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We won game one on Chuck's best outing of the year.

Andruw homered, great win after the horrible Phillies series.

Smoltz and Sheets go at it tonight, Hudson and Bush on Wednesday.

Lets jump on Sheets early and hope Smoltz gives us another gem.

Smoltz is 3-0 for his career against the Brewers, let's hope it's continues tonight, and hopefully our Atlanta Braves can get back on track.

Nice performance for James yesterday, AJ going the other way could be good for his slump.

Mardy2Curry wrote:Nice performance for James yesterday, AJ going the other way could be good for his slump.

Andruw's greatest moments this year at the plate have all been hits the other way. You'd think he'd start to understand there's a lot of good to come from hitting the ball the other way.

James pitched good yesterday and Druw is starting to heat up.



good game so far tonight, Atl 3 Mil 0









Mets lead divison by : 4 games

And of course Smoltz gets hurt.

Nothing seems to be going right at this point. Amazing!

Even though Renteria struck out there, that's an impressive stat about his batting average in innings 7+. .440 with the next best being "Mr. Clutch" himself (Jeter) at .381.

I've accepted the fact that injuries and bad luck will prevent any talented Atlanta team from ever doing anything. (save 1995)

I was at tonight's frusturating game. Here's the summary I'm posting on my favorite Braves boards.

I went tonight to see what I though would be a great Smoltz-Sheets duel. Pictures will come later when I get tbe chance to upload them. So I fork out the moeny for tickets along the LF line at field level. I get to my seat an hour early for the game and see Moylan, Villarreal, Soriano, Wickman, and Chuck James playing catch about 15 feet away. James leaves almost immediately and Soriano and Wickman soon follow, I assume because they expected to pitch tonight, which left Moylan and Villarreal who probably didn't expect to pitch tonight to continue throwing. I should point out that Moylan's hilarious. He dances to the music while warming up which just makes Villarreal crack up as well. They threw a few balls near me but I didn't get any. The highlight of the pregame for me came when Hudson appeared to talk to Villarreal and Moylan. Someone taking batting practice hits the ball near him and he looks to throw it into my section. I yell at him to throw it to me since I'm wearing his name on my jersey shirt. Villarreal looks my way but Hudson throws it elsewhere, probably NOT to another Braves fan.

The game has now started. Smoltz starts out well and Willie Harris has fun with the catch partner kid by throwing him a high ball he has to jump for, which of course makes him crack up. And before I forget, Moylan signed some autographs but not for long enough to get to me. The name of the game was defense and injury. Smoltz wasn't "pulled" from the game. He made a pitch that led to a groundout and almost ran to the dugout like he saw a Kolb ghost or something. BC looked like someone shot him when he walked over to the umpire to tell him Villarreal was coming in. Defense was terrible on both sides. Bill Hall plays CF worse than anyone I've seen. The first play of the game he screws up by taking a terrible route to the ball. Later on he took 2 steps back on a popup before running full speed ahead and missing a diving catch. Finally, on another deep fly ball he had no clue how to make a running catch. Weeks is still horrible. At one point he missed an easy ground ball and on the next play proceeded to bobble the double play chance. I think he missed 4 playable balls. KJ and Pete Orr didn't impress me either. KJ had a beautiful bobble and Orr seemed to have horrible instincts and positioning at 3B. When Harris played 3B, he seemed to play a couple of feet closer to the line which allows him to make plays on balls going to the corner. Oh, and Pete Orr can't run up on a ball to save his life. After seeing both of these teams I'm wondering what's so hard about seeing the need for defense. The Braves really need to do something defensively because as has been mentioned before, there's not an above average infielder defensively. The OF is fine. Harris made a beautiful diving catch to save some runs, Andruw was Andruw, and Francoeur put his arm to good use. His first throw convinced the runner to stay at 3B and his second I think was really rushed since the Braves couldn't afford to give up a run, hence it going over McCann's head. Diaz's arm didn't seem strong to me but I could be making it up. It just seemed like he took a lot of effort to throw the ball to the infield.

Let's talk Braves offense. KJ, McCann, Andruw, and Renteria looked great. The problem came in the 9th. Note to Jeff and Scott: You don't have to swing at the first two pitches! That was a golden chance to nail Cordero who wasn't that sharp tonight.

Midway through the game I put my finger on what was killing the Braves bullpen. The Braves have a bunch of relievers who can't get a K and a bunch of middle infielders who can't save runs. It's a recipe for disaster.

Fun moments: I was sitting around a bunch of really great Brewer fans who had minimal knowledge of the Braves. I was asked to pernounce Saltalamacchia and I corrected them when they thought the guy who looked like he just finished a buffet table heading to the mound was Wickman. After learning that the Braves have 2 huge relievers they started making cracks which were similar to those we make here. Overall experience: fun but a win would have been nice especially after seeing the Braves choke in the 9th. And a final reminder, don't drink and drive. Some yahoo wanted to crash into me leaving the parking lot.

One thing I forgot to add. McCann would be great competition for the racing sausages at Miller Park. If only the Braves could have pinch ran for him in the 9th they would have easily tied the game and might have won.

Well, I hope Timmy gets the run support that's needed to win today, and hopefully Timmy gets us the W. The Mets lead is only increasing.

The bad luck continues. Give up the lead on a wild pitch that should've been stopped by McCann. Hopefully we can get the lead back with the bases loaded and one out.

B-Mac makes up for his bad play with a three run double. Finally something goes our way late.

Tough loss but winning the seires is whats important.

Seven runs in the 8th, awesome.

Meh, should have been a sweep, but after the way we've played lately I'm happy with a series win. Nice job finally stepping up late in the game.

Great come from behind victory. Glad to see Hudson get the win as well.