The thought of falling victim to a no-hitter on the eve of his 40th birthday seemed to be about the most painful thing John Smoltz would experience on Monday night at RFK Stadium. That is, until he was forced to exit in the seventh inning with what appeared to be a dislocated pinky finger on his pitching hand. After Smoltz exited, Brian McCann broke up Jason Bergmann's no-hit bid with a leadoff homer in the eighth inning. But that would be one of only two hits the Braves would record against the 25-year-old right-hander, whose dominance led the Nationals to a 2-1 win.
With the outstanding performance, which included a career-high 10 strikeouts, Bergmann recorded his first career victory and continued his dominance of the Braves. The young right-hander has worked 15 scoreless innings against the Braves this year and in the process, surrendered just two hits.
Other than McCann, the Braves had just one baserunner reach as far as second base. That came in the fourth, when Kelly Johnson drew a leadoff walk and then stole second. He was stranded as Bergmann preceded to retire the next 12 batters he faced.
Smoltz allowed just one hit -- a Cristian Guzman first-inning triple -- through the first six innings. After Guzman scored on a Ryan Zimmerman groundout, the Nationals would remain scoreless until Austin Kearns doubled Ryan Church home in the seventh.
Three batters later, while coming toward the plate on a botched suicide squeeze bunt attempt, Kearns got caught in a rundown. When Smoltz tagged the Nationals outfielder, his finger appeared to get caught. He reacted with tremendous pain and made an immediate exit.
Although no word if he will miss any future starts but still this isnt good news for the braves or my fantasy team..arrgghh..
The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Game Wrapup
05-14-2007, 09:08 PM
Re: Smoltz Gets Injured 
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