Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Braves 8, Mets 4
Tom Glavine can't pitch against the Braves. We get it. This particular plot point is being beaten to death as though it were the punchline of a Saturday Night Live sketch. It could certainly use some sort of twist to liven things up. Perhaps John Smoltz could steal Glavine's wife. They could cut to a shot of her sitting in the owner's box next to Ted Turner the next time the Mets are in Atlanta and then back to a closeup of Glavine as he grits his teeth in a display of his newfound resolve. It'd give the people a reason to tune in, I tell you.
As it is, we're stuck with this rerun. The one where Glavine allows nearly as many hits as he records outs, and given that he lasted into the fifth inning, that's no small number. He lasted four and one-third innings and gave up twelve hits and three walks, while striking out just one. It was a wonder that it took until the third inning for Atlanta to score a run. Hell, the Mets were actually in the lead for a few minutes, thanks to a Doug Mientkiewicz home run in the bottom of the second, at which point Glavine had only allowed two hits and three walks.
But things got rolling in the third as the Braves put two on the board. They did the same in the fourth and then upped it to three in the fifth, when Glavine finished with a flourish, allowing back-to-back home runs to Eddie Perez and Wilson Betemit, the latter being the first in Betemit's major league career. Heath Bell, working for the second consecutive day, gave up a home run to Andruw Jones in his second inning of work, the seventh, to complete the Braves' scoring.
The Mets kept it close for a little while before Atlanta blew it open in the fifth, as Cliff Floyd's sixth home run of the year, a two-run shot in the fourth, put the score at 4-3. But they were only able to put one more run on the board despite loading the bases with no outs in the eighth. Mike Piazza, who had walked to lead off the inning, scored on a passed ball, but a Mientkiewicz fly out and a Victor Diaz double play ended the threat in a hurry.
The newly .500 Mets take tomorrow off before starting their first series of the season in our nation's capital. Jae Seo (1-0, 1.50) looks to follow up a good first start as he takes on Livan Hernandez (2-2, 5.34) and the Nationals. The Mets are only 3-7 on the road so far this year and beating up on the red-hatted stepchildren of the division seems like a good way to start to turn that record around. ¶ joe | 11:20 PM |
Tom Glavine can't pitch against the Braves. We get it. This particular plot point is being beaten to death as though it were the punchline of a Saturday Night Live sketch. It could certainly use some sort of twist to liven things up. Perhaps John Smoltz could steal Glavine's wife. They could cut to a shot of her sitting in the owner's box next to Ted Turner the next time the Mets are in Atlanta and then back to a closeup of Glavine as he grits his teeth in a display of his newfound resolve. It'd give the people a reason to tune in, I tell you.
As it is, we're stuck with this rerun. The one where Glavine allows nearly as many hits as he records outs, and given that he lasted into the fifth inning, that's no small number. He lasted four and one-third innings and gave up twelve hits and three walks, while striking out just one. It was a wonder that it took until the third inning for Atlanta to score a run. Hell, the Mets were actually in the lead for a few minutes, thanks to a Doug Mientkiewicz home run in the bottom of the second, at which point Glavine had only allowed two hits and three walks.
But things got rolling in the third as the Braves put two on the board. They did the same in the fourth and then upped it to three in the fifth, when Glavine finished with a flourish, allowing back-to-back home runs to Eddie Perez and Wilson Betemit, the latter being the first in Betemit's major league career. Heath Bell, working for the second consecutive day, gave up a home run to Andruw Jones in his second inning of work, the seventh, to complete the Braves' scoring.
The Mets kept it close for a little while before Atlanta blew it open in the fifth, as Cliff Floyd's sixth home run of the year, a two-run shot in the fourth, put the score at 4-3. But they were only able to put one more run on the board despite loading the bases with no outs in the eighth. Mike Piazza, who had walked to lead off the inning, scored on a passed ball, but a Mientkiewicz fly out and a Victor Diaz double play ended the threat in a hurry.
The newly .500 Mets take tomorrow off before starting their first series of the season in our nation's capital. Jae Seo (1-0, 1.50) looks to follow up a good first start as he takes on Livan Hernandez (2-2, 5.34) and the Nationals. The Mets are only 3-7 on the road so far this year and beating up on the red-hatted stepchildren of the division seems like a good way to start to turn that record around. ¶ joe | 11:20 PM |
