The new blog should be up soon.

It's all I can do right now.

I'm not 100 percent wild about this one either, but I still have my old Blogger account and I've set up a temporary place to comment until we get Wordpress installed.

There is word verification, which most Blogger blogs use in their comments now, but this should be more flexible than the Google Group. I'll crosspost my game recaps here. Regular address is http://www.braves.net/bravesjournal/blogger/ .

At long last, the Braves are over .500. A four-game series over Miguel And The Minnows, who are so bad they make Jorge Sosa look good, will do that for you.

As usual, the Braves fell behind early (though it's the first first-inning run Sosa's given up, I think) this time on a solo homer by Reggie Abercrombie -- who seems like he should have played in the early eighties -- but cruised from there. Sosa was really never in trouble after that, allowing six hits, striking out eight, in 6 2/3. As soon as he did get into a little trouble, Bobby yanked him, Paronto getting out of the seventh on a long flyout. He then allowed two hits in the eighth, while McBride needed just nine pitches in the ninth. It would all be more impressive, except... well, you know. The Marlins are now on pace to lose 116 games and will be lucky if that's all they lose.

The big bat today was Francoeur, who had three hits, including his ninth and tenth homers, and whose line for the year is now .269/.279/.491, which definitely looks like something from another era. Marcus and Diaz each had two hits. Chipper drove in three, two on a fifth-inning double (coming right before the Francoeur homer) that really opened the game up. Held hitless was Andruw, whose back is acting up again.

Lerew was briefly up, but has now been replaced by the reactivated Cormier. Moylan, probably, will be sent down on Saturday to make room for Travis "The Human Pitching Machine" Smith, who in turn will go down for Horacio when he's ready. Smith will make you miss Horacio.

Chipper's back.

So, we had pretty much the situation of last night. The Braves trailed by a run (3-2 this time) in the ninth, but came back to tie it. The Marlins then took the lead in the eleventh, but the Braves won in the bottom of the inning.

Smoltz was terrific for seven innings, but got whittled to death in the eighth, allowing three singles and an intentional walk. Bobby pulled him with the bases loaded, one out, having thrown 130 pitches. But Remlinger gave up a two-run single to the lefty hitter and Smoltz looked about to be tagged with the loss.

But in the ninth, Diaz hit a pinch-hit single, Orr ran for him and was sacrificed to second, then stole third. Renteria was hit by a pitch, and Chipper beat out an attempt to turn the double play, tying the game at three.

Vulture Villareal allowed a run in the eleventh, but no worry there. Marcus singled, Renteria walked, and Chipper took the first pitch out to right-center for his first homer since April 28. Villareal got the win even though he was by far the worst pitcher of the night.

Chipper finished with three hits and five RBI. I was starting to get worried about him; he was getting on base but not hitting the ball with any authority. Hopefully, that's over with. Giles, McCann (.354) and LaRoche all had two hits.

Gosh, I guess this is exciting. I'd be more excited if it wasn't the flipping Marlins.

Willis outpitched Hudson, but both were strong, and Hudson probably deserved better than to leave after six trailing 2-1. He struck out ten and walked but two, but had some pretty poor defense played behind him and not much offense either. One run came in the first after a leadoff double; the other came in the fifth because Renteria apparently can't bend at the waist and let an easy ground ball go through after Hudson walked Willis leading off.

But in the bottom of the inning, Matt Diaz hit his first homer as a Brave to cut it to 2-1. There it stayed, because every time the Marlins made a sloppy play they'd make a great play to get out of it -- Willis saved at least two runs with his own glove.

Ray, Villareal, and Reitsma kept the Marlins off the board, but the Braves still couldn't get a run in -- until Francoeur hit another big homer, this one a solo shot to tie it.

McBride mowed them down in the tenth, but got in trouble in the eleventh, because he is a one-inning pitcher. He could have gotten out of it, but didn't hustle to first base (where have we seen that before) to cover on a potential double play to end the inning and the Marlins took the lead.

But Chipper, after falling behind 0-2, drew a walk leading off the bottom of the inning. Then Andruw hit a ball that was maybe ten feet high but so hard it rolled to the wall, and Chipper scored all the way from first. Francoeur got him to third, LaRoche was intentionally walked (!) and Diaz was the hero, singling Andruw home.

The real problem is that this is the Marlins and you really shouldn't have to work so hard to beat them.

Again, if you're not aware, the link at Bravesbeat.com/Braves.net isn't up right now. You need to come directly to Braves Journal, which is either bravesjournal.com or bravesbeat.com/bravesjournal.

Anyway, Kyle Hawkins (Hawk) has started his site at the braves.net address. The conversion of my site is going to take awhile but should be done by the end of the week.

Didn't see that coming. Kyle Davies gave up five runs, was chased with nobody out in the third, and the Braves looked buried. But Chad Paronto, of all people, came in for three magnificent innings, they got two in the fifth, then exploded for six in the sixth to take an 8-5 lead.

But then Villareal couldn't hold it and immediately gave up three in the seventh. And then they came back again with three more, and it's 11-8, and Remlinger and Reitsma held it from there. Wild game.

Big games from Andruw and McCann. Andruw went 4-4 with a walk, four RBI and two runs scored. He drove in their first run in the fifth, tied up the game with a two-run single in the sixth, then drove in the game-winning run in the seventh, LaRoche (who of course didn't start but had hit a pinch-hit double) racing home as fast as his legs could carry him. McCann was "only" 3-5 but drove in five runs, hit a three-run homer in the sixth, and drove in an insurance run with an infield single in the seventh.

Paronto got a no-decision, but was undoubtedly the pitching hero. He came in with the game 5-0 and Cabrera on second, nobody out, in the third. He got out of that with no further damage, then pitched two more shutout innings. He allowed one two-out double, but struck out six.

After Villareal gave up a two-out, three-run homer to blow the lead, he got the win anyway because of the stupid relief win runs. Remlinger pitched a perfect eighth with two strikeouts, and Reitsma needed just nine pitches in the ninth for the save.

E: A LaRoche (2, ground ball)

For a while there -- when it looked like a shutout was in order -- I was kind of hoping that the Braves could give up one more run, so they could lose 9-0, the official score of a forfeit. That would perfectly symbolize how Adam LaRoche gave up on a play, leading to a blowout.

The situation: The Braves trail 1-0 on Soriano's solo homer, his twelfth of the season, all of which seemingly have been against the Braves. Thomson gets the first two of the fifth, then gives up a two-out single to Vidro. No biggie, because he gets Nick Johnson to hit a soft groundout to first.

Except that Adam LaRoche, who is coming dangerously close to the Lockhart Line, decides that it's not important to actually get Johnson, and walks -- no, shuffles -- to the bag. Johnson, who is a real major leaguer, hustles to the bag and beats him. Essentially, Johnson runs 90 feet in about the time it takes LaRoche to go 15. According to a precedent set with Andruw in 1998 -- in a game the Braves had much less chance of winning -- LaRoche should have been pulled right there. Except that Bobby didn't pull him. Maybe he thought that LaRoche would get enough punishment, or that the team had a better chance of winning with LaRoche (who was leading off the next inning) than without.

Except that the wheels completely came off right then. Thomson didn't get another batter. Three hits later, it's 5-0, and he only got out of the inning when McCann threw out Zimmerman trying to steal. Thomson has to deserve a lot of the blame, and it's really kind of ridiculous that in an inning in which he gave up four hits none of the four runs were scored as earned, but Good God, LaRoche has to make that play.

After that, the Braves didn't mount a threat -- their only real scoring opportunity was in the third when Chipper struck out on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded two out. It was a heckuva a pitch, though. From then on, they really didn't look interested, and who can blame them. Maybe it was the pink bats. Betemit hit a pinch-homer in the ninth for their only run.

Moylan stunk up the sixth, though frankly I was pretty sure a comeback wasn't in order, allowing three runs. (His ERA is now 9.53.) McBride, Remlinger, and Paronto finished it without any further damage, but it really didn't matter.

Everything should be fixed tomorrow, but I don't know what shape the new comments system will take. We'll learn together, I guess.

Wow. Walk off, grand slam homer by Francoeur with two out. Braves rally in a game that they never should have had to.

After Sosa blew a 2-0 lead with single runs in the third and fourth, he got the lead back in the fifth on a solo homer by Pratt. But Bobby waited too long. As I've been saying since he got here, Sosa's a guy you have to be very quick with the hook with. Once he gets around 80 pitches, you have to be ready to pull him. Bobby wasn't, or didn't anyway, and after giving up a double to Royce Clayton -- who is a good player only in comparison to the man he replaced at shortstop -- then a game-tying single to the pitcher, Bobby left him in there. Soriano homer, 5-3. Ruined what was to that point a pretty decent outing (5 K 2 BB) from Sosa.

The Braves were hitting rockets off the Natspo bullpen but couldn't get a run in the sixth, seventh, or eighth. Finally, McCann led off the ninth with a homer to cut it to 5-4, then Langerhans and Giles hit hard singles, the first of which nearly took off Cordero's head.

Bobby had Renteria bunt. I hated that, even though it's a situation (first and second and none out) where a successful bunt is a good play, because (1) it's a hard bunt to get down and (2) you have one of your best hitters going up against a guy who isn't fooling anyone. Why give him an out? Renteria got a decent enough bunt down, but Cordero made a good play to cut down the lead runner.

Chipper hit a ball that almost tied it but which Vidro knocked down for an infield single. Then Andruw just got in front of a ball to pull it foul, then struck out. Then Francoeur ended it.

Reitsma, of all people, got the win for a shutout ninth. Ray and Villareal also pitched, the latter with probably his most impressive outing as a Brave, two strikeouts in the eighth... Marcus had three hits, Andruw joined Francoeur with two.

Pretty easy going -- it got a little tight in the middle innings but Smoltz was in control the whole way. John struck out seven, allowed but four hits and one walk, and needed 103 pitches for the complete game. He made his only mistakes in the fifth, a double to Johnson and a homer to Zimmermann, but other than that completely shut them down.

All the Braves' regulars had hits, led by McCann, who was 2-2 with two walks and has now passed Renteria for the team lead in batting average at .347. Brian also drove in the first run of the game in the first. Francoeur drove in three runs and Chipper scored twice.

Night game tonight. I don't know what's going on with the comments, but I'm assured it's being worked on.

We're still working on the problem; my current belief is that we will probably have to change software and the situation won't be resolved until next week, but maybe we'll luck out. Anyway, discussion continues at Google Groups.