AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2005 > August > 22
Monday, August 22, 2005
Braves try to get hot in cool Chicago
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Since a 12-game homestand and the chance to distance themselves from the rest of the NL East didn’t inspire the Braves to play a better brand of pennant-race baseball, maybe playoff weather will.
I just arrived in Chicago and the weather is spectactular, sunny and upper-60s, like an October afternoon in Atlanta. Should be crisp and gorgeous for tonight’s series opener, which features the best pitching matchup of the series _ Tim Hudson(9-7, 3.45) against Carlos Zambrano (10-5, 3.97), whose 2.24 ERA is the third-best in the NL. Pretty impressive, considering Wrigley is homer haven whenever the wind’s blowing out.
There are a few negatives in an NL baseball writer’s travel itinerary — frigid Milwaukee in April, steamy St. Louis in mid-July, Shea Stadium any time of the year — but there are many more positives, and one is Chicago in late August, with the air crisp and at least one day game (but preferably three) at Wrigley on the schedule. Damn those lights. The place wasn’t built for night baseball, as any writer knows who’s tried to navigate through the hordes of fans to get to the postgame interviews in the clubhouse, down the same ramps and aisles that the fans use.
Quite aside: After a division series night game here a couple years ago, the one that wasn’t decided until Sosa’s long flyout, I literally had to hang over the railing of a ramp and drop down to a hot dog cart to bypass the standstill pedestrian traffic jam, since all 38,000 or whatever it was stayed until the last pitch and left en masse. Anyway…hey, good that I’m still nimble, daring and athletic.
Another important week for Braves, because last thing they need is to lose more ground to East foes before facing them all down the stretch. The lead’s down to 3-1/2 over the Phils and 4-1/2 over the hard-charging Marlins. Not at all what the Braves had in mind when they opened their longest homestand of the season two weeks ago. But that 6-6 homestand is over, and now they’ve got a chance to win a couple of road series against a Cubs team that’s only 30-30 at home and a Milwaukee team that has no playoff aspirations. Of course, Milwaukee’s 61-64 record is barely worse than San Diego’s, and we know what happened there….
Hey, don’t know how you all feel, but I’m torn between which two ongoing concerns has moved into No. 1 on the Braves’ list of ulcer-inducers: The bullpen, or the Nos. 3-4 starters, Thomson and Hampton, or Hampton and Thomson … or is Ramirez now ahead of them in a potential playoff rotation? Actually, that last question hasn’t been answered, and won’t be until late September, probably. But it certainly could unfold that way, if the two veterans keep struggling and Ramirez pitches as he did this weekend.
As for the bullpen, specifically the closer issue, my guess is that Reitsma reemerges as the guy. I just don’t know if the Braves would trust the other options — Kolb and Farnsworth — in a pressure-save situation in September or October. But we’ll sure find out. They’ve got to hope that a little rest will reinvigorate Reitsma, whose recent struggles are alarmingly similar to his last-season fade last year.
