ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Giants at Braves – 05/09/2003

A pitcher’s duel turned ugly late, and the Braves couldn’t muster any sort of sequential offense, and a once-close game turned into a blowout. Greg Maddux started and got a quality start to go with his loss, seven innings, five hits, three runs. His control is still off, with three walks. He left with the game 3-2.

But Jung Bong and Joey Dawley put up almost identical lines, and they weren’t good lines at all; an inning each, two hits, three runs each coming on three-run homers. Maybe Bobby was right to use Smoltz with a three-run lead yesterday after all.

The Braves’ only runs came on solo homers by Chipper and Giles. They had plenty of baserunners — six hits and four walks — but couldn’t get the hits they needed when the runners were on. They couldn’t even get the runners into scoring position for the most part. Every Brave reached base except for — you guessed it — Vinny and the Personal Catcher. But nobody had more than one hit.

Night game, Rueter vs. Ramirez, tonight. It will probably still be plenty hot then.