Week in Review: 4/27

Renee recaps the Braves week, hitting the high points, such as Russ Ortiz's wild masterpiece, to the low points, like the Braves 12-5 thrashing courtesy of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The Braves continue their good play by going 5-1 again this week, including a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals and taking 2/3 from the Brewers. The pitching is starting to come into its own with the offense continuing to success. Let’s take a look at how it all went down.

Debut of Sheff’s Chefs: During the Braves 5-3 win against the Cardinals, a group of fans in right field who call themselves, Sheff’s Chefs, cheered on Sheffield while he went 2-4, 2b, HR and 3RBI.

Doggie Dealin’: Greg Maddux continued to work his way back from a uncharacteristic start to the season by pitching seven scoreless, 3 hit innings in game two of the Cardinal series. The Braves went on to win 4-2.

Workin’ His Way Back: Mike Hampton had a very encouraging start in the final game of the three game series against the Cardinals. He pitched five no-hit innings before giving up his first hit in the sixth yielding a run. His line for the game was 6 innings, 2H, 2R, 4BB, 1K.

Sweeping In the Rain: In the final game of a three game set, the Braves and Cardinals played through heavy rain for all nine innings. The Braves came to bat in the bottom of the ninth, down 3-2. Andruw Jones singled in Furcal and Sheffield for the tying and winning runs to complete the sweep.

Not So Good: After having an ERA of 0.00 for his first two starts as an Atlanta Brave, Shane Reynolds gave up 10 runs in 3 1/3 innings to up his ERA to 5.74. Nine of the ten runs came from a 3-run homer and a solo homer from Richie Sexon, a two run homer and a grand slam from John Vander Wal (Vander Wal’s run belonged to Hodges). The Braves went on to lose the game 12-5.

So Many Pitches: After issuing only five walks in his first four starts, Horacio Ramirez walked four in 5 1/3 innings on Saturday against the Brewers. He also threw 101 pitches, only 53 for strikes, but was able to limit the Brewers to two runs, one earned. Braves went on to win 3-2.

In Russ We Trust: Russ Ortiz contributed two wins to the Braves 5-1 run this week. He allowed two runs in 6 1/3 innings to beat the Cardinals in the first game of the series. He ended the home stand by just falling short of a complete game, giving up one run in 8 2/3 to beat the Brewers.

Still In The Zone: Marcus Giles continued to roll through the first month of the season. For the week Marcus batted .368, 2HR, 6RBI, 5BB. And proving he can do it all, he had three sacrifice bunts to help the Braves complete the sweep of the Cardinals.