Fear the Socks
Atlanta 7, Miami Marlins of Miami 5 (10 innings.) Smoltz returned tonight to more fanfare than I have ever heard at Turner Field. This coming from a crowd of only 20,000. In his first relief appearance in three and half years, Smoltz gave up 2 runs, blowing a 4-3 lead, and getting his first blown save since giving up 5 in 0.1IP to the Reds on 9/22/04.
A walkoff home run by Yunel Escobar that bounced off the top of the center field fence saved Smoltz from an L and ended the night on a huge upswing after the crushing anticlimax of Smoltz’s relief appearance.
The old school socks were in full effect tonight. After working with Terry Pendleton for weeks, Jeff Francoeur decided that the key to turning around his slumping bat was wearing his socks up. He knocked one out in his first AB, but ended up going 1-4 with a walk.
Will Ohman got the W with his old school socks, after the pitching a scoreless 10th. KJ and Josh Anderson also rocked the high socks
Your goat of the game was Greg “F7″ Norton, showing us why he was DFAed by Seattle and making TD at Rain Delay look like a freaking genius. Norton went 0-4 (F7, F7, F7, K), leaving the bases loaded in the third. [Ed. - So, I wanted to attribute Infante's 9th inning miscue to Norton. Norton did make some shoddy plays, none that made the gamewrap, though, mostly looking like a lost little boy every time he had to make a throw into the infield. Infante's gaffe, though, also props up the campaign for a solid Blanco, Anderson, Francoeur outfield until Kotsay and Diaz return.]
By the end of the night, we’d all but forgotten about Jo-Jo Reyes, who had another decent outing. He was due for a bad game after last week in Milwaukee when he got the L in the best start of his young career. Yet, he went 6+, giving up only 3. A QS is not too shabby for his down start. Young Jo-Jo is getting better with every start.
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