Mets-Braves series thread

[General]

John Smoltz gave up four runs in seven innings to lose a duel with Pedro Martinez tonight.
Smoltz has been pitching with a sore shoulder and he left too many pitches up tonight. He'll have to keep fighting it for the rest of the season

[Kingdom]

Way to suck.

[General]

NEW YORK (AP) -- For Pedro Martinez, the assignment Friday night was simple. All he had to do was lift the gloom and doom that was surrounding the New York Mets after 12 losses in 14 games this month and 15 in their last 18 games.

Martinez responded brilliantly with his 17th career shutout, outpitching John Smoltz in their fourth meeting this season and leading the Mets to a 4-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves.

"It was just a regular game," Martinez said, a mischievous grin creeping across his face. "I wanted to change the atmosphere around here. Give the fans something positive. It was in my hands to do it. I wanted to do it."

So Martinez (15-7) took a four-hitter into the ninth inning, got himself into an ugly first and third, none-out jam, then struck out Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones and left the bases loaded when Jeff Francoeur flied out to end the game.

The ninth-inning strikeouts of the two most dangerous hitters in the Atlanta lineup gave Martinez 10 for the game and moved him ahead of Hall of Famer Jim Bunning into 14th place on the career list with 2,860.

All season long, Martinez has injected electricity into his starts and Friday was no different. The fans were roaring in the ninth as he wiggled out of the jam with an assortment of pitches thrown at an assortment of speeds.

Chipper Jones described the hitters' dilemma against Martinez's arsenal.

"When you have so many pitches that you have to cover, when you have to cover five inches off the plate, that's a lot," he said.

Martinez threw a season-high 122 pitches. After seeing the bullpen blow so many of his games this season, he was not coming out.

"My way of doing things, I am a professional," he said. "When the manager hands me the ball, I go out and do whatever possible to win the game. They asked me how I feel and I said I'm going for it. It was a complete game, a good game, everything I wanted. We all needed it."

Asked if matching up with Smoltz, the Braves' ace, gave him a little extra incentive, Martinez shook his head.

"No, I wish they had their worst guy out there," he said. "It didn't happen that way."

Rookie Mike Jacobs gave the Mets a quick lead against Smoltz (14-7) in the second inning when he hit his fifth home run after David Wright singled. It was Jacobs' first homer since Aug. 24, when he completed a stretch of four home runs in his first four days in the major leagues.

The Braves' best chances before the ninth came in the first and sixth innings, when they left runners on third base.

In the first, Giles doubled with one out, moved to third on a fly ball but was stranded when Andruw Jones flied out.

Furcal beat out an infield single in the sixth and Giles followed with a single to left. But Giles was thrown out by left fielder Cliff Floyd trying to stretch his hit into a double. It was Floyd's 12th assist of the season.

Martinez then retired Chipper Jones on a grounder, ending the inning.

In the bottom of the sixth, Jose Reyes singled and stole second, his 52nd stolen base of the season. He moved to third on a sacrifice and scored on an infield single by Carlos Beltran.

Victor Diaz singled, stole second and scored on a RBI single by Ramon Castro in the seventh.

The loss was the fifth in the last seven games for the Braves, leaders in the National League East.

"We had a couple of chances, especially in the ninth," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "Pedro is a master out there. He really is. He's one of the great pitchers to come along."Game notes
Braves LF Ryan Langerhans recorded the first four outs, all on fly balls hit to the opposite field by left-handed Mets batters. ... Jacobs' second-inning homer traveled an estimated 440 feet to straightaway center field. ... Martinez's third-inning strikeout of Smoltz was his 200th strikeout of the season, the first Mets pitcher to reach that total since Al Leiter in 2000. ... Braves 1B LaRoche struck out three times. ... Martinez evened his season record against Smoltz at 2-2. He beat Smoltz on April 10, the Mets first victory of the season. Smoltz won showdowns on April 26 and Sept. 6. ... Martinez now has nine seasons of 200 or more strikeouts.

[General]

Glavine owned us today:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Tom Glavine really wanted to finish his start -- and not because of who he was facing.


Glavine pitched a six-hitter to beat his former team and Cliff Floyd hit his career-high 32nd homer, leading the New York Mets over the Atlanta Braves 4-1 Sunday.


Glavine (11-13) got Jeff Francoeur to bounce back to the mound to finish his 54th career complete game and his first since a 4-0 victory over Colorado on May 23, 2004. He was pleased with being able to go the distance in his 273rd career win.


"Not because of my personal relationship with them, but because they're a good team," Glavine said. "Any time you get a complete game against anybody it's nice, particularly against a first-place club that's had success against you."


Victor Diaz and Carlos Beltran each added an RBI double during a four-run sixth inning, helping the Mets end another frustrating season against their NL East rivals by taking two of three over the weekend. Atlanta won the season series 13-6, its fifth straight year with double-digit victories against New York.


No Met had been more frustrated by the Braves than Glavine, who entered 1-8 with a 7.85 ERA in 11 career appearances against the team he won two Cy Young Awards with. But he snapped a personal three-game losing streak and won for the first time since Aug. 22.


"It's nice to see him kind of even things out 'cause he's struggled against them in the past," Mets manager Willie Randolph said.


Glavine outpitched John Thomson, who had only one bad inning. But that was enough to keep him winless since May 5. The right-hander is 0-3 in six starts since missing nearly three months with an injured middle finger.


"They came out aggressive in that inning," Thomson said. "Three first-pitch fastballs and they were right on them."


The Braves lost for the fifth time in seven games. They began the day with a five-game lead over Philadelphia, and host the Phillies in a three-game series starting Tuesday.


Thomson (3-5) took a three-hitter into the sixth before allowing the first four batters to score. Jose Reyes drew a leadoff walk and scored on Diaz's double. Beltran followed with another run-scoring double before Floyd hit the next pitch over the 396-foot sign in right-center for his 200th homer and a 4-1 lead.


"I always believe hitting is contagious," Floyd said. "You start getting a couple of hits, you don't go up there thinking. You put the pitcher in a bind. Once you get somebody having to think a little bit, then you've got him."


The Braves quickly put runners at the corners to open the seventh, but Glavine struck out Brian Jordan and got Johnny Estrada to ground into an inning-ending double play.


Marcus Giles hit his second homer in two days in the sixth, but the only other trouble for Glavine came in the fifth, when the Braves had runners on second and third with one out. But after Jordan popped out, Glavine intentionally walked Estrada and fanned Thomson.


Glavine lost to the Braves on April 27 when he yielded seven runs and 12 hits in 4 1-3 innings. That was during a dismal start to the season, when he opened 1-4.


"I had a lot of people pouring dirt on my grave earlier in the year," he said.


But Glavine has worked at making his routine less predictable, and the results have come. He has allowed three earned runs or fewer in eight straight starts -- though he is only 3-4 during that span because of the Mets' inconsistent offense -- and the Braves certainly seemed fooled on Sunday.


"He was pretty good," Giles said. "He's mixing in a curveball now. Every time I played behind him he never had a curveball."


The Mets had runners at the corners with none out in the second, but Mike Piazza flied out and Thomson struck out rookies Mike Jacobs and Anderson Hernandez.


Hernandez made his major league debut after being called up Saturday. He went 0-for-4, flying out to center with the bases loaded in the eighth.
Game notes
There was a moment of silence before the game for Donn Clendenon, the MVP of the Mets' 1969 World Series victory who died Saturday at 70 after a long battle with leukemia. ... Braves CF Andruw Jones' single in the fifth snapped an 0-for-14 slump since he hit his 50th homer Wednesday at Philadelphia. ... Piazza was robbed of a hit with a diving catch for the second straight day when Jordan caught his line drive to left in the fourth. Piazza hit a liner to center Saturday that appeared to hit the grass just before Jones grabbed it with a lunge. ... Both Mets wins in the series were complete games -- Pedro Martinez blanked the Braves in the opener.

[Kingdom]

See, Glavine isn't done yet Lissy!

[General]

Still, Maddux > Glavine.

[Kingdom]

Maybe.