Sports

The same old story

For the Braves, a quick postseason exit has become all too routine.

Associated Press
Published October 11, 2005

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ATLANTA - The Braves are like Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day , forced to replay the same dreadful scene over and over.

Murray's conceited weatherman finally got it right.

The Braves will have to try again next year.

For the fourth straight season and fifth time in six years, Atlanta failed to get past the first round of the playoffs. The Braves remain stuck on one World Series championship during their amazing streak of 14 division titles. For some reason, the team that always plays so well during the regular season just can't carry it over to the postseason.

This time, the Braves were knocked out by the longest game in postseason history, an 18-inning marathon that ended when little-known Chris Burke homered off rookie reliever Joey Devine to give the Houston Astros a 7-6 victory Sunday.

The Astros won the best-of-five series in four and moved on to meet St. Louis in the NL Championship Series. The Braves returned to Atlanta, trying to figure out where it all went wrong (the bullpen would be a good place to start).

"We'll just have to regroup and come back next year," said rookie catcher Brian McCann, who homered twice in his first postseason. "We're really not thinking about next year right now. We will in a few days."

The bitter taste of another postseason defeat was lessened a bit by the Braves' run to the East championship.

Manager Bobby Cox made do with a roster full of rookies - 18 made it to the majors - after several key players went down with injuries. McCann, Jeff Francoeur, Ryan Langerhans, Kelly Johnson, Kyle Davies, Wilson Betemit and Pete Orr all played surprisingly significant roles, teaming with Andruw Jones to keep the streak of division titles going.

Jones (51 homers, 128 RBIs) had arguably his best season and figures to be among the top three in the MVP balloting. His numbers were especially remarkable considering his lack of offensive support: He had 30 more homers and 50 more RBIs than anyone else on the team.

John Smoltz held up well much of the season in his return to the rotation, going 14-7 with a 3.06 ERA and a team-leading 2292/3 innings. But he came down with a sore shoulder and pitched once in the playoffs (picking up the Braves' lone win). Considering his history of injuries - granted, four previous surgeries all involved his elbow - Atlanta must be concerned with how he'll bounce back from such a grueling year at age 38.

Though most of the team is under contract or too young for free agency, the lineup will have a major hole if the Braves fail to re-sign shortstop Rafael Furcal. The potential free agent batted .284 with 12 homers, 58 RBIs and a career-best 46 stolen bases.

Betemit could take over at shortstop, but Atlanta doesn't have anyone to fill the leadoff role as well as Furcal.

The other major task facing general manager John Schuerholz this season is rebuilding a bullpen that was abysmal from opening day.

The Braves took much of the season to settle on Kyle Farnsworth as the closer after Dan Kolb and Chris Reitsma flopped. Atlanta went into the postseason with a makeshift group of relievers that included Reitsma, Jim Brower (picked up after being released by San Francisco), John Foster (out of baseball until the Braves signed him in early days of spring training), Macay McBride (only 14 big-league innings) and Devine (started the season at North Carolina State).

Devine became the first pitcher in history to give up grand slams in his first two regular-season appearances. Now, he has to live with the stigma of surrendering the seventh series-ending homer in postseason history.

But, in all fairness, it was Farnsworth, the team's most reliable reliever, who allowed the final game to go on as long as it did.

He came on for Tim Hudson with the Braves leading 6-1, only to give up a grand slam to Lance Berkman in the eighth and a tying homer to light-hitting catcher Brad Ausmus with two outs in the ninth.

[Last modified October 11, 2005, 17:46:47]

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