May 30 2008
Braves find their swing in blowout win at Milwaukee
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
Braves 8, Brewers 1
Top of the Order: Mark Teixeira hit his first home run in 20 days as Jorge Campillo continued to dazzle as a starter, sparking the Braves to just their seventh road victory of the season and salvaging the final game of a three-game set.
The Good: Hey, what do you know? This team can hit on the road, and hit with runners on base. And the cleanup hitter can hit a home run. Teixeira hadn’t gone yard since May 10 at Pittsburgh, but his fifth-inning blast off Seth McClung turned a one-run game into a four-run cushion. Teixeira drove in four, finishing 2-for-3 with two walks. Another good day for Chipper Jones: two hits, two walks, his big-league best average up to .420 and his on-base percentage at .500 (also tops in the bigs). Yunel Escobar, 1-for-8 in the series coming in, went 3-for-6. Campillo had a day he won’t soon forget. On the mound he earned his second victory, allowing four hits and one run in five strong innings, walking nobody and striking out six. Batting with the bases loaded in the fifth, Campillo blooped a single to right for his first major-league hit, scoring two to make it 6-0. The bullpen was stellar: Jeff Bennett, Blaine Boyer, Manny Acosta and Rafael Soriano (yes, the closer is back) combined for four shutout innings, striking out six (four by Acosta, who fanned all four hitters he faced). Soriano looked good in his return, hitting 94 with the fastball and showing good movement on his breaking pitches, walking one and striking out one. Kelly Johnson had two hits and drove in two runs with a two-out single in the ninth, giving the Braves five RBIs on the day with two outs. What do you know? Clutch hitting. And check out the news from Rome (Georgia, not Italy) late Thursday: John Smoltz spun two scoreless innings, allowing one hit while striking out three, and says he expects to be activated for Monday’s homestand opener against first-place Florida. Mike Gonzalez also was in action on a minor-league rehab assignment Thursday, for Double-A Mississippi: one inning, two hits, no runs. Here comes the calvary!
The Bad: For some reason, Boyer was back on the bump today and he simply didn’t look comfortable, walking two hitters in 2/3 of an inning. Why, Bobby? Why must you burn your top relievers like a chain smoker burns Camels? No Mark Kotsay for the fourth consecutive day as he tries to work out back problems. The Braves are going to have to decide soon whether or not to disable Kotsay, as they are carrying 13 pitchers since activating Soriano. Corky Miller got a rare start and responded with an 0-for-3, dropping his average to .077 (to be fair to poor Corky, he got robbed on a couple of balls and walked twice). The Braves left 13 on base, but come on … they WON a road game. We shall not quibble over minute details.
View from the Sports Garage: So here’s the REAL story: When the Braves’ hitters got their travel agenda for the road trip, their copy said the road trip started Thursday, not Tuesday. Yeah, whatever. After wasting two outstanding efforts from their pitching staff in the opening two games of this series, Atlanta found their stroke and pounded the Brewers for 12 hits. Just as promising was the Braves’ approach at the plate. Atlanta drew 11 walks Thursday, displaying the patient mindset that served it so well during the recent 8-3 homestand. Teixeira has hit well in stretches throughout May, but his lack of power has been troublesome to some fans. He now has six long balls at the 1/3rd mark of the season. Not exactly what Scott Boras had in mind, I would imagine, but Tex tends to heat up with the weather, so his bomb in the fifth may be a harbinger of things to come. As for Campillo, man, he was stellar: 73 pitches, 49 strikes. He left a few up in the zone in the fifth after one of those problematic blisters reopened on his hand. Maybe swinging the warclub in the top of the fifth broke open the blister, but career hit No. 1 helped break open the game. Maybe it was the travel agenda. Maybe it was the fact Atlanta wore those all-blue lids (the ones that go with the all-blue alternative road jerseys) with the traditional gray road uni top on Thursday. Whatever it was, here’s hoping the Braves packed it on the charter to Cincinnati. Exactly 1/3rd of the way through the season, the Braves are 29-25 (two games behind idle Florida in the East) and on pace to go 87-75. I think all of us would agree this team should’ve won three or four more games (at least) in the first third of the season (Wednesday’s game comes to mind right away). At some point this team has to start playing better on the road. Hopefully, Thursday marks the point where it turns around.
On deck
Braves at Reds
7:10 p.m. today, Great American Ball Park
The Skinny: The trio of Tim Hudson, Jo-Jo Reyes and Campillo has set the bar pretty high for Tom Glavine. Huddy, Jo-Jo and Jorge all authored dominating starts on the first three games of the road trip. Now Glavine (2-2, 4.76 ERA) climbs the bump, coming off his worst start of the season. He allowed six earned runs and walked six in a loss Sunday to Arizona. Tommy will need his changeup working down in the zone against the Reds in their little bandbox of a ballpark. Balls zoom out of Great American Ball Park (or as most scribes and bloggers call it, GABP). His opposition on the mound, Edinson Volquez (7-2, 1.31 ERA), leads the majors in ERA and is tied for the big-league lead in strikeouts (76). He pitched well in a loss to the Braves on May 2 at Turner Field, allowing two runs (one earned) and four hits in six innings, striking out nine. He doesn’t walk many hitters (33 in 62 innings). The Braves have their work cut out for them in the opener, but maybe Thursday’s hit parade will follow them from Milwaukee to the banks of the Ohio River.
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