It seems like just yesterday I was writing “Game 1″ and all of a sudden, 162 games later and it’s a wrap on the season. Where did the time go?
Like in most games where we face a pitcher we haven’t seen before, we struggled. Only this time, it was costly for individual accomplishments. Chipper lost out in the batting race and Escobar slipped below .330 meaning we didn’t end the season with 4 players above .330. But, even so, .337 is a career high for Chipper, hopefully there is a gold glove in his future and .326 is better than anyone could have imagined for Escobar. Renty also had a career high batting at .332. Frenchy grew and matured as a hitter improving over 30 points from last year. Huddy finally pitched like he was capable of and Smoltz had what he called his best season ever.
Carlyle was called start on to start the final game. He wasn’t on the top of his game, but he didn’t pitch to badly either. He went 4 innings allowing 5 hits and 3 runs, walking none. The forgotten man in the pen, Villarreal, pitched the next inning. He allowed a hit and a walk, but none scored. Devine pitched to 2 batters, one hit. Hopefully his time in Atlanta this season has been positive and he will be ready to take on a prominent role next year. Ring pitched the remainder of that inning, not allowing a hit. The game ended with Mahay and Ascanio each pitching a perfect inning.
Not much going on behind the plate, with only 4 hits. Only Sammons had more than one hit and he was the only one with a hit to go for extra bases. I could spend some time going over who let the team down with their bat, but with it being the end of the season.
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