Glavine Gets a Lot of Help From Friends

No question, the Atlanta Braves were the best team in baseball last season--they were still handing out awards Wednesday night--but it has escaped the notice of most that only the St. Louis Cardinals had a worse batting average in the National League.

The Braves won with pitching.

They did again Wednesday in Atlanta, but the pitching--in this case Tom Glavine and some friends--also got plenty of hitting help in a 15-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

The Braves had 16 hits and Fred McGriff had six runs batted in, a personal best.

“Everything went my way tonight,” said McGriff, whose RBIs came on three singles, a sacrifice fly and a groundout. “I’ve had better days. I’ve swung the bat better. Every at-bat, it seemed, it was 0 and 2 in the count and I was just trying to stay alive.”

The Braves scored 10 or more runs in only six games last season, but have now done it twice against the Giants, winning the season opener, 10-8. The Braves scored in 11 consecutive innings: the last four of Monday’s game and the first seven Wednesday.

Then again, maybe it was the Giant pitching.

“When we don’t walk them, we come right down Broadway with something fat to hit,” Manager Dusty Baker said, lamenting a pitching staff that figures to give him trouble all year.

It was one that gave up eight walks Wednesday night. San Francisco also had four errors.

It all made Glavine’s job pretty easy. Pitching his first game since he won the World Series MVP with a clinching victory over Cleveland in Game 6, he came out after the sixth inning with the Braves comfortably ahead.

“Glavine is going to be overlooked tonight,” Manager Bobby Cox said, “but he had excellent stuff.”

“I’ll tell you what,” Glavine said, “I don’t mind being overlooked if we can score 15 runs. I’ll take 15 runs every time I pitch.”

Philadelphia 3, Colorado 1--Rookie Mike Grace gave the Rockies a steady diet of fastballs, which they are supposed to relish, and held them to five hits and one run at Philadelphia.

Grace, who has never pitched a shutout as a professional, had one until giving up a towering homer to Ellis Burks on the first pitch of the ninth inning. Ricky Bottalico then came on in relief and got the final three outs for the save.

St. Louis 5, New York 3--Todd Stottlemyre, making his National League debut after eight seasons in the American League, gave up only five hits in 7 2/3 innings for the Cardinals at New York, but was perhaps most proud of his plate performance.

“Two hits, run the bases, try to break up a double play, field my position, it was all fun,” Stottlemyre said.

Royce Clayton’s two-out single in the seventh inning scored Stottlemyre with an unearned run that broke a 3-3 tie.

San Diego 7, Chicago 5--Ken Caminiti showed his strength, hitting a three-run homer to right field into a 15-mph wind for the Padres at Chicago.

Caminiti added another RBI, and Tony Gwynn had his 27th four-hit game--all singles--for the Padres. Gwynn is batting .625 after two games.

Montreal 8, Cincinnati 4--Mark Grudzielanek’s fourth hit of the day was a home run in a five-run eighth inning for the Expos at Cincinnati.