Jun 23 2008
Bing, bang, boom! Tex’s three bombs spark Braves past Mariners
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
Braves 8, Mariners 3
Top of the Order: Mark Teixeira blasted three home runs and Tim Hudson notched his first interleague victory as a Brave, Atlanta taking the rubber game of a three-game series and moving within four games of first place in the NL East.
The Good: Teixeira, who came in with just 10 homers on the season, launched bombs in the second, fourth and seventh innings, the second three-homer game of his career as he finished 3-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBIs. He had plenty of company in the hit parade on a day where the Braves bashed Seattle pitching for 14 hits. Gregor Blanco, Brian McCann and Greg Norton each had two hits. McCann scored twice. Ruben Gotay, starting at third base again, drove in two runs and walked once. Just one run would’ve been enough for Hudson, who bounced back from his last start in Texas with a very good performance. He did walk four, but Timmy gave up just four hits in seven shutout innings. How good was Huddy? How about 15 ground-ball outs compared to just four in the air. When you see numbers like that from Timmy, you know he’s getting the movement he wants. Will Ohman rebounded from a really bad outing Friday night with a scoreless, hitless inning, striking out one.
The Bad: Both Chipper Jones (quadriceps) and Yunel Escobar (hip flexor) sat out. Gotay made an error at third for the second game in a row. Mike Gonzalez, pitching for the second time since coming off the disabled list, got hit around in the ninth: three hits, two earned runs. Good for it to come with an eight-run lead, though. Had to complain about anything else, really … we ripped this team apart Friday night, and deservedly so. Much better effort the past two days. Gives one hope there may be meaningful baseball after the All-Star break.
View from the Sports Garage: Good morning. Do you know where your baseball team is in the standings? Well, if you don’t, I’ll save you the trouble: this crazy team has played its way to within four games of first place. This team that is 4-19 in one-run games, 1-7 in extra-inning contests, is 16 games under .500 on the road and has pushed its fan base to the brink of swearing off this madness forever, sits just four games behind Philadelphia in the NL East. True, the Braves are in fourth place, but as we’ve said time after time after time this season, with everything that’s happened, there is no way this team should be this close to a playoff spot. And it’s about time we saw some power from Teixeira. Yeah, I know all of you Tex Apologists scream until you’re blue in the face that he starts slow, blah, blah blah … but it’s late June. Time for the cleanup hitter to start hitting like a cleanup hitter, instead of hitting like he’s counting down the days to free agency. I’ve grown tired of those who are making the excuses for Tex, the “he’ll heat up in the second half” argument. He better get hot and stay hot if this team is serious about contending – and you have to say a team that’s four games out of first in late June is in the race, right? If Tex gets hot and slams the ball all over the place like he did after being traded to the Braves from Texas last season, look out. He can carry a team for weeks at a time. If this is the start of one of those stretches for Tex, the Braves won’t be four games back for long. For now, I still hold my breath on Tex, and this team. Milwaukee comes in having won seven of its last 10 and 15 of 22. Ned Yost’s Brewers will be a much stronger test than the Mariners. Braves really need to win at least two before hitting the road for slumping Toronto this weekend.
On deck
Braves vs. Brewers
7:05 p.m. today, Turner Field
The Skinny: Jo-Jo Reyes (3-4, 4.05 ERA) faces the team where his season – and maybe when all is said and done somewhere down the line, his career – turned. Facing Milwaukee on May 28, Reyes showed the dominant form Braves’ management has expected from the 23-year-old lefty, going seven innings and allowing just two hits while striking out nine. Starting with that outing, Reyes has given up just 11 earned runs in 35 1/3 innings, walking 12 and striking out 29. His ERA has dropped from 5.84 to 4.05 in that stretch. For the Brew Crew, ace Ben Sheets (8-1, 2.74 ERA) climbs the bump. The Braves missed Sheets on their late-May swing through Beer City. No such luck this time. Sheets held Toronto to two runs over six innings in his last start. Sheets is on a four-game winning streak and lifetime is 8-3 against the Braves with two complete games. Yikes!
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