'06 Braves scalp '74 Stros

1974 Hou - Paul Johnson, 2006 Atl - Terry Priest

GAME1: ATL6, HOU4
The 74 Astros met the 06 Braves at Turner Field in an exciting game that may well have been announced by Rod Serling. Houston drew first blood against Atlanta starter John Smoltz in the top of the first when Bob Watson doubled home Lee May. In the bottom of the 2nd Adam LaRoche deposited a Larry Dierker pitch in the rightfield seats for his 2nd homerun of the season and a tie ballgame. In the top of the 3rd the lights went out in the Houston dugout. The power was restored within a few minutes and the game continued for an inning until the rain came in the 4th forcing a 32 minute delay. Each team posted 2-spots in the 5th and the game remained tied at 3 until the bottom of 7th. Atlanta loaded the bases and took the lead on a Jerry Johnson wild pitch. Marcus Giles then lined a single past Lee May to score 2 more runs and give the Bravos a 6-3 lead. The final score was 6-4 with Chad Paronto picking up his first win in relief while Bob Wickman recorded his 3rd save of the year. The turning point came in the bottom of the 7th when the Braves scored 3 times to take a 6-3 lead. Marcus Giles was the game MVP. He went 2 for 3 with a walk and 4 RBIs, including the game winner in the 7th.

GAME 2: ATL 6, HOU 2
Houston's JR Richard faced off against John Thomson from Atlanta in the second game of the series. The Astros led 2-0 after two innings highlighted by Lee May's first long ball of the year. Starting in the 3rd the Braves scored 6 unanswered runs to notch the win with a 6-2 final. Although Richard started the game strong fanning the first 4 batters he faced he was tagged with the loss after tiring in the 6th. Thomson recorded 2 outs in the 6th, good enough to earn his first win. Chipper Jones provided today's turning point with an RBI single in the 3rd to tie the game. Chipper also gets MVP honors for picking up another RBI in the 5th giving the Braves a lead they held for the rest of the game.

GAME 3: Atl 10, Hou 4
The series moved to the pitcher friendly Astrodome for games 3 and 4. Somebody forgot to mention the "pitcher friendly" part to Andruw Jones. He homered in his first 3 at-bats to power the Braves to a 10-4 win. Braves starter Chuck James went 6 innings to improve to 2-0 and Oscar Villareal pitched the final 3 to earn his first save of the season. Don Wilson pitched 7 innings for the Stros but give up 8 runs, all earned, and was saddled with the loss. Joining Andruw in the homerun column was Chipper Jones, Matt Diaz, Doug Rader and Lee May with 2 big flies of his own. In the 8th inning the Braves broke the game open with 4 runs to make the score 10-3. The inning was highlighted by Diaz' 2-run blast. Andruw Jones earned MVP honors with a 4 for 4 performance including 3 HRs, 4 RBIs and 4 runs scored.

GAME 4: Atl 11, Hou 7
Atlanta finished off the sweep of the Astros with a wild, seesaw 11-7 victory. Houston posted 4 runs in the bottom of the 4th to take a 4-1 lead. From there on each team scored runs every half inning until the 8th when the Braves put up 3 to take a 9-7 lead they would hold on to. Chad Paronto earned his second win of the season in relief and Bob Wickman came on with 2 out in the bottom of the 8th and produced his 4th save of the year. Ken Forsch gave up 3 runs in two thirds of an inning and was tagged with the loss. The turning point of the game came once again in the 8th inning when Adam LaRoche punched a grounder past the diving Lee May into rightfield scoring 2 runs and giving the Braves the lead. Marcus Giles was the game MVP going 4 for 6 with 4 runs scored and 3 RBIs including a 2-run homer in the 9th to cap the scoring. --submitted by Terry Priest--