The Atlanta Braves spent their day pitching around Lance Berkman while Morgan Ensberg spent his day driving in runs.
Ensberg went 3 for 4, and drove in a NLDS record 5 runs as the Astros offense singled the Atlanta Braves to death by a count of 10-5. Houston's here today / gone tomorrow offense collected 11 hits, 8 of them singles, along with 9 walks to embarrass the Bravo Nation Wednesday afternoon.
The offense supported an excellent start from Andy Pettitte (1-0, 3.86), earning him his 14th post-season win, tying him for the most all time with John Smoltz, who coincidentially will be starting game 2 for the Braves.
Pasadena allowed 3 runs on 4 hits over 7 strong innings. He threw only one bad pitch, which Andruw Jones crushed 417' to left field, but otherwise was in control.
The delegates from the Hall of Fame chipped in in support of Pettitte. Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and 4 runs scored. Suck on that Howard in Memorial.
Special props to Phil Garner for putting his neck on the line and shuffling the lineup against Bravo starter Tim Hudson (0-1, 6.75), batting Berkman 3rd, Ensberg at clean-up and inserting Orlando Palmerio into the starting linup. And to Russ Springer for auditioning for Dan Miceli's role for this year's playoffs. Nice 27.00 ERA.
They'll get it going again in Game 2 with Roger Clemens taking the mound for the Stros against Smoltz and the Braves. Exactly when this game is going to be played is a different matter, however. With Tropical Storm Tammy expected to drop buckets of rain in the Atlanta area tonight, tonight's scheduled game (7:00 pm CST, Fox) is in jeopardy. If the game is rained out, it will be made up Friday at noon.
