Atlanta Braves 9, Montreal Expos 8

The Braves completed the 3 game sweep of the Expos. They did it despite a bullpen meltdown and a blown 7-3 lead. They also just barely won despite the fact that they scored in every one of the first 7 innings. This turned out to be an excellent ballgame to watch though. The Braves won on an Andruw Jones double that knocked in Charles Thomas from 1st base with nobody out in the bottom of the 12th inning.

Jose Capellan had a decent first ML start. He pitched 5 innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts. It took him 111 pitches to get through 5, so he came out and gave the game to the bullpen.

The bullpen for the Braves today was pretty bad. Kevin Gryboski pitched the 6th inning and gave up a run on 3 hits. Tom Martin pitched two thirds of an inning in the 7th and gave up 2 runs, and Antonio Alfonseca had to come on and get out of the jam. (Alfonseca has been quite good lately, he's been one of the most reliable relievers...maybe he should have a bigger role down the stretch?) Chris Reitsma actually pitched a perfect 8th for once. John Smoltz had a rare bad outing and blew his 4th save and a 3 run lead. Roman Colon pitched a scoreless 10th, and Juan Cruz pitched the last 2 innings without allowing a run and picked up the win when the Braves won in the bottom of the 12th. He is now 6-2.

The Braves did an excellent job on offense, however. As mentioned in the first paragraph, they scored in each of the first 7 innings. Only in the 4th did they score more than one run. I'll mention all of the hitting stars:

Hitting Stars: Eddie Perez had a perfect 4 for 4 day and was a triple short of the cycle. He has to be one of the slowest players on the Braves and there was virtually no chance of that happening though. Rafael Furcal was 3 for 5 with his 14th homer. Chipper Jones was 2 for 5 with his 28th homer. Andruw Jones was 2 for 5 with his 27th homer. Marcus Giles added 2 hits.

The Braves travel to New York to take on the Mets in a doubleheader tomorrow and will play what will be pretty much a 5 game series. Jaret Wright and Paul Byrd are the scheduled pitchers for tomorrow.