ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Mets at Braves – 07/19/2003
Even in another uniform, Tom Glavine still pitches the Braves to victories. He only got as far as one out in the fifth, allowing all seven of the Braves’ runs. Unlike his first visit, Tommy was heavily booed (not the more cheers than boos mix of last time), and maybe he’s just trying to get the Atlanta fans back on his side. I mean, it’s not like the Mets’ season is going anywhere.
Andruw was the hitting star, 2-3 with a homer and a walk, scoring twice. The Braves lept on top in the second with four runs, the big blow that most unlikely of events, a two-run triple from Darren Bragg, who amazingly hit eighth instead of ninth with Ortiz pitching. All the runs, and almost everything the Braves did, was off of Glavine, as the bullpen basically shut them down.
Marcus Giles was back in the lineup, but went 0-4. (He hit a couple of balls hard.) Sheffield was also 0-4, but everybody else was productive.
Russ Ortiz didn’t really have much today, but (1) the offense picked him up, and (2) he was facing the Mets. So even though he walked four and threw 101 pitches in only five innings, he was able to give up only three runs and get the win. If you’re going to give up walks, it might as well be to the Mets, who have less power than most AAA teams.
Trey Hodges had two more good innings, including striking out the side in the sixth, and Darren Holmes a shutout seventh. On came “setup man” Boom-Boom Bobby. On other teams, a setup man’s job is to hold a one or two run lead to get it to the closer. On the Braves, Boom-Boom comes in to whittle down a four or five run lead down to a save situation, as he did today. Smoltz got his 100th career save. If you’re interested, he’s third on the team’s all-time list already, and 12 behind Wohlers for second. With Boom-Boom’s help, he’s got a good shot at beating that this year. His 35 saves this season already is the fourth-most, and just four behind Wohlers’ pre-Smoltz team record.
Day game tomorrow as the Braves go for another sweep. The lead is temporarily ten games, awaiting tonight’s Phillies/Expos game.
Could Glavine possibly be feeling any more miserable about his season than he must be today? I don’t feel at all sorry for him for his silly belief that NY would be the place to propel him to 300 wins, despite their offensive holes and brutal defense.
But now he finds himself sucking royally, surrounded by an offense that would make Richmond blush, getting smacked around hard every time he faces his former team. I don’t know how heavy the boos have been in Shea, but if they’re not bad yet, they will be. And his only hope is that they wisely spend their huge amount of available payroll this season, while he simultaneously figures out how to pitch around Questec and age. If either of these doesn’t happen, he has 2-3 more years of this hell to go through, barring retirement.
For years, Baseball Prospectus predicted that Glavine was about to “go Drabek”. Well, he outlasted their prediction by many, many years, but now the time is here, and boy is it ugly. Had he faced this playing in Atlanta, I think the fans would have been somewhat forgiving. But taking the twilight of your career to New York, that’s a proposition that begs for disaster.
I’m so happy this is happening to Glavine. All the fans wanted him to stay in Atlanta, even the Braves wanted him to say, but no, not enough money so shame on you Glavine. I hope that extra money is worth more than your 300 wins….
The only time i understood why someone left is when Dale Murphy left. He was such a great player on a horrible team I wanted him to do well…
There’s a rumor circulating that the Braves will package Johnny Estrada and Andy Pratt in a three-way deal with Baltimore and Tampa Bay that will bring Sidney Ponson to Atlanta, send Joe Kennedy to Baltimore and Estrada and Pratt to Tampa Bay. Lou Piniella disputed that a deal was done in the following link, but didn’t exactly deny it:
http://rays.tbo.com/rays/MGANOV7N9ID.html
However, with Toby Hall on board, I can’t see why the Rays would want Estrada, nor do I see why the Orioles would rather have Kennedy than Ponson (he’s younger and makes less money, but Peter Angelos isn’t exactly strapped).