Braves 3 Pirates 0

Zach Duke pitched fairly well tonight, going 7 strong innings giving up 3 runs on 7 hits and a walk, but it wasn't enough against John Smoltz, who turned the clock back to 1996 in an absolutely dominating performance against the Bucs tonight. He whiffed 10 Bucs in 8 innings tonight on a variety of fastballs, nasty splitters, and huge bending curves. It was impressive to watch. We didn't even manage an extra base among our four hits tonight (3 off Smoltz and one against Wickman, who was curiously brought into close after Smoltz shut us down for 8 innings on only 83 pitches...Edit: Duke threw 83 pitches, not Smoltz, who threw 109... still wouldn't trust Wickman if I was a Braves fan though). There really wasn't much else to this one besides Smoltz and Duke, so we'll just leave it at that.

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