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Tuesday, April 1, 2008
A Braves opener to forget
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
This was awful. I’ve been watching Opening Days — and Nights — since Harry Truman was president, from Class B to major league, and I’ve seen great ones and I’ve seen mediocre ones, but I’ve never seen one as awful as Opening Night on April Fools eve in Atlanta. They just don’t get any uglier.
A 45,269-person welcoming committee gave Tom Glavine a good, warm homecoming squeeze, and the left-handed prodigal gave them five good innings in return. One of his typical workdays, not a pitch over 84 mph, and most where he aimed them. He left with the Braves holding a 4-2 lead, and with that impeccable bullpen behind him, what was there to fear?
There had been some great defensive moments. Mark Kotsay’s throw that cut down Jack Wilson at the plate, a line-drive bullet to Brian McCann, followed by our David O’Brien’s exclamation, “Let’s see Andruw Jones do that. His throw hits the mound!” If there’s anything I like, it’s press-box fervor for the home team — kept within bounds, of course.
The Pirates had one defensive highlight of their own, and it involved the same Jack Wilson. He speared a hot shot that Mark Teixeira drove into the hole near third, to Wilson’s right. Wilson made a dramatic stab and flipped the ball over his shoulder to second baseman Freddy Sanchez, whose relay nailed Teixeira at first. It was acrobatic stuff. And, you might say, the game then became a circus. Bring on the clowns.
One of the Braves’ purported strengths is the bullpen, carefully selected after a spring of many rehearsals. After Glavine took his leave, the surviving candidates paraded across the grassy stage, one by one, mainly without distinction, except for the Australian Peter Moylan and the Dominican Rafael Soriano. Now, you should understand that the Braves consider themselves well-stocked in this phase of the game. This was a game cut away in the pattern as one might project over the season. Starter goes five, or six, or seven innings, Bobby Cox turns to the bullpen and the game is in its hands. Works most every time, or is supposed to.
This time it didn’t. As it turned out, one of the most functional tours was put in by one of the Braves’ projected bullpenners, who unfortunately now pitches for the Pirates. Tyler Yates gave manager John Russell a 14-pitch inning without a hit. Yates may still be around town awhile. He and his wife are building a home in Roswell, now victims of the wiles of the game.
Now, when Russell dug deeper into his bullpen, results were just as disastrous as the Braves’. The Pirates were cruising along with a five-run lead when their game-saving delegates lost connection with the plate in the ninth inning. Russell, it seemed, went for the wrong closer first, and when Damaso Marte ran into trouble, the designated closer, Matt Capps — who comes from Douglasville — arrived too late, and between them, they virtually gifted the Braves with five runs, and the score was tied 9-9. It would get worse as one of the longest and most dis-rememerable (courtesy of the Clemens vocabulary) Opening Night games of all time dragged on. Cox was finally down to his seventh and last of the bullpen cast, and Blaine Boyer, gasping for his life on the roster, was slugged for three runs and wore the horse-collar. The Braves almost made it back in their half of the 12th, but by that time, bloodied and surly, they were ready for nighty-night, having lost 12-11.
Now, there are some things that should be said here. In the first place, the Braves were victims of some thoughtless scheduling. Out of training camp in Florida on Thursday night, two exhibition games with Cleveland on Friday and Saturday at Turner Field, then on a plane to Washington to be the Nationals’ chosen home-opening date, then on another plane back home to open with the Pirates, and not a lot of them had any idea where home would be.
Not fair, really. But, as they say in golf, you play it as it lies. Sorry to be harsh, but they have 160 games left for all the wounds to heal.
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