Remember us?

You may have forgotten in light of the local basketball collective's big night assembling talent, but we just beat a division rival 9-1 for our fifth win in a row and we did it against the best pitcher in baseball, who happened to shut us out a few days ago.

A few thoughts from the game:

1. You'll have to trust me on this one, but I was going to predict that the Braves would do better against the D-Train after having seen him five days earlier, just like they got progressively better against Kris Benson last year over the course of a month, in which they saw him three times. Of course, predicting that the Braves would score more than zero runs is not unlike predicting that Phil Fulmer will wear something orange next year.

2. I keep fixating on the Braves' injured starters, but how much are they really being missed, given the way the fill-ins are pitching. Leo Mazzone has managed to turn Roman Colon, Jorge Sosa, and Kyle Davies into decent major league starters. Forget genius, Leo is approaching "Norman Einstein" levels. (I'm sure I just jinxed Roman for his start tomorrow by saying that.) Sosa has given the Braves a quality start every time out. The Sosa-Green trade appears to be a win-win for all involved. The Braves got a quality starter and freed up playing time for Wilson Betemit and Pete Orr, while Green got a starting gig and has given Tampa Bay some solid play (.749 OPS).

3. Is Florida the biggest fuck-up franchise in the NL? Aside from their two World Series titles (admittedly, nothing for the Braves or most of the rest of baseball to sneeze at,) they don't draw dick despite consistently good teams, they play in a dreadful stadium, they can't get their pro-business legislature to fork over any money for a new stadium, and for the crowning insult, their ground crew can't get a tarp onto the field properly, despite the fact that they ought to have more practice doing so than anyone else in baseball.