John Smoltz made his first start of the 2008 season a successful one. Smoltz picked up the win after pitching 5 shutout innings. Smoltzie likely could have pitched longer but he tweaked his shoulder again while warming up before the 5th. Read a detailed article on the injury here. Smoltz needed just 78 pitches to get through the 5 innings of work. He claims that he will not miss a start and will pitch against the Nats on Friday. To read a complete wrap up of Sunday's game go here.
What I want to talk about now is the play of Mark Texeira. Big Tex made 3 huge plays on the day. First, Tex made an incredible stretch and pick on a throw from Kotsay to double up the ever fleet footed Carlos Delgado on a line drive to center. Second, Tex hit a CLUTCH HR in the bottom of the 8th that caromed off the top of the wall to give the Braves a 3-0 lead going into the 9th. The insurance runs turned out to be quite necessary as Raffy Soriano had a shaky start to the inning, giving up 1 ER, before retiring the Mets in the 9th. However, Tex's play to end the game was likely his biggest of the day and one of the biggest of the young season. Tex made a diving stop to prevent a game tying two run double which brought back memories of the Big Cat Andres Gallaraga.
"I was playing one step toward the line," Teixeira said. "I just didn't want a cheap ground ball getting down that line. Brian hit it good there. I just wanted to smother it and try to get the out."
The Braves were very fortunate to get a victory of Johan but they will obviously take it. The Braves and Mets will square off 16 more times this season with the Braves holding a 2-0 lead in the season series.
Tommy Glavine will take mound in Colorado tomorrow after switching with Smoltz. More on the series with Rox tomorrow.
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