Braves, Smoltz, cruise to win

John Smoltz looked as good as ever this afternoon in Atlanta. Retiring the first thirteen batters he faces, Smoltz cruised through eight innings throwing only 95 pitches and giving up just one run coming on a sacrifice fly by Marlon Anderson in the seventh scoring Henry Mateo.

Unlike yesterday, after starting strong with another early bases loaded double, this time by Brian McCann in the first (missing a grand slam by two feet), the Braves continued to pound the ball all around the park picking up ten runs on eleven hits. Chipper Jones somewhat made up for his strikeout last night in the bottom of the ninth going 2-3 with two walks and a home run to straight away centre field in the bottom of the eighth, moving him past Chili Davis with 351 home runs for third place all time among switch hitters. Also, Andruw Jones, still not looking completely comfortable with a bat in his hands at the plate did draw three walks and scored twice in the game. All the hitters contributed tonight, including John Smoltz, and with Marcus back at second, the Braves seem to have got their catalyst back a the top of their lineup.

Bob Wickman came and struck out two in an impressive scoreless ninth to give John Smoltz his twelth win of the season, now only two off the NL's winningist pitcher Carlos Zambrano. With seven strikeouts today, John finds himself only four behind Zambrano for the National League lead in K's too. He certainly is keeping himself in contention for what would be his second Cy-Young season in the National League.

Overall the Braves looked again impressive behind Smoltz and Wickman and keep their playoff hopes alive with a much needed victory setting up the rubber game tomorrow afternoon where Villarreal looks to continue to throw up zeros across the board.

Lets hope the Giants, Mets (reluctantly) and the Rockies all turn up to play tonight so the Braves can gain some of the lost ground up in the Wild Card race.