‘95 Braves split with ‘71 Bucs

8/21 - Fulton County Stadium
Steve Blass (71-PIT) vs Greg Maddux (95-ATL)
Braves 8, Pirates 0
Greg Maddux showed just why he's know for having the best control on the planet.  Maddux had 5 strikeouts in this complete game performance, where he scattered 7 hits.  Blass got blasted.  8 runs over 7 innings is not going to get it done.  Javy Lopez went 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored for the Braves.  Mark Lemke had 3 RBI's.

8/22 - Fulton County Stadium
Dock Ellis (71-PIT) vs Tom Glavine (95-ATL)
Pirates 7, Braves 4
Glavine had a shutout for the first 3 innings, then the "Lumber Company" hit him over the head with a 2 by 4 for four runs in the 4th.  Actually most of the runs came by way of the walk as the normally pin point accurate Glavine lost his control and walked 3 batters in the inning.  A 2 run homer by Willie Stargell in the 5th made it 6-2.  Atlanta was able to get 1 run back when Chipper Jones singled home Marquis Grissom with 2 outs.  Javy Lopez hit a shot to the wall that just barely missed being a grand slam.  Instead Clemente timed his jump perfectly to make a game saving/homer robbing catch.  Dave Giusti recorded his second save of the year by pitching a scoreless 9th.

8/22 - Three Rivers Stadium
John Smoltz (95-ATL) vs Nelson Briles (71-PIT
Braves 7, Pirates 5
  John Smoltz allowed just 1 run over 7 innings of work and left with a 7-1 lead only to see his bullpen begin to melt down and almost give the game away.  The Bucs erupted for 4 runs in the bottom of the 8th off of Jason Schmidt.  Thankfully McMichael was able to come on in the 9th and get 3 outs with 8 pitches to notch his second save of the season.  Both David Justice and Jeff Blauser had 3 hit and 2 RBI days to pace the Braves who posted 16 hits as a team to raise their team BA to .298.

8/22 - Three Rivers Stadium
Steve Avery (95-ATL) vs Bob Johnson (71-PIT
Pirates 2, Braves 1 (11 inn)
Avery and Johnson duked it out for 7 innings with Avery leaving on the short side of the ledger.  Atlanta tied the game up in the top of the 9th when Dave Giusti walked Ryan Klesko with the bases loaded to force in Mike Kelly.  The game went to extra innings and was decided by a walk off hit by a man who was in familiar territory, Bill Mazeroski.  Unlike his dramatic walk off homer to win the 1960 World Series, Maz had to settle for a walk off single that Pedro Borbon Jr. served up.  Nobody in the house complained, since the win enabled the Bucs to gain a series split.  Interesting stat:  The Braves could only muster up 1 run even though they had 12 hits.  Pittsburgh scored 2 on 6 hits.  Roberto Clemente had 2 of those 6 hits for the Bucs.