Aug 20 2008
Bullpen melts down as Braves hand Mets series opener, fall 13 out in East
By Bud L. Ellis
braves.today.com
Mets 7, Braves 3
Top of the Order: A bullpen meltdown and a subway-train full of stranded baserunners spoiled a stellar outing by Jo-Jo Reyes in his return to the majors, the Braves losing for the eighth time in nine games to fall 13 games out in the NL East.
The Good: After getting over some first-inning jitters, Reyes dominated the NL East-leading Mets. The 23-year-old lefty, promoted to take Tom Glavine’s spot in the rotation, went six innings, allowing four hits and two runs with three walks and five strikeouts. More importantly, Reyes threw 63 of his 102 pitches for strikes. Chipper Jones led four Braves with two hits each, raising his major-league leading average to .365 (man, that boy is gonna miss Shea Stadium). Hoss also walked twice. Brian McCann, Yunel Escobar and Martin “I deserve to play a lot the rest of the way” Prado also had two hits each.
The Bad: Leading 3-2 in the eighth, the Braves watched in horror as a pair of walks by Jeff Bennett set the house on fire and ruined the evening. Bennett’s passes loaded the bases, and Will Ohman – who’s not been in The Bad very often this season – hung a pitch to Carlos Delgado. Double off the wall. Lead gone. Win for Reyes gone. Ugh. We’ve seen this before. Bennett took the loss, allowing three runs with two walks in 1 1/3 inning. Ohman gave up the one big hit to Delgado, walked one, and surrendered two runs. Julian Tavarez came on for Ohman and promptly allowed two hits, as the Mets scored five in the eighth. Even with that, the Braves had their chances, but left 11 runners on base and finished 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Ah, Braves baseball, gotta love it!
View from the Sports Garage: Sitting there in the living room last night, watching Reyes mow through the Mets’ lineup, my wife asked me why were the Braves winning. “They still own the Mets, I guess,” was my reply, thinking that somehow, the seven wins in nine tries against the New Yorkers earlier this season would carry over into this part of the season. Yeah, right. The Braves displayed the same type of suckness against the Mets, who they haven’t played since late May, that they’ve displayed against the rest of the National League in recent weeks. Oh, well. Reyes pitched very well, save that shaky first inning. He had six good starts, then six bad outings, before going to Richmond. Just the ups and downs while trying to learn to pitch up here. He’s good when he spots his fastball inside and can work off it. The bullpen, though, was not good. Hard to complain about Ohman, who has been spot-on pretty much all season. Bennett got into trouble with the walks. And yet, the Braves should’ve led this thing by a lot more than one going into the eighth. Another crappy job with ducks on the pond, fellas. Oh, well. A season-worst 13 games out. A season-worst 14 games under .500. Eight losses in the past nine games. Welcome to live in Mediocreville.
On deck
Braves vs. Mets
7:10 p.m. today, Shea Stadium
The Skinny: He’s lost four of his six starts since the All-Star break, but Jair Jurrjens (11-8, 3.15 ERA) still is pitching well for the most part. Friday against the Giants, JJJ struck out nine and gave up two runs on eight hits in seven innings, but the Braves only scored one run in the loss. Jurrjens is 2-0 against the Mets this season. For the dastardly NL-East leaders from Flushing, Mike Pelfrey (11-8, 3.91 ERA) lost to the Braves twice earlier in the season. But of course, that seems like 100 years ago. Pelfrey has won nine of his past 13 starts, and sports an ERA at Shea of 2.81.
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