ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Marlins at Braves – 04/06/2003

Horacio Ramirez didn’t pitch quite as well as in his first start, but the Braves’ offense showed up and he got his first career win. Rafael Furcal had four hits and a walk, Andruw had three hits — two doubles and a homer — and Marcus Giles was 1-1 with four walks, almost guaranteeing that he’ll be benched today for not being agressive enough.

The Braves popped for four runs in the first — refreshing for a team that usually this season has trailed after one — and never looked back. All their runs were scored in multirun innings, two in the fourth, three in the sixth, and four in the eighth. The Braves have scored nearly all their runs in their two wins, and nearly all the runs in those wins in big innings. Fitting a big-inning offense, they got homers from Fick, Andruw, and Sheffield.

Better work from the bullpen, shutout innings from King, Ramirez, and Smoltz. They’ll need better bullpen work than they’ve gotten, and this is a good sign.

Because of the stupid first-week schedule, this is a stupid wraparound series. The Braves have an afternoon game today with the Marlins, Russ Ortiz hoping for his first win as a Brave.