Looking at the Braves Lineup

One thing that becomes immediately obvious is that the RH batters have to hit against lefties and the LH batters have to hit against righties. Chipper and Tex are going to do their thing in the middle, but unless 3 of the other hitters are doing what they should, we're going to see a lot of results like last night.

We have a wonderfully balanced lineup, 3 lefties, 3 righties and 2 switch hitters. I can't think of a better balanced lineup in all of baseball. However, that means nothing if the guys who are supposed to hit don't hit.

Last night the right handed trio of Francoeur, Diaz and Escobar went 1-6 (the lone hit was an infield single) with a walk against the soft tossing lefty, odalis perez. Those same 3 then went 0-4 against the subsequent relief pitchers. If you had told me this before the game, I'd have picked us to score about 2 runs, if that.

The same thing applies with RH pitchers with regards to Kelly Johnson, Brian McCann and Mark Kotsay. The non-switch hitters have to hit against the pitchers they're supposed to or this offense just won't score runs.