The Braves jailbird-to-be Rafeal Furcal hit a two-out, two-run walkoff homer in the 11th inning off of Dan Miceli that propelled the Braves to a 4-2 victory over the Stros Thursday afternoon at Turner Field in Atlanta. The Braves’ win tied their NL playoff series with the Stros at one game each.
Furcal was in court just hours before Game 1 of the series where he was sentenced to 21 days in jail and 28 days in a treatment center for violating probation with his second drunken-driving arrest in four years. However, the judge — obviously a Braves fan — put the sentence off until the day after the season ends.
With the Stros on the verge of taking a commanding lead, manager Phil Garner brought closer Brad Lidge into the game in the seventh inning when the Stros had a 2-1 lead, but the Braves rallied to force extra innings. The Braves outhit the Stros 14-4 and held the Stros without a hit for the final 5 1/3 innings.
Realizing the importance of the game, the Braves kept closer John Smoltz on the mound for three innings, which was his longest outing since September 2001. Similarly, Lidge went 2 2/3 innings, which was his longest outing of the season.
Both starters for the respective teams pitched well. Roy O gave up eight hits and a run in 6 2/3 innings while Mike Hampton gave up just four hits in 6 1/3 innings, including solo yaks to Bags and Raul Chavez. Hampton left in the seventh because of tightness in his left forearm, but the injury is not believed to be serious.
The series now moves to the Juice Box on Saturday where the Stros have won 18 straight games with the Stros’ Brandon Backe going up against the Braves’ John Thomson. Game time has been moved to noon on Saturday.