Kuzul

Bobby Cox exited Turner Field Monday night for the last time as the Atlanta Braves‘ manager.

His emotional exit was seared into the memories of baseball fans worldwide, and a tear, no doubt, trickled down the cheeks of many, both male and female alike.

Game 4 of the NLDS was a must win game for the Atlanta Braves. It looked very promising for Bobby’s bunch until a costly error by shortstop Alex Gonzalez allowed the Giants to score two runs in the top of the seventh and take the lead by a score of 3-2.

With one out and the bases loaded, a ground ball was hit sharply to the right-hand side of Gonzalez. He made a great play to reach the ball and backhand it; however, his throw to second pulled Omar Infante off the bag, and all Giants runners were safe. A run scored on the play, tying the game at two runs each.

Had Gonzalez made an accurate throw, the Braves would have recorded their second out. Instead, the Giants accepted the gift of only one out with the bases still loaded.

The next batter struck out. This should have ended the inning. With an extra out, so to speak, Cody Ross came up to the plate with intentions of doing more damage to the Atlanta Braves.

Earlier in the night, Ross broke up a no-hitter by Braves pitcher Derek Lowe when he hit a solo home run. Now, with the bases loaded and an extra out with which to play, the Giants would make the Braves pay once again.

Ross hit a single to left field, and the go-ahead run came across the plate. The Giants attempted to add an insurance run on the same play. However, Braves left fielder Matt Diaz threw a strike to catcher Brian McCann, and with a collision at the plate, Atlanta finally had its third out.

From that point forward, no more runs would be scored by either team. The Braves had hope in the bottom of the night when Giants closer Brian Wilson walked two batters and put runners on first and second. The game ended when Melky Cabrera dribbled a grounder to third and was thrown out at first.

As soon as the game ended, chants of “Bobby, Bobby, Bobby” could be heard throughout the stadium. With tears in his eyes, longtime Atlanta Braves manager Bobby Cox returned to the field to acknowledge fans and players, including most of the San Francisco Giants, who had remained on the field to pay tribute to Bobby before enjoying a cold champagne shower.

It will not be the same without Bobby Cox. We will miss him. He is one of the most beloved men in baseball and will always be. Still, I believe it is time for Bobby to go. It is time for a new man to take control of the Atlanta Braves and get them back to postseason success.

I dare say that Bobby Cox has not been making his best decisions for some time now. In the late 1990s, Bobby would not have let a pitcher talk him into staying in the game, even if that pitcher were named Smoltz, Glavine or Maddux. Just a few short years ago, Bobby would not have played Brooks Conrad at third base after losing Chipper Jones and Martin Prado.

For the past few years, Bobby has made a lot of decisions based upon emotion and feeling instead of doing what was best at the time. He loves those players, and he has always been a players’ manager. However, when it came time to win a baseball game, Bobby was never afraid to hurt a player’s feelings. He would take a player or a pitcher out at the drop of a hat.

Over the past few years, he accepted a lot more from the players, and because of his relationships with them, he would, at times, put decisions off that ended up hurting the team. 

Little by little, as the years rolled by, those who know baseball best could tell that Bobby’s decision-making process was changing. Did it hurt the Braves recently? Yes, it did, but more realistically, it was the lack of offense and the errors that ended the Braves’ hopes of making it to the World Series.

Derek Lowe should have been pulled much sooner, but he deserved to be out there, and Bobby made the decision to leave him out there. It was not a good decision, but it was fair and deserving. Just a few years ago, Bobby would have pulled Lowe after the sixth inning. Had he pulled him after the sixth last night, the Braves would have had a much better chance to hold the lead.

Please don’t misunderstand me, reader. Derek was dealing, but he was pitching on three days’ rest, and by the end of the sixth inning you could tell that Derek was laboring. A fresh reliever to start the seventh would have most likely shut the Giants down. We can only speculate, and we’ll never know for sure.

Bobby Cox will go down as one of the greatest managers in Major League Baseball history. No other manager will ever win 14 consecutive division titles. Bobby has had tons of success, including a World Series title in 1995. He managed every game to win, and he gave all he had at all times.

Just as many fans feel today, I am sad and I hate to see him go. Players loved to play for him, and fans loved to cheer for him.

Bobby Cox will always be, in the hearts of many, the manager of the Atlanta Braves.

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     The Atlanta Braves were one out away from completing another storybook come from behind victory when things fell apart in the top of the ninth. Earlier, in the bottom of the eighth, Alex Gonzalez singled and Eric Hinske hit a pinch hit home run off of Sergio Romo to the Braves up by a score of 2-1. Hinke’s homer was just the fourth Brave hit of the night but it came at such an opportune time.

     Without closer Billy Wagner, Manager, Bobby Cox, went to rookie Craig Kimbrel to put the game away. He quickly earned two outs and it was apparent that Giants hitters were having a difficult time catching up to the youngster’s fastball. With two outs and two strikes,  Braves catcher, Brian McCann, called for a slider. This was a mistake. No one had been close to hitting the fastball. Put the guy away with the heat.

      The pitch that was thrown was a slider and it came across the plate at 87 miles per hour, or approximately 10 miles per hour slower than the fastball. It was knocked for a base hit and with two runners on base Bobby Cox pulled Kimbrel from the game. I believe this was also a mistake. Did Bobby take Kimbrel out because he thought he would buckle under the pressure? So far, the rookie had faced four batters and he had been great. Yes, he had given up a hit and a walk, but not a run.

     Mike Dunn would only face one batter, the Giants first baseman, Aubrey Huff. With two strikes, Huff was able to go to right field with a pitch on the outside corner and Jason Heyward’s throw to the plate was not accurate enough to keep the Giants from tying the game.

     With the score tied, and with Peter Moylan, the ground ball wizard, on the mound, it looked as if we might go to extra innings in the event the Braves couldn’t score in the ninth. Moylan got his ground ball but it was a hot shot to second baseman, Brooks Conrad.

     It had already been a rough night for Conrad before the ball came his way in the top of the ninth. Guilty of two errors in preceding innings, Conrad allowed the sharply hit ball to go between his legs and another Giant run was able to cross the plate. The “little man that could” was not able to on this night.

     Brooks Conrad committed three errors. He would not have been out there to commit the errors in the first place had he not walloped several pinch hit home runs to tie or win games earlier in the season.

     Remember that guy? 

     He is the guy who hit a grand slam home run to beat the Reds. That one game helped the Braves win the Wild Card by just one game. Brooks Conrad was guilty of helping the Braves lose an important game against the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.

      Much of Braves country wants Conrad out for the next game but that would be another mistake on top of mistakes that have already been made. Can’t change anything in the past. No one feels worse about those errors than Brooks Conrad. He will have to live with them a lifetime.

     Fortunately, the will not be such bitter memories if the Braves can come back and win two games; one at home and one on the road. To do this, the offense will have to wake up. The stats look good for the San Francisco starting pitchers, however, I do not believe they have been as good as the Braves have been bad. That’s right. The Braves offense has been terrible and that is why the Giants pitchers have walked away with such wonderful statistics.

     The Atlanta Braves are very capable of winning two games against the Giants. They must hit the ball and they must commit no errors of any type at any type. Atlanta has pitching that can get it done but they need help from the offense. Much of the Braves offense is injured but there are plenty of guys out there who can hit the baseball. Why can they muster no offense lately?

     The Braves hitters are swinging at way too many bad pitches. Can they slow things down and jump on Giants pitching early? Perhaps it is simply a matter of the Atlanta players trying way too hard at the plate and even so in the field. They want to do it so bad for Bobby. Perhaps they are exerting too much adrenaline and it causing them to overreact? They simply need to relax and have fun. They are capable. They are a close knit group and if anyone can win, they can.

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Just a few short weeks ago, Atlanta Braves’ starting pitcher, Derek Lowe, was struggling. On Monday night, Lowe pitched eight shutout innings, struck out a career high 12 batters, reached a career milestone of 1,500 strikeouts, and earned his 13th victory of the season. What’s changed?

During what had to be his toughest stretch as a Braves’ pitcher, Derek Lowe could not stop the bleeding, and the losses continued to mount when his spot in the rotation presented itself. Fortunately for the Braves and for Derek Lowe, manager Bobby Cox decided at the end of the last season to manage one more. The experience of Bobby Cox allowed him to realize that Derek was exhausted. As a result, Bobby sat Lowe on the bench and brought in Kenshin Kawakami.

This was not a punishment, as if to say, “Derek, your pitching stinks so bad lately, I am going to sit you and put in Kawakami.” Instead, it was a move to give Derek a little extra rest. Although Kawakami was not able to earn a win, the move by Bobby to sit Derek Lowe would eventually pay off very well.

In his last two starts, Derek has been brilliant. His pitches and his location have been masterful. As a result, the crafty veteran has victories in his last two starts, and it appears that he is ready to battle down the stretch for a division title.

Before pitching eight strong innings Monday night, Lowe was previously 0-3 with an ERA of 6.11 in his last three starts versus the Washington Nationals. Those who witnessed the game on Monday night surely noticed that the previously bad Derek Lowe had been replaced with the Derek Lowe of old.

Midway through the game, just after Derek Lowe had earned his 1,500 strike out of his career, he was greeted with a standing ovation from the small crowd of 18,647. He received the same ovation when he exited the field midway through the eighth inning. Somehow, Braves fans knew that Bobby would pull him, and they gave him a rousing cheer for a job well done.

With only 17 games remaining, perhaps Bobby needs to rest Tim Hudson for one game? Hudson has lost his last three games, and the Braves can ill afford to lose games when he takes the mound. The Braves are going to need solid pitching down the stretch if they hope to fulfill their dreams of winning the division, and perhaps a World Series ring, in honor of Bobby Cox.

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