Horacio Vs. St. Louis Cardinals
Pregame Info: Horacio needs to inprove his 1st pitch strike percentage its at 51 percent now but should be atleast around 70 percent. His ERA is 7.00 in his last 5 Starts.
1st Inning-
Bo Hart started the inning by grounding out to Furcal at Shortstop, Eduardo Perez followed by walking (4-1) Albert Pujols struck out swinging and Scott Rolen hit a liner to Marcus at second base.
Horacio started 2 out of the 4 batters out with strikes so he is def. working on getting ahead of the batters. He did a Brilliant job of setting up Albert Pujols by pitching him inside then after getting two strikes on him going outside! A great all around inning by Horacio!
2nd Inning-
The second inning started off with Edgar Renteria walking, but was quickly erased when Miguel Cairo hit into a double play. Which was big because Mike Matheny followed with a homer to left which I felt Chipper could have gotten if he would have attempted to climb the wall, but it was a good pitch by Horacio just was hit. Orlando Palmeiro flied out to Chipper.
Horacio threw first pitch strikes to 3 out of the 4 batters he faced, the homer was a good pitch Matheny just went out and got it. Horacio hasn't thrown alot of pitches and is having a pretty good outing so far. He just has to keep doing what he is doing and not let the homer bother him.
3rd Inning
The opposing pitcher, Woody Williams grounded out to Giles on the first pitch thrown by Horacio, Bo Hart had the count in his favor 2-0 but Horacio battled back to strike him out on three straight strikes! Perez followed with a ground out to Furcal.
Horacio got two of his outs on the first pitch and battled back to get Bo Hart, great job of pitching by Horacio! Only 8 pitches thrown that Inning! Brilliant job by Horacio!
4th Inning
*The score was tied up when Gary hit a homer in the top half of the inning.*
Albert Pujols once again got "work" by Horacio this time Horacio went away then getting Albert to strike out on a pitch on the inside of the plate! Rolen followed with a liner to Vinny! Renteria walked but Cairo hit the ball right at Vinny and the Braves got the force out at second.
Once again Horacio nailed Albert Pujols, Rolen hit the ball hard but right at Vinnys glove! Horacio has given up ONE HIT with three walks and three strikeouts.
5th Inning
*The Braves left the bases loaded in the top half of the inning*
Matheny singled to center to lead off the Cardinals half of the inning, Palmeiro bunted and Horacio fielded the play and threw to second but Furcal was caught napping and both runners were safe. Williams hit a liner to Furcal who leaped and got it, ran to second base, than tagged the runner who was coming from first on the hit. Unassisted triple play by Furcal! The inning looked like it could get out of hand but Furcal to the rescue and after getting caught napping the play before he needed to do something to right the wrong and boy did he.
6th Inning-
Bo Hart started the inning with a base hit to left, Perez struck out swinging, Pujols flied to center, Rolen singled to sheffield, Renteria flied out to Chippper.
Another quick inning by Horacio, he has only thrown 68 pitches so far, the hit by Rolen was on a pretty good pitch, scott just went and got it!
7th Inning-
Horacio jammed Miguel Cairo which resulted in a pop up to Furcal. Matheny flied out to right and Palmeiro grounded out to furcal.
All three batters were started off with first pitch strikes. Only 78 pitches thrown so far!
8th Inning-
Edmonds came up to bat off the bench and hit a liner towards third base but the leaping Vinny caught it for out one. Hart followed by flying out to Andruw. Eduardo Perez tied the game up with a homer. Then the Braves took out Horacio and put in Smoltz only to see Smoltz give up the winning run to Pujols.
The braves did not come back in the ninth and loss the game 3-2
*MY THOUGHTS*
Horacio's pitch count was not at 100 yet so why take him out? Okay you say you want Smoltz to face Pujols which okay I understand but WHY DID SMOLTZ leave on over the plate like that. Did he not watch Horacio master Pujols the whole night by working the corners? Once again Horacio deserved a win and has nothing to show for it. I am aware that Horacio got himself a no decision by giving up the tieing run on the homer to Perez but id rather see Horacio get a loss by facing Albert Pujols and not giving into him than have it taken out of his control and have nothing to show for it.
No one will even remember the triple play by furcal...all they will show on the highlights is Pujols winning the game on a *DUMB* pitch, its not fair to Horacio he pitched MASTERFULLY or to Furcal who made history.