Braves - Astros Playoff Series Update

There's a reason they play these games for real. A couple of days ago we discussed the Astros' "great pitching" and the Braves' "fair hitting." We warned against John Smoltz's "continuing shoulder injury," and predicted a Houston victory. Well, with the series tied at a game apiece the last could still happen, but the rest of it went almost totally against the season-long norm.

Andy Pettitte pitched well on Wednesday night, giving up just four hits, but the Braves were still able to dent the plate five times (albeit in a losing effort). And then, given the chance to put Atlanta into a deep 0-2 hole, Roger Clemens looked anything like a future Hall of Famer, giving up a three-run homer to rookie catcher Brian McCann and a two-run double to Adam LaRoche, a lefthanded hitter with a huge weakness for the down-and-in breaking ball. Does that mean, then, the Astros have forfeited their natural pitching advantage? Not really. Smoltz did throw a first-rate game on Thursday but let us not forget that Atlanta gave up ten runs in the opener. Hey, there's one we got right: we said the Braves have "poor middle relief," and after starter Tim Hudson gave up five runs in almost seven innings, Leo Mazzone's bullpen failed completely, giving up another five runs on four hits and four walks in the 8th inning alone.

We also indicated that this would be a pitchers' series, but after Houston opened the series with a 10-5 victory and Atlanta responded with a 7-1 triumph, these two "light-hitting" lineups have banged out a combined 23 runs and 39 hits. You can never figure this game, can you?

So white is black and black is white as the series moves from Georgia to Texas. Roy Oswalt, who has been a 20-game winner each of the last two years and has won more than 80 games in his five-year career, would seem to be an overwhelming favorite to defeat Atlanta's Jorge Sosa, who had a career 11-26 record until he came to the Braves this spring and unexpectedly rang up a 13-3 mark. And the Astros will be playing in their unusual ballpark, where they are familiar with the short left field and that hill in center. Should be easy for the home team, right? But wait, this series has been topsy-turvy so far, it might be more correct to say that the Braves have 'em where they want 'em. Oh, I'm so confused!

And that's why they play these games for real, as I said up top. You never know what will happen between those white lines. It's why we keep watching, day in and day out, year in and year out.

I think there's one thing that we can count on: these two teams will continue to confound us. And that being said, I still think that eventually it will be Houston moving on face St. Louis.

This has been fun, let's do this again in a couple of days, shall we?