Furcalless, the Braves managed four runs, three on Estrada’s first-inning homer and one on a solo shot in the fifth by Marcus, and held on despite Reitsma allowing two hits in the eighth and forcing Smoltz to throw two innings for the save. Why can’t Reitsma get arrested, huh?
Furcal arrived one and a half hours before the game when his family finally scraped up the bail money. (The man makes $3.7 million a year!) DeRosa played shortstop in his stead, and Thomas led off. The latter went 1-4, scoring in front of Estrada’s homer, and threw out a runner at the plate to end the first inning. DeRosa, on the other hand, committed an error that allowed the first run of the game to score ahead of that play. We may have to get used to these guys.
Thomson went six, walking two, struck out six, and allowing seven hits, plus one earned run to go with the unearned one from the first. Pretty good start; his ERA for the season is now 4.08. Alfonseca allowed a hit in the seventh. Smoltz allowed two in the eighth after getting a double play (allowing Reitsma’s run to score) but got out of it, and allowed a leadoff single in the ninth but got out of that too. He doesn’t seem particularly sharp, though. To be fair to Reitsma, neither of his hits was hit that hard, but he still sucks.
Hampton is scheduled to face Livan (him again!) tomorrow night. We’ll see. The Marlins split a double-header and are 7 1/2 out. The magic number is 17.
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