ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Padres at Braves

John Thomson, for the third time this season, was outstanding. Actually, he outdid himself. Six innings, six strikeouts, no walks, only one hit, and no runs. Bobby still has him on a short leash and made the move when Thomson (1.23 ERA now) had only thrown 74 pitches. The Braves led 3-0 at the time.

But he brought in Ken Ray, who had also been outstanding. But Ray didn’t keep it up. A homer and two doubles later, Villareal was in to clean up the mess. He did what he could, but the tying run scored. Then in the eighth, with Remlinger in, Langerhans misplayed a single into a triple, and the winning run scored on a single. Cormier pitched a terrific ninth, but it was too late.

Actually, the Braves should have won the game off of Hoffman, who didn’t fool anyone but Jeff Francoeur, who struck out to end the game. Giles hit a rocket to third, which Geoff Blum knocked down, then Adrian Gonzalez knocked down a sure Langerhans double and turned it into a bang-bang out. It was really painful when Andruw and Jordan followed with back-to-back singles; the Braves would have won if the Padres hadn’t made two outstanding plays.

Andruw hit a homer to give the Braves the lead in the second, and Thomson doubled in a run later in the inning. Francoeur singled in a run in the third. Andruw had two hits and two walks, nobody else had a really noteworthy game. Orr played third and led off, which might have given Bobby pleasant memories of Damaso Garcia but for the rest of us reminded us that while Orr has his virtues he’s a lousy leadoff hitter and he went 0-5.

In the annals of pitching mismatches, few have ever been so great as Jorge Sosa versus Pedro Martinez in Shea Stadium. I am not optimistic.