Crashburn Alley

Bobby Cox and Logic

by Bill Baer on August 15th, 2009
Posted in Media, MLB, NL East Whining, Philadelphia Phillies | Print | 6 Comments »

Hat tip to The Good Phight.

Another entry for the “NL East Whining” category that I love so much. It seems like the Braves are good for one, maybe two whiny comments about the Phillies and Citizens Bank Park per year. Bobby Cox helped meet the quota last night.

But Lidge, who has allowed four earned runs in his the two previous innings he’d completed this week, pitched around a walk to Greg Norton and then breathed a sigh of relief when left fielder Raul Ibanez ended the game by catching Nate McLouth’s long opposite-field drive along the warning track.

“We played in the wrong park tonight,” Cox said. “If we’re in Philadelphia, we’ve probably got five homers, at least four. The long fly balls just weren’t traveling. I knew Utley’s was out and I knew Howard’s was out.”

Yeah, that’s right Bobby: Ryan Howard’s home run to left-center had nothing to do with Turner Field, but your home park had everything to do with keeping Nate McLouth’s fly ball in front of the fences.

You can’t make up logic like that.

Here’s an idea: Hit the baseball better. Ryan Howard sat on a Rafael Soriano slider and crushed it just like he sat on and crushed a Ryan Dempster slider the previous day. If your fly ball didn’t leave the yard and you don’t have winds from a monsoon blowing the ball in, then you could have done a better job of making contact.

Just once, I’d like to go an entire season without hearing the Braves make some pitiful excuse for losing to the Phillies.