He said afterwards that the plate felt 54 feet away instead of 60, and the ball felt larger, but right-hander James Parr wowed manager Bobby Cox and his new teammates with his six-inning, two-hit shutout performance Thursday against the Nationals.
Laugh if you must, but the Nats have flummoxed the Braves this season, and are within striking distance of passing the Braves and leaving them in last place. So it is no small matter to beat them either home or away. Parr is hoping to get everyone to sign the lineup card for him, but the best feeling of the night, he says, was having everyone shake his hand as he came off the field.
"That," he says, "was emotional."
But Parr is already moving on to his next outing, which he is determined to make better.
"I throw harder than that," he says. "I just couldn't get the ball in the zone. So I had to slow myself down. I threw a lot of fastballs; that's what I'm going to challenge guys with. I'm going to sit around 88, 90."
But he wasn't too stubborn that he couldn't make adjustments on the fly, going to his curve ball to get ahead of the hitters.
"Next time, I'm going to go out there and improve," he says. "Get the ball in the zone."
BRAVES 10, NATIONALS 5: The Braves scored seven runs in the third inning on four hits and two bases-loaded walks Friday to win consecutive games for the first time since winning three against the Diamondbacks from August 7-9.
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