Two starting pitchers began uncomfortably Tuesday night. One of them got comfortable faster. The other was Frank Castillo.
Which is pretty much why the Atlanta Braves beat the Cubs 3-2 in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
Tom Glavine was a little quicker figuring things out. And that’s what separates the Tom Glavines from the Frank Castillos.
“Glavine’s always had a history of being vulnerable in the first inning,” said Cubs manager Jim Lefebvre. And Glavine was vulnerable Tuesday night, when Castillo was given a quick two runs to work with.
Willie Wilson opened the game with a single, and one out later, Mark Grace’s double put Cubs on second and third. Wilson came home on Candy Maldonado’s roller, and a single by Sammy Sosa brought in Grace.
Castillo (0-1) struggled, too.
Deion Sanders led off the Atlanta half of the first with a double. When Maldonado made a nice running catch of Jeff Blauser’s bloop, Sanders-who apparently needs to have his football helmet refitted-was standing on third base. The double play made Ron Gant’s follow-up single harmless.
He couldn’t escape in the second.
David Justice started it by launching a 2-0 pitch over the 402 sign in dead-center. It was his first homer of the season and only his team’s fourth. Sid Bream then sent a twisting screamer to center that baffled Wilson and went for a three-base error.
“The ball was knuckling, and it was sinking,” Wilson said.
A deep-enough fly by Mark Lemke tied it.
In the third, the Braves took a lead. Bream doubled toward the corner in left, Greg Olson singled to move Bream to third, and when Lemke grounded out, it was 3-2, Atlanta.
Only once in his six innings did he not have a Brave in scoring position. That was in the fourth, when Steve Lake, in his second start, ended the inning by throwing out Gant trying to steal.
“The first couple of innings, I just felt very uncomfortable out there on the mound,” said Castillo. “I couldn’t get my fastball over. I started to feel a lot better in the fourth and fifth.”
Too late. By then, Glavine (2-0) had settled down after his shaky first.
“Went out there, gave up a few runs and got the (Atlanta) offense mad, I guess,” said Glavine. “It was just a case of not being as aggressive in the first inning as I was the rest of the game.
“I was more or less trying to figure out what was working instead of just going after guys.”
Even when he did go after guys, the Cubs had their shots. Wilson opened the third inning with a single, got as far as third but no farther. Grace, who had three hits in extending his hitting streak to seven games, singled to open the sixth but died at second. Jose Vizcaino walked to lead off the seventh, took second on Lake’s bunt and stayed there as Tommy Shields took a third strike and Wilson lined to short.
And in the eighth, Grace (batting .452) doubled with one out, but Maldonado fanned and Sosa bounced to second.
There were some liners sprinkled into the mix. Steve Buechele hit one on the nose to end the Cubs first. Wilson hit a bullet to short that ended the seventh with the tying run on second. Rey Sanchez started the eighth with another one, right at shortstop Blauser.
“Sometimes,” said Lefebvre, “you need to get a break. A matter of a foot here, a foot there and we could’ve won.”
The great pitchers seem to find a way of making that happen. The great ones have a way of getting the outs they need.
“They hit some balls hard,” said Glavine, “but that’s going to happen during the course of a game. I’m not going to have them hit every ball off the end of the bat.”
In his first start, in Philadelphia, Castillo gave up three runs in the first, was given a 6-3 lead and left in the fifth leading 6-5.
Now, this. No one is more puzzled as he is.
“It’s like I didn’t go through spring training,” he said. “It’s as if I’m just starting out. I’ve got to just keep going out there until I get the feel for it.”
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Next: At Atlanta, Wednesday, 4:10 p.m., CLTV
