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What has 12 fingers, 12 toes, and sucks? I suspect you know the answer. Alfonseca retired only two batters while allowing six to reach, four on hits and two on walks. And one of his outs came on a foolish two-strike bunt strikeout. In the process, he turned a 4-3 lead into a 7-4 loss. It’s not all his fault; Bobby has to be ready to yank a pitcher who is flailing, and he signally failed to do this. And apparently the rain was about as bad today as yesterday. Truly, interleague play is the gift that keeps on giving.

Ortiz threw five great innings. Unfortunately, he came out in the sixth, giving up two runs and being lucky to do that well. He struck out four and allowed only three hits, but walked five. Pretty typical Ortiz. Juan Cruz finally got to pitch; he bailed out Alfonseca in the seventh and then got himself in and out of trouble in the eighth.

Chipper gave the Braves a 3-0 lead with a homer in the first. But they scored only one more run, driven in by Furcal (who had three hits) in the fourth, while stranding ten… People complain about strikeouts, but it’s the double plays that will kill you. Franco hit into two today; if he’d just struck out there’s a reasonable chance they’d have scored at least one more run. That wouldn’t have been enough, you’d think, but baseball is funny, and things escalate.

The Braves now travel to Chicago to play the White Sox, another team they have almost nothing in common with. Jaret Wright will start Friday, it seems. They were hoping Horacio Ramirez would be ready on Saturday but that seems unlikely, and Thomson will probably make the start instead, since he only went an inning yesterday.