Results tagged “johnsmoltz”

• Yankees 8, Red Sox 3: A loss would have dropped the Yankees 11 1/2 games back. Although they wouldn't have admitted it, losing two of three to Boston would have forced some early wild-card thoughts. Instead, the Yankees are within 9 1/2 games and have some life. For the second time this season, Andy Pettitte outperformed Curt Schilling, but Wednesday's game ended up better for the Yankees than did the one April 22, when the bullpen blew it. The list of teams that have come back from double-digit deficits to win divisions is short. Any talk of a righted ship for this Yankees team is premature -- they've played poorly enough that three wins in four games won't persuade anyone they're out of the funk. But this game became plenty more important in the Yankees' minds because they won.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Must-Win or Not, Yanks Win"

Perhaps Gothamist was a little too hopeful going into last night's Mets-Braves game. We were daydreaming of a pitchers duel going into the 9th inning with the Mets winning in the bottom half of the 9th. Not exactly how things turned out as the Mets lost 4-3. Pedro Martinez gave up three runs in the 1st inning, allowing the Braves get a good jump on the Mets, who answered with one run in the 2nd. For his part, John Smoltz pitched good enough to pick up his first win of the season, allowing 1 run in 6.2 innings. Martinez picked up the loss, his first of the season, allowing 4 runs in 7 innings pitched.

Aaron Heilman started the game for the Mets and had a performance reminiscent of his one hitter two starts ago. Heilman pitched 7 innings of 2-hit ball and only allowed 1 run to the Braves. It looked like Heilman would be the tough luck loser until the 6th inning when the Mets knocked Horacio Ramirez out of the game by picking up 5 runs. Mike Piazza had an RBI double, Cliff Floyd had a two run homer, and Wright added his own two-run home run before the inning was over. The 5 run inning was the 7th time the Mets have scored 5 runs in an inning this season.

Through seven innings of the pitcher's duel between Martinez and John Smoltz, it looked like the Mets would remain winless, but the bats came alive for 5 runs in the 8th. Smoltz picked up the loss despite 15 strike outs. For his part, Martinez had 9 K's and retired the final 16 batters to end the game.

Yesterday's 4-3 loss finished off a 10 game home stand for the Mets where they went 3-7, not exactly the way a team wants to start the second half of the season. During their last 10 games, the Braves and Phillies went 7-3 and 6-4 respectively. Jose Reyes had a career-high four hits, but struck out against John Smoltz in the 9th with the tying run in scoring position. Smoltz is 18 for 18 in career save opportunities against the Mets.