his last outing he went 8 innings and allowed only 2 runs and gave up 1 walk.
The two before that were rough vs chicago and detroit where he gave up 7 and 6 runs
Remember he came into august with a hurt shoulder and although one good start isnt enough to prove anything - it may show that his shoulder had recovered at least for that one start...
I think the chalk may be too high on it all things considered - add varitek out for his suspension and the ever uncertain trio of adams, timlin, and leskanic then it might not be worth it. In close games (which they havent had much of) the bullpen is a serious problem IMO.
you may be right about atlanta as I have heard a number of places that colorado has packed it in - and estes got shelled his last time out for 6 runs and 10 hits - and when he last faced Altanta he also gave up 10 hits but only 4 runs that time in what ended up as a win 13-4 (primarily because horatio forgot to show up...).
However I dont see much in Byrd - he's strung together a decent stretch over his last 5 outings winning 2 and losing only 1, although he seems to pretty consistently give up 3 and 4 runs (7 of his 11 appearances this season he has given up 3 or more)
I wonder why the braves line is so high actually? - is it just because colorado is gonna be playing minor leaguers for the rest of the season ??
"We want to get an idea of what we have next year and I think the road trip right here, it can do good things if we win a couple series and hurt some of the teams that are going for that wild card,'' second baseman Aaron Miles said. ``I think we plan to be a spoiler for a lot of teams. We plan on playing good and continuing to look at it and get some momentum and get some good looks at these young guys for next year.''"