(Image: Yahoo! Sports)
My wish for the offense to show up tonight was granted, as the Braves put on a quite an impressive display. This team tonight was so unlike what we’ve been seeing in the past week, and it’s all for the better. Hopefully they can keep this up and actually get over a .500 record.
Now, the game. I’ll start with Huddy. He was great tonight. He went 7 innings, only allowed 4 hits, struck out 6, walked 3, and was charged with 1 ER. What’s more, this run shouldn’t have even crossed, due to some questionable umpiring and lackluster defense on the part of Kelly Johnson. Despite this, Huddy picked up his 9th win of the season. Following him was Boyer, who was less than stellar. He gave up 2 hits and recorded an out. Jeff Bennett came in to bail him out, but ended up walking a batter. With the bases loaded, he lucked out with weak liner that bounced to Kelly and induced a double play. Unfortunately, as the final runner was being chased down, Darin Erstad crossed the plate. This run was charged to Boyer. Gonzalez came on in the 9th and was perfect. He struck out two.
While the pitching was good, the bats were the real story of the game. The offense decided to show up tonight, and what resulted was 8 hits. Chipper had a pair, including an RBI single. Teixeira had another one, raising his batting average to a more respectable .272. McCann imitated Chipper with two singles, including one for an RBI. Johnson hit a 2-run homer in the 6th. Kotsay had a single and a sacrifice fly. The Braves were also good on the base paths, as Blanco played some heads-up baseball and stole a base. Also, the new kid in right field making his Major League debut, Jason Perry, recorded his first hit with a stand-up triple. Congratulations to him, and I look forward to see what else he can contribute to the team.
Braves win the first one in a week, 6-2.
Tomorrow’s game, 7:00 PM. We’ll be seeing Jo-Jo Reyes taking on the guy from the Green Mile who had the pet mouse (also known as Roy Oswalt).