ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Braves at Mets – 09/01/2003

I’m back to being disgusted. The Braves loaded the bases with one out three times but failed to score any of those times. Chipper grounded into a double play in the fifth and Estrada in the eighth, and in the seventh Sheffield popped up and Chipper flew out. Ten Braves runners left on base as they managed only two runs on fourteen baserunners.

Greg Maddux pitched well, but the Mets put three hits and a sac fly together in the fourth to push two runs across and he left with a tie. (If I read correctly, the key play of the inning was when Sheffield cramped up or something and failed to make a catch — probably on Timo Perez’s leadoff double which was to “shallow right’.) I could talk about Maddux’s poor run support, but… Trey Hodges allowed a run to pick up a loss, and the Inexplicable Jaret Wright managed to lower his ERA all the way to 8.03 pitching the ninth.

The only Brave starter who didn’t do anything was Robert Fick, who was 0-4. He’s down to .269 for the season, and I have to admit I’m worried. At some point, Bobby’s going to have to think about going to Matt Franco more regularly, but we saw last year in the playoffs that he doesn’t respect Franco for whatever reason.

Hampton and Leiter will go tomorrow. The other teams in the division are all in progress and in doubt, so the magic number holds at 13.