Don Sutton and Joe Simpson were quick to remind us that John Thompson “only made one mistake” (presumably leaving a fat one over the plate for Paul Lo Duca to knock over the left field fence), but these days, anyone facing the New York Mets will have to get used to having little margin for error. Tom Glavine — who not so long ago was dunking his former club — was masterful in allowing just 4 hits in 7 shutout innings. Aaron Heilman and Billy Wagner pitched scoreless 8th and 9th innings respectively ; Wagner is now 7 for 9 in save opportunities.
Carlos Beltran went 1 for 3 with a double in his first game back after an extended absence due to a sore hamstring. 2B Kaz Matsui extended his hitting streak to 8 games with a single in the 8th inning.
Carlos Delgado and Cliff Floyd were a combined 0 for 8, the former striking out 4 times and the latter seeing his batting average dip to .181. The latter, however, made a pair of terrific catches in left, the first of which saved a run.
some other post-game celebratory musings :
Prescription for beating the Braves: Take one vintage Tom Glavine, mix in one longball from Lo Duca, add a few splashes of near-flawless defense, a dose of Aaron Heilman at his unhittable best, and cap it off with our slider-slinging closer. For the second night in a row, that insidious tomahawk chop chant died in the throats of Braves fans that are losing faith in their old magic.
Question for that snazzy new Japanese second baseman: Who the hell are you, and what have you done with Kaz Matsui? – Mike’s Mets
I’ve seen the Braves lie in the weeds until midsummer too many times to get giddy, NL East April records notwithstanding, and heard too much oddly dour/swaggering early-season talk from the respective clubhouses to doubt the Braves will be the thing under the bed until our division’s sun finally rises and proves them a figment of our collective imaginations. But something feels different this year, and I think I know what it is. And it’s corny as all get-out: Whatever this year’s crop of Mets believes about the Braves/Mets rivalry or Turner Field is a lot less important than the fact that this team believes in itself. – Jason, Faith & Fear In Flushing
Cliff Floyd had another awesome game, and of course looked terrible doing it. He runs like Muhammed Ali talks, and his dives are the belly-flops of a giant and diseased whale. I never think he will get to the ball ” but he does, and he did last year, and I think something changed last season. Not the healthy bit ” that much is obvious ” but I think in the way he approached staying healthy while playing hard enough at the same time. The ugly way he moves speaks of a very large man trying not to kill himself while simultaneously propelling his bulk at extraordinary speed. I think it works. – East Coast Agony
The Braves’ little league offense has reached a new level of ineptitude, being completely shut down yet again, this time by Glavine and the Mets bullpen. Thomson™s ERA for the season is 1.32. He has had 4 starts and hasn™t allowed more than one run in any of them. He doesn™t have any wins. That is extremely difficult to accomplish. – Jamie Kirby, Tomahawk
This is unbelievably depressing. The Braves have now lost five games in a row, mostly with good pitching. Tonight, John Thomson made one mistake, allowing an opposite-field homer to Paul Lo Duca in the sixth, and finally got a decision because the Braves couldn’t score at all.
We can complain about Bobby loading the lineup with righthanders after watching that fail against Glavine for a decade, but Brian Jordan had two of the team’s five hits, and the other two against Glavine were by Renteria and another of the platoon guys, Diaz. The Braves’ only real scoring chance was erased when the other platoon guy, Pratt, had a soft liner taken down by Floyd in left. – Mac Thomason, Braves Journal
two insanely awesome defensive plays by the floydster though, one that saved two runs.
i liked when hernandez called lo duca de luca as in ‘dean & deluca’ and said he got the names confused because of the gourmet store name. cohen said, ‘that would be ‘lean and lo duca’, keith’
another keith moment was him saying ‘another question from the useless stats committee’ or some such thing after the tv question of the day came up of the screen ‘in the last 20 years, which pitcher has the worst record against his former team’. (a: it ain’t glavine, but it’s an ex-met…)
Sorry, Jesper, hadn’t seen your comment about Clifford before I went back and noted his slippery grabs. Comment spam catcher has a way of catching non-spam sometimes.
…and when was the last time a MEts closer got two saves in a row IN ATLANTA?
trachsel out of trouble in the first…
…he had a rough 2nd, though!
I wasn’t aware Kyle Davies had already alllowed 6 HR’s prior to Beltran’s 2-run shot in the 3rd. Probably too early to say that Roger McDowell is having a poor initial year as Atlanta pitching coach, but after a month, it’s ok to reach a conclusion or 2. Chip Caray dug up the old chestnut that nobody ever won anything in April, but tell that to the ’84 Tigers.
Even if you can’t win a division in April, a team can do a lot to fall out of contention the first month. If the Braves blow today’s 3-0 lead, they’ll enter May a full 8 games behind the Mets.