BravesNuWorld || An Atlanta Braves Blog

If it wasn’t for John Smoltz, my head would be red from banging it on brick walls. The Atlanta Braves (6-9) avoided a sweep from the nameless Florida Marlins tonight with a shutout 8-0 win, carried by Smoltz’s gem of a performance.

I wasn’t able to watch the game because of a late night at work, but I returned to see the final inning. I barely showed interest in the shutout win because of the way this season has gone so far.

The Braves are still winless in one-run games (0-7) this year. This is the Braves worst start since the 1990 team, which is right before the Braves transformed into a perennial winner.

Chipper Jones hit 4-4 with two home runs, continuing his hot steak. These were two of the five home runs hit, including three in a row. Brian McCann, Kelly Johnson and Mark Teixeira hit the other long balls.

It’s good to see Smoltz and Jones getting along this year, after a tumultuous 2007 season where the two bickered at each other over missing key games in the stretch of a tight divisional race that ended with the New York Mets infamous unraveling.

“I have never seen Chipper start a season the way he’s starting,” Smoltz said. “He’s carrying us. He’s hot, and you know everyone else around him is going to get hot. And when that happens, we’re going to be a very, very difficult team to pitch to.”

The Braves return home for a three-game series against the LA Dodgers and former center fielder Andruw Jones, who is still batting below the Mendoza line. I’m not expecting a spectacular series, but we’ll see.

Peter Moylan, the Braves best reliever, is likely gone for the season. This is a huge hit to the Braves who actually made aggressive moves to improve a bullpen that has killed them the past three years. But most of these guys, Rafael Soriano, Mike Gonzales and Royce Ring are not panning out. The Braves are left with a real shaky bullpen led by rookie Blaine Boyer and Chris Resop, whose name spelled backwards is POSER. Yeah, not good.