|
SAN DIEGO -- As dominant as Jake Peavy was, he could
not singlehandedly defeat the Atlanta Braves. John Smoltz tossed seven scoreless innings and Ryan Langerhans
homered as the Braves posted a 3-1 triumph over the San Diego
Padres, who wasted Peavy's franchise-record 16-strikeout
performance. Peavy (3-5) pitched seven innings and struck out the final five
batters he faced to record the most strikeouts in the major
leagues since Mark Prior of the Chicago Cubs fanned 16 on
September 20, 2004 against Cincinnati. "Obviously, that's a nice accomplishment," Peavy said. "I'm
sure some day I'll look back on it and it will be nice to have
the franchise record for however long it holds up. What it
comes down to is wins and losses and this team lost tonight and
that's tough to deal with." Peavy's only mistake came back to haunt him. After yielding a
one-out infield single to Jeff Francoeur in the second, Peavy
surrendered an opposite-field homer to Langerhans as the Braves
took a 2-0 lead. "I was just looking for (Peavy) to get something up or in the
middle of the plate, and he got that one up and I was able to
get extended on it," Langerhans said. "That was one of the only
mistakes he made all night. He's one of the top pitchers in the
game. To be able to get it in a game like that, where it's
tight and a pitchers' duel is a nice feeling." Langerhans' homer was the only hit against Peavy that made it
out of the infield. "It was just a fastball that I left up," Peavy said. "It was
away, but it was a good piece of hitting. I felt like I made a
pitch to Francoeur the (at-bat) before and he hits the ball 10
feet and gets a base hit Then, it's a two-run homer that costs
you the game. It doesn't feel good." It also was all Smoltz needed. The veteran righthander allowed
six hits and one walk while striking out five en route to his
third win in four starts. "(Peavy) is one of the nastiest pitchers in the game," Smoltz
said. "When (Langerhans) hit the home run, I knew coming in that
chances are, we're not going to get a bunch of runs off this
guy. It was just a game that, if I was going to win, I would
have to keep it 2-0, and fortunately two was enough." Ken Ray gave up a solo homer to Mike Piazza in the eighth, but
Chris Reitsma retired the side in order in the ninth for his
eighth save in 11 chances. "I thought we had some good at-bats and we hit some balls good,
we just couldn't get them to fall in," Padres manager Bruce
Bochy said. "We were close to tying that ballgame or taking the
lead, but we just came up a little short." Peavy allowed a single and a walk in the third before retiring
the final 14 batters, including 11 strikeouts. The reigning
National League strikeout king, Peavy was lifted for a pinch
hitter in the seventh after throwing 74 of 114 pitches for
strikes. "He was pretty awesome," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones
said. "That umpire wasn't giving him anything, he earned every
one of those strikeouts. He was dominant." San Diego's best chance to help Peavy came in the seventh, but
Smoltz struck out Dave Roberts looking with runners on the
corners to end the threat. "Peavy was almost unhittable, but so was John," Braves manager
Bobby Cox said. "Peavy had all of the strikeouts, but John
pitched a great ballgame. He got into some trouble in (the
seventh), but he got out of it with a couple of big strikeouts." Jones added a solo homer in the ninth for Atlanta, which has won
six of its last eight. San Diego has lost four in a row and six of seven after winning
14 of its previous 15. "I wanted to go out there and stop that
losing streak," Peavy said. "I didn't do it and I feel bad about
it." Relievers Scott Cassidy and Jim Brower added a strikeout apiece
to push San Diego's total to 18, setting the team record for a
nine-inning game.
|
