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.
The play with Sheffield wasn’t a cramp. He slid trying to reach the short fly, got his spikes caught up in the wet grass, twisted his leg, and lay on the ground writhing in pain. That he stayed in the game surprised me. That the Umps allowed the game to continue through a pretty serious downpour disapointed me. The game is virtually meaningless; but an injury to a key player could be devastating.
Absolutely right bamadan. Easily the scariest moment of the season for me. The play looked like a classic knee/ankle destruction, complete with Sheffield immediately reaching in agony for his lower right leg. One of those plays where the trainer is sprinting onto the field seemingly even before time is called. It must have looked really bad from the dugout, because Bragg grabbed his glove and was right there with the trainer. I was shocked Sheffield stayed in. He then clearly refused treatment in the dugout between innings.
Far less importantly, your educated guess is correct as to the hit in question Mac – the extra base Perez got as the ball was lying there led directly to the subsequent runs.