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Lucky seven Maddux, Galarraga complete sweep of Pirates
Posted: Sunday April 23, 2000 05:56 PM
ATLANTA (AP) -- As much as he appreciated Andres Galarraga's bat, Greg Maddux was equally impressed with the Big Cat's glove on Sunday. Maddux, who labored for 7 2-3 innings, watched Galarraga hit a tiebreaking homer in the sixth inning and start a game-saving double play in the seventh as the Atlanta Braves beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 5-3 on Sunday for their seventh straight win. "He's swinging the bat really well," Maddux said. "He's taking advantage of pitchers' mistakes. Hey, he's playing pretty good defense, too." Galarraga, who sat out last year to undergo treatment for cancer, is hitting .433 (13-for-30) with three homers and eight RBIs in his last nine games. Considering that four of his seven homers have given Atlanta the lead in the fifth inning or later, Galarraga is thriving under pressure. 'That's true. I like it," he said. "In that situation, I just try to hit it hard somewhere." John Rocker struck out Chad Hermansen with a runner on first base to end the eighth. He finished for his third save. The Pirates have lost four straight and six of seven. Despite control problems, Maddux (3-0) continued his dominance of Pittsburgh, which last beat him April 30, 1994. Since then, Maddux is 7-0 in 11 starts with a 1.35 ERA. He allowed three runs, seven hits and four walks. Maddux, who threw a season-high 123 pitches, twice surrendered one-run leads and issued his first non-intentional walk of the season -- a span covering 29 1-3 innings that ended with a pass to Brian Giles in the first. Two errors and a wild pitch allowed the Braves to score twice in the fourth against Francisco Cordova (1-2) and take a 3-2 lead. "One thing led to another," Pirates manager Gene Lamont said. "You can't do that against a team like that. We were giving them too many outs. Forget about walks and errors. Guys were going to the plate more times than they should." With runners on second and third, Vander Wal caught Brian Jordan's pop fly in shallow left field and made a relay throw down the third-base line. The ball hit off first baseman Kevin Young's glove and bounced toward the Pittsburgh dugout, allowing Quilvio Veras to score on Young's error. Chipper Jones moved to third one out later when third baseman Aramis Ramirez made a bad throw to first on Andruw Jones' grounder and scored on a wild pitch. "That's one thing I think our team's been good about is not beating ourselves," Maddux said. "When you don't beat yourselves, you'll have games where the other team will." The Pirates tied it in the fifth when Maddux walked Giles and hit Young in the back to load the bases with two outs. Vander Wal's infield single then scored Jason Kendall. Maddux got in more trouble in the seventh, but Galarraga saved him by snaring Young's hard grounder and starting the double play. Eddie Perez had an RBI double in the eighth to make it 5-3. Cordova allowed four runs -- two earned -- and six hits in 6 2-3 innings. Kendall insisted the only recourse for the Pirates is patience. "You have no choice," he said. "You have to stay patient for things to get better. Everything will click. Every team has to go through these things. It's still a long way to go." Atlanta opened the scoring in the first on Chipper Jones' double-play grounder. After Hermansen's RBI single tied it in the second, Young's RBI single gave the Pirates a 2-1 lead in the third. Notes: Kendall extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a fifth-inning single. The catcher committed Pittsburgh's fourth error by throwing the ball into center field on Veras' stolen base in the seventh. ... Andruw Jones' six-game hitting streak ended. ... Atlanta's Reggie Sanders was 0-for-2, extending his hitless skid to 24 at-bats.
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