Smoltz Trumps Santana, 3-1

Written by Jonathan on April 6, 2008 – 11:15 pm

In front of a great crowd, John Smoltz and the Braves faced off against Johan Santana and the Mets in a highly anticipated pitching matchup.  For fans looking to the game for the starting pitching, they were not left disappointed.  Smoltz, making his first start of the season, pitched 5 scoreless innings for the Braves, giving up 2 hits, 0 walks and striking out 6.  Santana likewise pitched a great game for the Mets, only allowing 1 run on 7 hits in 7 innings of work, but still obtained his first tick in the loss column this season.

Smoltz left the game after the fifth inning with some soreness in his shoulder (the same injury for which he just came off of the DL for) and turned it over to the bullpen as a precautionary step.  He’s not expected to miss his next start against the Nationals on Friday.  The bullpen for the Braves was stellar as well, giving up only 1 run on 3 hits through the last 4 innings of the  game.  Closer Rafael Soriano looked a little flustered in the 9th, allowing one run, walking two, and almost issuing a game tying double with 2 outs.  Mark Teixeira made a diving stab to keep the ball in front of him and potentially saved the game, at least from going into extra innings.

Teixeira also put the game a little farther out of the reach of the Mets in the bottom of the 8th inning with a two-run home run to right that just snuck over the glove of Ryan Church.  The official distance on the home run was registered at 345 feet.  This gave the Braves a 3-0 lead at the time; enough to keep the game out of reach of the Mets.

The offense for the Braves always seems to put runners on the board once there are two outs, leaving us with large amounts of runners left on base.  Hopefully the offense can start getting things going earlier in the innings.  If we learned anything from this series, it’s that the Mets/Braves matchup will not disappoint once again this season.  I look forward to keeping an eye on it throughout the season.

The Braves are now tied for the NL East lead with the Florida Marlins at 3-3.  The Mets are close behind in third with a record of 2-3.  We can’t officially call this one a sweep until the first game of the day-night doubleheader on May 20th (Friday’s rainout has been rescheduled for then), so for now, great “sweep” against the Mets.  The Braves are off to Colorado to face off against the Rockies to kick off a 10-game road trip starting Monday night.

Tags: Johan Santana, John Smoltz, Mark Teixeira, New York Mets, Rafael Soriano
Posted in Game Analysis |