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Thursday, July 13, 2006
Rebirth depends on pitching
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
If baseball has a drug problem, it follows that the Braves appear to be functioning on hallucinogens. They lost nine of 12 in April. Then they won 15 of 20. Then they lost 20 of 23. So we all buried them. Then a hand lunged out of the gravesite before the All-Star break. In the bleachers, rocking horse people ate marshmallow pies.
Friday night, the season resumes. But it’s going to take more than a cup of French roast to soothe this hangover.
“We’re still breathing,” said Bobby Cox.
Ah, the man with kaleidoscope eyes.
The Braves are 40-49, which means they would need to finish 48-25 just to equal their worst record in the past 14 seasons (88-74 in 2001). The odds of either catching the New York Mets for first place in the National League East or passing eight other teams in the wild-card race are sufficiently mind-numbing.
Sobriety screams: It ain’t happening.
Logic screams: There’s only a single hope — starting pitching.
Forget the lineup. If that changes, it’s only because John Schuerholz deals second baseman Marcus Giles before the deadline. But that likely would be more for an arm than an infielder. And given the cricket noises emanating from the executive suite, there’s no reason to think a significant deal is coming
Forget the bullpen. Yes, things have settled down a little. But, unlike starting rotations, the relief corps sets up from back to front. The Braves entered spring training without an obvious closer, and all they’ve done since then is eliminate candidates. One night, it will be Jorge Sosa. The next, Ken Ray. Most nights, Timothy Leary. As long as the ninth inning is unsettled, so are the ones preceding it. It will not be fixed this season.
All faint, weak and malnourished hopes come back to starting pitching. Five- or six-inning outings won’t do it. They need seven or eight innings from John Smoltz and Tim Hudson and whoever can stand up straight that night. They need complete games. Or they’re dead. Officially.
It starts Fridday night. It starts with Hudson. Two years ago, they acquired him with the expectation that he would be their anchor for several seasons. But that hasn’t happened. Hudson has been mostly unspectacular, and recently not even very good. He went 14-9 with a 3.52 earned run average last season. This year he is 6-8 with a 4.56 ERA. That’s not a staff anchor — just an anchor.
“I try not to think about negative things,” Hudson said Thursday at Turner Field as he prepared to leave for the Braves’ trip. “I’m trying to pull as many positives out of the first half as I can. That’s the only way to get out of a rut and get your confidence going.”
He went eight innings in his last start and left with a 7-2 lead. The bullpen blew that up (Hudson was charged with four earned runs in a no-decision). But it was a leap forward from his previous four starts (all losses, 19 earned runs, 30 hits, 14 walks in 21 2/3 innings).
“The last start was good for me, and hopefully it’ll help us get a fresh start in the second half,” he said. “Obviously, the first game back is always important. We can’t worry about the races now, whether it’s the division or the wild card. We just need to start winning games.”
Smoltz has been strong. Horacio Ramirez can’t stay healthy. John Thomson is erratic, even when he is healthy. Chuck James has been solid but is young, and therefore an unknown. This doesn’t set up well for second-half fantasy.
“We’re not used to this,” Cox said. “The game’s the same, but it’s just different, knowing you’re 13 games out.”
Cox spent the All-Star break on his farm in Adairsville, “Mowing pastures and cleaning barns,” he said. “It was fun.”
Cox’s reality doesn’t always jibe with others. But that’s probably a good thing in this case.
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