Baseball is a game of inches, and it was inches that decided Sunday night's game. With the game on mute (it was only two innings before I could take no more of any of those ESPN announcers) I watched as the seventh ininig was turned upside down by defensive lapses.
Jair Jurrjens was cruising, and the Braves had given him one whole run to work with, and he in turn had given up only one run. With the Phillies trying to sacrifice a runner to second in the seventh inning, Chipper Jones thew a ball away on the throw to first base. Martin Prado said after the game that he should have gotten to that ball. It was a tough play for Chipper to make, and Prado would have had to make a tough play on his end too, but that's what winning ball clubs do -- they execute. On Sunday night, the Braves did not execute.
The next batter hit a double that hit just off the end of the glove of an outstretched Garret Anderson, and scored the winning runs. That was a true play of inches, and the deciive hit in the game. The play was initially ruled an error, but hometown scoring later changed it to a double.
The Braves had their chances offensively, including the very next inning, but a Brian McCann double play cost them a golden opportunity to tie the game or go ahead.
These are the game you've gotta win.