The Atlanta Braves were up to their old tricks again Monday needing a 10th inning comeback to grab a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. The Braves wasted a strong start by John Smoltz but in the end they did get the victory with two home runs from Edgar Renteria and another off the bat of Brian McCann.
Smoltz went six innings, allowed 8 hits and gave up 3 runs but struck out 7. The Braves collected 7 hits as a team but 5 of the 7 hits came from Renteria and McCann. They said Renteria couldn’t get down the bunt on Monday but he was able to hit the two-run homer that put the Braves over the Phillies. One Braves’ concern may be former outfielder Kelly Johnson at second base. Johnson could be the key suspect in the Atlanta lineup.
Atlanta Braves baseball has been a local favorite around these parts for many years. I enjoy the radio broadcast and I’m glad that 790 the Ball is carrying the games again this year. It is always fun to tune in to the first game of the season and other than a few glitches with the signal dropping out everything sounded OK.
Skip Carey and Pete Van Wieren were the voices that opened the broadcast and Chip Carey and Mark Lemke were there for the post-game show. The Braves were on WSB out of Atlanta for many years then switched over to WGST for a couple of seasons and now they are with a what seems to be a Country station called the Bull. There were a lot of Country music re-joins on the post-game show and the call-in number features numeration associated with the Bull.
The Bull and the Ball and the Braves are back in action and now I can’t sing along with that one country tune that says, “I ‘aint seen the Braves play a game all year”. I didn’t see them, but I heard them and I also caught some of the N.Y. Mets on 660 the Fan on Sunday night. You can get all the games on XM Satellite but I think you will appreciate them more when you have to struggle to hear them on the old AM radio.
*****Locally we have UNCG vs. NC A&T at First Horizon Park tonight at 6pm.*****