John Thomson...
That's alright, you're allowed a free pass once in a while. After all, you have arguably been one of our most consistent starting pitchers this season. So you won't be the next American Idol. We still like you better than Taylor!
The bottom line, as Bobby Cox put it, Thomson wasn't really that bad at all. But sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
Even Marcus Giles admitted, "You throw that many ground balls, it's tough to see them score that many runs." The Atlanta defense didn't help their pitcher out on this day either, committing three errors in the first inning.
The Braves offense did mount a comeback and cut the Dodgers lead to 3, trailing just 8-5 after the 5th inning. But Atlanta wouldn't score again, and the volatile bullpen allowed Los Angeles to tack on 4 more runs.
Final score...Dodgers 12, Braves 5
WP - Joe Beimel
LP - John Thomson
HR - Ramon Martinez (1st)
We return to evening baseball tomorrow at 7:35 as Aaron "I have found the fountain of youth" Sele goes for the Dodgers while Mr. Erratic, Jorge Sosa, goes for the Braves. MLB.com's scouting report provides us with the following glimpse into tomorrow's matchup:
Sele cruised through seven scoreless innings against the Rockies and looked like he could have finished it off himself. That's 3-for-3 in quality starts since taking Odalis Perez's spot in the starting rotation and he's pitched well enough to keep it for a while, at least.
If not for two costly defensive miscues, Sosa would have won his second straight start on Tuesday night. In his past two starts, the right-hander has totaled 13 1/3 innings and surrendered just two earned runs. This will be his first career start against the Dodgers.
Have a good night everyone. See ya tomorrow...