06 April 2007

Your 2007 Atlanta Braves have got off to a flying start. It would have taken a brave (no pun intended, honest) man to predict that Atlanta would have returned from Philly with all three wins. Anyway, you won't be hearing me grumble. Let's hope we can keep up this charade against the Mets. One feature of the Braves' performance was the number of long balls clubbed. They've pummelled 6 balls over the fences so far, that's the most in the bigs (the Tribe are second with 5, in case you were wondering). Let's review each one courtesy of Hit Tracker.

1. First on the board was McCann's two run shot in the 4th off Brett Myers -- at this point he was batting 1.000. Sweet. According to Hit Tracker it only went 371 ft, so would have been a long fly ball in most parks. Did they build Citizens Bank for Little League or something?
2. With Myers still in the game and the Braves trailing by one, Renteria launches a 434 ft solo effort into the seats to tie the game. Go Braves.
3. Not content with one homer, Renteria secures an opening day win for Atlanta this time with a 2 run shot in the tenth. Again, this would have cleared the wall in most parks going 412 ft.
4. It's that man McCann again! This one snuck over the fence at just 368 ft but was enough to take the game into extra innings once more.
5. Who needs Adam LaRoche when you have Scott Thorman? Adam who? Exactly. In the eleventh, Thorman pops another short one into the seats ... but they all count.
6. Kelly Johnson's had to wait until the last game of the series to get a hit but when he did he slapped it for a four-bagger. At least this one went a respectable 399 ft.

One thing is abundantly clear: Getting 58 HR in the Phillies band box isn't quite as impressive an achievement as I thought it was at the end of the last season.