This says it all. And now on to watching the Cardinals-Astros series. I say the Cards in six....and the Red Sox in 7.



Astros dress down Braves pitching in Game 5

By DAVID O'BRIEN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/11/04


It might have seemed like an unimaginably horrible way to end the season. That is, if the Braves hadn't seen it so many times before.

As if trapped in an endless loop of torturous postseason failure, the Braves watched the Houston Astros celebrate a 12-3 victory Monday night at Turner Field in Game 5 of the National League Division Series.

RICH ADDICKS / AJC
Braves catcher Johnny Estrada is upended as Astros runner Jose Vizcaino scores on an error by J.D. Drew in the seventh inning.

It was the third consecutive Game 5 division series loss at home for the Braves, who've watched an opposing team celebrate a postseason series victory on their home field in seven of eight years since Turner Field opened in 1997.

"We did the impossible all year and really felt like we were going to win this game," closer John Smoltz said. "For one night, this is a real terrible feeling."

Jaret Wright and five relievers were battered for 17 hits in the Braves' worst postseason defeat since a 13-4 loss against Pittsburgh in Game 6 of the 1992 NL Championship series. Houston's Carlos Beltran hit two homers Monday and four in the series.

The Braves have won 13 consecutive division titles, but postseason failure has become their cross to bear. They've won one World Series title and haven't been back to one since 1999. They fell again Monday before a sellout crowd of 54,068.

"Maybe after a couple of days a lot of guys are going to be proud of what we accomplished," said Wright, who lost the first and last games of the series and was hit hard in each. "But right now, it's just a bad feeling. It just didn't work out for us."

Beltran went 5-for-6 with three homers in two games against Wright.

"He pretty much killed me," said Wright, who is 0-4 with a 12.89 ERA in his past four postseason starts. "He just hit everything I threw."

The wild-card Astros advance to the NLCS on Wednesday at St. Louis.

"We gave it a good run," center fielder Andruw Jones said. "But it's not a success. When you get to the playoffs, everybody wants to go back to the World Series and win championships."

In the past three seasons, the Braves have lost Game 5s at home in division series against the San Francisco Giants (2002), Chicago Cubs (2003) and now the Astros, a team that had never won a series in seven previous post- seasons.

"It happens sometimes," said Chipper Jones, who went 4-for-20 with four singles and no RBIs. "I don't want to say you run into a string of bad luck, but. . . . In Game 5s we just haven't been able to get the big hit or the big out the last few years."

It gets worse: Since Turner Field opened in 1997, the Braves have lost their final postseason game here every year except 1999, when they were swept by the Yankees in a World Series that ended in New York.

"Make it perfectly clear -- this has absolutely nothing to do with the past 12 years," said Smoltz, the only Braves player who's been with the team during the entire division-title run. "Nobody [on this team] deserves to have that [stigma] on their shoulders. . . .

"Say what you will, but there were two better teams in this division than us, and this [Houston] team was better than us. Had we won this series, nobody would have expected we could win two games against St. Louis."

Since the 1999 World Series, the Braves have lost 21 of 34 home postseason games, including 12 of the past 16. After going 35-24 in the first 59 postseason games of their division-title run, they are 27-35 beginning with being swept in the 1996 World Series by the Yankees.

The Astros faced Atlanta three times previously in the first round and lost nine of 10 games to the Braves in those matchups. But those Astros didn't have Beltran or Roger Clemens, who helped infuse the team with a steely confidence that swelled during a 36-10 finish that clinched the wild card.

Beltran had four homers and seven RBIs in the series, and the Astros' 2-3-4 hitters dominated Braves pitching while dwarfing the production of Atlanta's middle-order hitter.

The Braves thought they'd have a pitching advantage Monday with a fully rested Wright facing Roy Oswalt on three days' rest. But the Houston right-hander held Atlanta to two runs and seven hits in five innings and left with a 3-2 lead.

Beltran's second homer in the sixth inning stretched it to 4-2, and any remaining Braves' hopes were quashed by a five-run seventh inning, punctuated by Jeff Bagwell's two-run homer off Chris Reitsma that put Houston ahead 8-2.

All Muslims are not terrorists but most terrorists are Muslim.

THIS ELECTION IS ABOUT GOOD AND EVIL, RIGHT AND WRONG, GOD AND NO-GOD.


BILL FALLIN


I SUPPORT REP. JOHN LINDER'S (R.GA)FAIR TAX BILL