innings from them, and they managed to do it without allowing any runs. It would have been nice for that to happen on a night when the Phillies were protecting a lead, but hey, you can't have everything. Luis Garcia, Jake Diekman, and Justin De Fratus allowed two hits, two walks, and two strikeouts over three innings. With this outing, the ERAs of both Diekman and De Fratus finally fall under 4.00.

Of minor note is that tonight was Casper Wells' first start for the Phillies. He appeared as a pinch hitter in two games against Washington, but tonight was his first start. Did you make it through those sentences without falling asleep? I couldn't get through writing them without nodding off, so if you are still awake, good for you.

Zzzzzzzzz... Oh, I'm sorry. You probably were looking for the Fangraph. Here it is. The Fangraph of zzzzzzzz.

Source: FanGraphs