They produced a rather listless effort Wednesday night, losing 5-0 to the Augusta GreenJackets before a mostly-quiet crowd of 2,226 at State Mutual Stadium.
“Flat — that’s the perfect word to describe us tonight,” said manager Randy Ingle. “It’s not that the guys weren’t trying. But they were just flat, and that’s going to happen from time to time.”
The Braves entered the night having won five of their past six and were tied for first place with the Charleston RiverDogs (who played late Wednesday).
But the Rome offense was limited to five hits by a trio of Augusta pitchers. Mike Loree (2-4) worked the first seven innings, limiting the Braves to five hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Former Calhoun star Charlie Culberson went 1-for-4 with an RBI single for the GreenJackets, who snapped a three-game skid.
Rome starter Jacob Thompson (2-5) took the loss, allowing five runs, all earned, on seven hits in 6 2-3 innings. He held Augusta to one run through six innings, but the Jackets broke the game open with a four-run seventh.
Meanwhile, roughly 70 miles to the south of State Mutual Stadium, the Atlanta Braves were completing a series of significant moves Wednesday night — and several of the developments had Rome Braves’ connections.
The chain of events started around 6 p.m. with the announcement that the Braves had released veteran Tom Glavine, who’d pitched six scoreless innings for Rome in a rehab assignment on Tuesday night at SMS.
A few minutes later came the news that the Braves had obtained center fielder Nate McLouth from Pittsburgh in exchange for minor leaguers Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke and Gorkys Hernandez. (Locke and Morton are both former Rome stars.)
Moments after the trade broke, news circulated that pitcher Tommy Hanson, another former Rome Brave, had been promoted to Atlanta and will make his MLB debut on Saturday.
“It was definitely a very busy day for the Atlanta Braves organization,” said Ingle. “And on our end, it’s always tough when some great young players get moved. But that’s the business of baseball.”
The string of moves created a stir at SMS, as fans could be heard talking about Glavine’s abrupt dismissal and Hanson’s highly-anticipated call up.
But the Rome fans didn’t have much to talk about in regard to the game that was going on in front of them.
The Braves fell behind 1-0 in the first inning, and the offense never made up the deficit despite having several chances to do so. They finished 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Rome catcher Jesus Sucre lashed a first-inning single to continue his surge (he entered the night batting .459 over his past 10 games), but he was eventually left stranded — one of six runners left on base by the Braves in the loss.
ROSTER MOVE
The Braves activated Joel Campusano from the DL on Wednesday, and promoted reliever Brandon Beachy to Class AA Mississippi.
Beachy was 0-0 with a 5.60 ERA in 12 games. Campusano was in the Rome lineup Wednesday, and went 0-for-3.
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