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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
ATLANTA (AP) -- If Tom Glavine wins another Cy Young award, he
may remember this game as a real vote-getter.
|  | | Chipper Jones (left) called it lucky, but he also had a keen eye and wicked bat against Randy Johnson on Tuesday. Jones hit two homers in Atlanta's win. |
The Atlanta Braves' left-hander became the NL's first 19-game
winner in a showdown between the two leading Cy Young candidates,
recovering from a tortuous first inning to beat Arizona and Randy
Johnson 5-2 Tuesday night.
"It's fun," said Glavine, who allowed only five hits and one
earned run in seven innings. "It means you're doing something
right, or people wouldn't be talking about it. As a pitcher, you
look forward to these kinds of matchups."
Johnson (17-6) struck out 11 in six innings but gave up three
homers -- including a pair of two-run shots to Chipper Jones. The
Big Unit is only 2-4 with a 3.75 ERA since starting in the All-Star
game.
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Cy Young battle?
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Tom Glavine has two more wins than Randy Johnson, but he can thank his teammates for better run support. A look at the complete numbers says Johnson has been the superior pitcher: |
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Johnson
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Glavine
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W-L
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17-6
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19-6
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ERA
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2.45
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3.61
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IP
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216.2
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207
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CG
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8
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3
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Hits
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167
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191
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BB
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63
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59
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SO
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299
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130
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OAVG
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.214
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.244
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OOBP
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.277
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.297
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OSLG
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.347
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.367
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Run support
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4.86
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6.04
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"I feel like I'm pitching good," he said. "The velocity is
right where it was at the beginning of the year. You've got to give
the opposition some credit, too."
The Braves won for only the fourth time in 12 games and kept a
one-game lead over New York in the NL East. The Mets won 3-2 at
Cincinnati to move five games ahead of Arizona in the wild card
race.
"I don't want to put too much on one game," said Johnson, who
left the game one strikeout shy of his fourth 300-K season. "But
this is the last month. Every pitch is important, every at-bat is
important. I wish I could have a couple of pitches back."
Glavine (19-6) kept Arizona off balance with a baffling barrage
of changeups and carefully placed fastballs -- none clocked faster
than the upper 80s. He won for the 12th time in 13 decisions and
kept himself in contention for the third Cy Young of his career,
even though his ERA (3.61) is more than a run higher than Johnson's
(2.45).
Johnson seemed to have a lock on winning that award for the
second year in a row after reaching the All-Star break at 14-2 with
a 1.80 ERA. But he hasn't been nearly as dominating in the second
half, making critical mistakes at the most inopportune times.
Jones, who was hitting only .259 since the All-Star break, went
the opposite way on a 3-2 fastball in the first inning, hitting a
towering fly that landed in the front row of the right-field seats
for a two-run homer. Then, with the game tied 2-2 in the fifth,
the Braves went back-to-back against Johnson.
Glavine led off with a walk but Johnson retired the next two
hitters. He got two quick strikes on Jones, needing one more to
escape the inning still tied.
Instead, Jones pounced on a terrible pitch -- a hanging slider
that curled right over the inside corner -- and golfed it into the
left-field seats for another two-run homer, his 32nd of the season.
It was the third time the switch-hitter had homered twice in a game
from the right side, the first coming exactly one year earlier -- against Johnson.
"He's a good hitter, and when you make a mistake to a good
hitter, they usually hit it out," Johnson said.
Two pitches later, Andres Galarraga sent a high, outside pitch
over the right-field wall for his 26th homer and a three-run
cushion.
"It's just guessing right," said Jones, who has five career
homers off Johnson. "The guy has such devastating stuff, you have
to just sit on something (until) he throws something you can hit."
The long ball provided more than enough support for Glavine, who
has almost single-handedly prevented the Braves' late-summer
doldrums from turning into a full-fledged slump. He improved to 9-1
when pitching after an Atlanta loss, including a 6-0 run since Aug.
4.
John Rocker pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings for his 19th save,
getting the final out in both the eighth and ninth with two runners
on.
In the eighth, Greg Colbrunn hit a slow roller left of the
mound, which Rocker fielded before throwing a strike to first from
his knees. Rocker struck out the side in the ninth.
Arizona went ahead with an unearned run in a laborious first,
when Glavine needed 18 minutes and 37 pitches to get three outs. He
had Tony Womack picked off, but Galarraga made a bad throw from
first that sent Womack all the way to third. He scored on a
sacrifice fly by Luis Gonzalez.
"I felt good in the first inning," Glavine said. "I wasn't
worried about it. When you come out of such an inning with only a
one-run deficit, it's not bad."
Colbrunn hit his 11th homer leading off the fourth to make it
2-2.
Game notes
Colbrunn has hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games,
including seven in a row. ... The Braves have hit back-to-back
homers five times this season. The last came on July 4, when Andruw
Jones and Chipper Jones went deep against Montreal. ... Despite the
pitching matchup, only 29,722 turned out at Turner Field -- third-smallest crowd of the year. ... Johnson has at least 10
strikeouts in 21 of his 30 starts this season, 146 in his career.
... The Diamondbacks made four errors, the Braves three. ...
Atlanta's Reggie Sanders struck out four straight times swinging.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Arizona Clubhouse
Atlanta Clubhouse
RECAPS
Boston 10
Oakland 3
Cleveland 7
Tampa Bay 4
Detroit 7
Anaheim 5
Seattle 4
Toronto 3
Texas 2
Chi. White Sox 1
NY Yankees 10
Kansas City 5
Baltimore 6
Minnesota 5
NY Mets 3
Cincinnati 2
Atlanta 5
Arizona 2
Houston 9
Florida 5
St. Louis 7
Montreal 6
Colorado 10
Chicago Cubs 2
San Diego 3
Milwaukee 1
Pittsburgh 8
Los Angeles 0
San Francisco 8
Philadelphia 5
AUDIO/VIDEO
 The Baseball Tonight crew breaks down the Braves win over the Diamondbacks.
RealVideo: | 28.8
 Tom Glavine says he faced the D-Backs, not Randy Johnson.
wav: 108 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Chipper Jones says it's feast or famine against Randy Johnson.(Courtesy TBS Sports)
wav: 237 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Chipper Jones says hitting Randy Johnson takes luck.
wav: 109 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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