Braves Report

Kenshin Kawakami. That’s basically who this game was about, even though it looked like he was going to have a rocky major league debut in the first few innings. But the Japanese-native turned that around and the offense had has back, so all was right in the world in helping the Braves’ record improve to 4-1. Here we go.

Kawakami started this game and it looked like it was going to be a long, long game. That’s because he walked two batters in the first inning, one of whom later scored. Zimmerman also hit a 2-run shot off of him in the 3rd inning, giving the Nationals a quick 3-0 lead. Fortunately, that’s where things just about ended. Kawakami settled down and did his thing and his line through the end was impressive: 6 IP, 4 hits, 3 ER, 4 BB’s, and 8 K’s.

[Image: Yahoo! Sports]

While that walk total is a little high, it only really affected him in the first inning. Moylan followed him and struck out the side, bringing his ERA down to a mere 45. Soriano and Gonzalez each pitched an inning, with Gonzalez finally picking up his first save of the season.

The bats had it going once again tonight. I’m beginning to like how they can rely on the bats if the pitching lets up more than 2 runs. All the runs that were batted in came from the 1-2-3 guys. KJ had another solo home run and would later double in a pair of runs in the Braves’ productive 4th inning. Chipper would then single in the go-ahead, which essentially put the game in the bag for the Braves. Escobar also singled in a run in the 8th as insurance. Other notables in the offense were Jordan Schafer, who went 3-for-4 and is now batting .421. What a great start he has been off to.

Braves put this one in the bag, 5 – 3.

Series finale: Sunday vs. the Nationals.

1:30 PM EST. Jurrjens vs. Olsen.

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