More Woes And Weirdness Lead To Second Mets Win

NEW YORK 3, ATLANTA 1

Okay, now it's just getting silly.

Yunel Escobar made a key baserunning gaffe in the fifth inning with a scoreless tie and the Braves wasted another quality start from Jair Jurrjens with poor RISP batting, losing to the Mets 3-1.

The Braves left the bases loaded in the first inning and Chipper Jones, who turned 38 years old yesterday, appeared to hurt himself on his first swing. He tried to go back out in the third inning, but he couldn't extend himself and had to come out of the game. Martin Prado, who was getting the day off, took his place at third base the next inning. Chipper is day-to-day with a hip injury.

Matt Diaz and Melky Cabrera struck out with the bases loaded to end the third. Atlanta left men on second with two out in the second and third innings.

With one out in the fifth, Escobar walked. Prado then hit a double in his first at-bat, sending Escobar to third. Troy Glaus then flied out to right. Seemingly forgetting the situation, Escobar failed to tag up at third, while Martin Prado did tag up at second and ran to third on Francoeur's catch. By the time Escobar realized what was going on, it was too late. Prado tried to get in a rundown, but he was quickly tagged out before Escobar could score.

However, the Braves did take the lead off of of starter Jon Niese in the sixth. Cabrera hit a one-out double, his second of the year, and scored on David Ross's single to give the Braves the lead. The Mets then brought in former Brave Manny Acosta, who shut down his old teammates through 1 2/3 innings.

In the bottom of the sixth, Jose Reyes took a two-out walk and stole second base. He went to third on David Ross's poor throw, which skipped into the outfield. Jason Bay then drove Reyes home with a double.

Rookie first baseman Ike David led off the seventh with a walk. Jeff Francoeur then hit a high fastball (which is pretty much one of the only things he can hit) to the 415 sign in right-center, scoring Davis with a triple. He was brought home by Henry Blanco's sacrifice fly. Jurrjens got pinch-hitter Frank Catalaotto to ground out, but a walk to leadoff hitter Angel Pagan ended his day. Eric O'Flaherty got Alex Cora to ground out to end the inning.

The Braves got another man in scoring position off reliever Pedro Feliciano with Jason Heyward beating out a double play relay and moving to second on a walk to David Ross. Brian McCann then lined a pitch to shortstop that was tailing on Reyes, but he made a great diving catch to save a run.

Kris Medlen held the Mets scoreless in the ninth and Francisco Rodriguez had a much-less shaky ninth inning as he put the Braves away 1-2-3 for his third save of the year.

Jurrjens went 6 2/3 innings and allowed just one earned run on four hits and four walks. Mets starter Jon Niese similarly allowed just one earned run, but on five hits and five wlks in 5 1/3 innings.

Odds 'N Ends: So far in the series at Citi Field, the Braves are 3-17 with RISP, with six walks and 3 RBIs. Those three hits are only singles.

Batting Average With Balls In Play is designed to show how often the defense turns a player's batted ball into an out. Sometimes, it shows that a player is very unlucky and other times it shows that a player is playing at an unsustainable level.

As of this post, the league average is .296. Out of the Braves' nine regular players, only three of them have a BABIP above the league average:

Martin Prado - .473 BABIP (.409 BA)
Jason Heyward - .344 BABIP (.254 BA)
Chipper Jones - .306 BABIP (.283 BA)

The rest of the Braves' starters have significantly lower BABIPs than average:

Matt Diaz - .241 BABIP (.175 BA)
Brian McCann - .238 BABIP (.258 BA)
Yunel Escobar - .218 BABIP (.194 BA)
Troy Glaus - .211 BABIP (.175 BA)
Nate McLouth - .208 BABIP (.150 BA)
Melky Cabrera - .174 BABIP (.143 BA)

McCann is especially unlucky because his average is higher than his BABIP.

The last time the Mets swept a three-game series from the Braves in New York was August 19-21, 2008.

Heyward Strikes Again; Braves Pull Out Wild Win To Win Series

ATLANTA 4, COLORADO 3

The game was a hundredth of a second from being over on Troy Glaus's groundout. A walk later, the game was over as Heyward bailed out his team with a two-run single, getting the Braves a 4-3 victory.

Braves starter Jair Jurrjens, who faced cocerns due to his drop in velocity in his terrible start agsinst San Diego, pitched eight strong innings, becoming the first Brave to go past the seventh this season.

However, it was almost all for naught.

The Braves took the lead in the first inning when Matt Diaz led off with the Braves' first hit, a tripe to right-center. This was the Braves first hit since Brooks Conrad's double in the eighth inning of Friday's win. Diaz came home on Martin Prado's liner to left fielder Seth Smith. They would have had a second run in the second inning on Matt Diaz's single to right, but Carlos Gonzalez threw Melky Cabrera at the plate trying to score.

The Rockies answered quickly in the second inning with a double by shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and a one-out RBI single by third baseman Ian Stewart. The Braves took the lead again when Jason Heyward walked with the bases loaded and two out. Rockies starter Greg Smith got Cabrera to strike out to prevent anymore runs from scoring.

The next few innings were dominated by Jurrjens and more missed opportunties by the Braves. Matt Diaz doubled with one out in the fourth, but was stranded there. In the seventh, Chipper Jones walked and moved to second base on McCann's flyout, but was picked off by reliever Joe Beimel. Jason Heyward drew a walk from Rafael Betancourt to lead off the eighth, was sacrified to second and moved to third on a wild pitch with Eric Hinske at the plate. But he was stranded as Hinske grounded to first and Diaz flew out to center fielder Dexter Fowler on the first pitch.

By that time, Jurrjens had been victimized by two solo home runs. With one out in the seventh, Ian Stewart yanked a ball down the right field line to tie the game. Carlos Gonzalez then led off the eighth inning by hitting a fastball similar to Stewart down the right field line. That gave the Rockies a 3-2 lead. Jurrjens finished the inning with two strikeouts and a foul fly to Escobar. He allowed just five hits and three walks, striking out nine Rockies, but he was slated to take the loss.

Closer Franklin Morales came in to finish the game for the Rockies. Here's how the inning transpired:

• Prado led off with a single.
• Prado advances to second base on a balk.
• Jones flies out to center field.
• McCann walks and is replaced by pinch-runner Nate McLouth.
• Troy Glaus bounces to Todd Helton off first, who throws to second to force McLouth. Glaus beats the return throw to Morales at first base. Brooks Conrad replaces Glaus as a pinch-runner.
• Yunel Escobar walks.
• Heyward grounds a single to left field, Prado and Conrad score.

Frankly, I can't think of anything else to say other than this is a game I'm glad the Braves won.

Chipper Authors Comeback, Braves Win First Series

ATLANTA 3, CHICAGO 2

Ryan Dempster and Sean Marshall shut the Braves down. John Grabow did not. With one out and Martin Prado on second, Chipper Jones smacked a home run to left-center field to give the Braves the lead and an eventual 3-2 victory.

The road to the final score was paved by pitching. Both starters, the Braves' Jair Jurrjens and the Cubs' Dempster, allowed just three hits and two walks in their stints.

However, the Braves struck first in the second inning.

With Brian McCann on first base and one out, Yunel Escobar swung and missed on a botched hit-and-run. McCann would have been tagged out had shortstop Mike Fontenot not lost control of the baseball. This assisted Jason Heyward, who smacked a double down the right field line, scoring McCann and giving the Braves a 1-0 lead.

Jair Jurrjens allowed just two hits and no runs into the fifth inning. After Byrd walked, Soriano grounded into a fielders choice as he appeared to beat the throw to first. Replays showed he was out by a half-step, but the inning continued.

Mike Fontenot fouled off some pitches before getting a single, moving Soriano to third base. Geovany Soto then was walked as Jurrjens again couldn't find the strike zone. Dempster then hit a ball that handcuffed first baseman Troy Glaus as he tried to backhand it; that error scored a run. Ryan Theriot then lifted a sacrifice fly to center to give the Cubs the lead.

In the meantime, the Braves hadn't gotten a batter on base since the third inning and were held in check as they struggled to hit Dempster's pitches. The Cubs' former closer racked up four straight strikeouts at one point, finishing with nine in six innings. Sean Marshall, who tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings in the series opener, struck out two batters himself.

Long reliever Kris Medlen came on in relief of Jurrjens in the sixth inning after the starter threw 94 pitches. Medlen allowed just two singles in two innings of work. He was helped in the sixth by Glaus spearing a liner hit by Marlon Byrd and doubling up Aramis Ramirez.

In the eighth, after allowing a one-out single to Fukudome a stolen base and a walk to Derrek Lee, Braves reliever Peter Moylan got Ramirez to ground to Escobar for a 6-4-3 double play.

Grabow then came in to pitch for the Cubs. With one out, Martin Prado hit a high fastball to the wall in left-center, just missing a home run. Jones then worked Grabow to a 3-1 count. Grabow then tried a change-up on the outside corner and Chipper belted it into the left-center field stands, giving the lead back to the Braves. Young reliever Esmailin Caridad came on and struck out Troy Glaus, his fourth whiff of the game, to end the frame.

Billy Wagner entered in the ninth and struck out the side, interrupted by an Alfonso Soriano single. It was his first save as a Brave and his first in nearly two years. It also marked the 30th time in Wagner's career that he struck out three batters for a single-inning save.

My Commentary: At least this game showed that this Braves team has the ability to come back in a close game.

Melky Cabrera doesn't seem over-matched, but he's pulling his best post-6-for-6 Willie Harris impersonation in the first two games. Then again, everyone pulled that off against Dempster tonight (at least from the third inning forward).

Martin Prado was eaten up on a hard grounder that took a bounce past him, but he did wonderfully on the double plays. Only Glaus's backhand error was the most obvious flub of the night.

Jurrjens just lost complete command in the fifth inning. He has a tendency to nibble a lot when he's in trouble and that gets his pitch count up very quickly. He had that same problem last season.

Pitching two or three innings in relief at a time is something that Kris Medlen was born to do. I hope Bobby uses him a lot more as a two-inning fireman.

The loss of control was odd for Moylan, but he worked out of the jam.

Lastly, when Billy Wagner's on, forget it.

Redbirds Take Two of Three In Atlanta

ST. LOUIS 3, ATLANTA 2

W - Joel Piniero (4-0)
L - Jair Jurrjens (2-2)
S - Ryan Franklin (6)

THREE STARS

GOLD
P Joel Piniero, St. Louis - 6 2/3 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, W; 0-1, BB, R

SILVER
CF Rick Ankiel, St. Louis - 2-4, GA 1B, 2 RBI

BRONZE
P Jair Jurrjnes, Atlanta - 6 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO, L

ATLANTA 2, ST. LOUIS 1

W - Peter Moylan (1-1)
L - Kyle McClellan (1-1)
S - Mike Gonzalez (3)

GOLD
P Jo-Jo Reyes, Atlanta - 7 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 SO

SILVER
LF Matt Diaz, Atlanta - 1-4, GA 1B, RBI

BRONZE
P Kyle Lohse, St. Louis - 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 SO

ST. LOUIS 5, ATLANTA 3

GOLD
P Adam Wainwright, St. Louis - 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 2 SO; 1-3, R, RBI

SILVER
1B Albert Pujols, St. Louis - 2-4, R, RBI

BRONZE
P Javier Vazquez, Atlanta - 8 IP, 9 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 9 SO, L

Braves Come Out On Top In Pitcher's Duel

ATLANTA 1, WASHINGTON 0

With a final swing and a miss by Ronnie Belliard, Rafael Soriano capped a wild pitching duel as the Braves squeaked by the Nationals, winning 1-0.

Jair Jurrjens and John Lannan locked horns for a long pitching duel. They both walked two and struck out four. Jurrjens allowed six hits in his 7 2/3 inning stint and was removed after his two walks in the eighth. Mike Gonzalez struck out Adam Dunn to keep it a scoreless game.

In the top of the ninth, Matt Diaz singled off of Garrett Mock with one out. After Casey Kotchman grounded into a force out at second base, Jordan Schafer worked a walk. Manny Acta then decided to bring in lefty Mike Hinckley to face a pinch-hitter, righty Martin Prado. The Atlanta pinch-hitter worked a walk to load the bases and then Hinckley was left in to face Kelly Johnson. He seemed to labor and Johnson coaxed a five-pitch walk out of him as well, forcing in the run.

Rafael Soriano struck out Elijah Dukes and Ronnie Belliard in the final frame to end the game and give the Braves their second win in six games on the road trip. It's a shame that Jurrjens didn't get the win; he pitched wonderfully and very efficiently. It was a sight to see.

W - Mike Gonzalez (1-0)
L - Mike Hinckley (1-1)
S - Rafael Soriano (2)

THREE STARS

GOLD
P Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta - 7 2/3 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO

SILVER
P John Lannan, Washington - 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO

BRONZE
P Rafael Soriano, Atlanta - 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 2-2 SV

AP Photo by Alex Brandon

Pirates Frustrate Braves Bats, Hand Them Fourth Straight Loss

PITTSBURGH 3, ATLANTA 0

Starter Paul Maholm and the Pirates continued the trend of Atlanta's ineptitude against left-handed pitching, dealing Jair Jurrjens a hard-luck 3-0 loss. Wasted scoring chances plagued the Braves the entire game as they left six runners in scoring position, four against starting pitcher Paul Maholm and one against reliever John Grabow.

The only run of the game was scored in the second inning. After Brandon Moss had a leadoff triple (the second of the game, probably caused by Jordan Schafer's inexperience in attempting to catch each ball), he scored on a one-out groundout to Kelly Johnson up the middle, who made a nice play on the ball. The Braves had the bases loaded with no one out in the ninth, but Casey Kotchman popped up to the catcher for a rare infield fly rule call. Jordan Schafer then bounced out into a double play to end the inning.

Pittsburgh's 1-0 lead held up the entire game as the Braves continued to leave men on base (nine in total). Jair Jurrjens pitched 6 2/3 innings, giving up just the one run and striking out seven batters. He left the game in the seventh inning after walking two straight Pirate batters. Peter Moylan finished the inning by getting pinch-hitter Delmon Young to pop up in foul ground.

Nate McLouth gave Pittsburgh some insurance with a two-run home run off of Braves closer Mike Gonzalez in the eighth. Matt Capps pitched the ninth for his third save.

It seemed all night that in scoring chances, the Braves hit balls right at Pirate fielders. Quite frankly, it was a particularly frustrating loss. Hopefully, the Braves bats decide to wake up tomorrow against Ian Snell.

W - Paul Maholm (2-0)
L - Jair Jurrjens (2-1)
S - Matt Capps (3)
HR - Nate McLouth (3)

THREE STARS

GOLD
P Paul Maholm, Pittsburgh - 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO, W

SILVER
P Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta - 6 2/3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO, L; 1-1, BB

BRONZE
CF Nate McLouth, Pittsburgh - 2-4, HR, R, 2 RBI

AP Photo by John Heller

Braves Staff Holds Phillies Off The Board, Hit Two Homers In Win

ATLANTA 4, PHILADELPHIA 0

Jair Jurrjens pitched 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball and the Braves pen finished putting up the zeroes in the 4-0 victory.

Kelly Johnson hit the first pitch into the right field seats for the Braves' first score. After Yunel Escobar grounded out, Chipper Jones hit a long double that hit off the center field wall. He came around to score on a rare error by Chase Utley. Brian McCann's grounder went under Utley's glove and into right field. Jones came around to score on that.

The Braves added another run in the fourth. Jeff Francoeur led off with a single and Casey Kotchman's single moved him to third. After Jordan Schafer popped up to short and Jair Jurrjens struck out, Kelly Johnson hit a slow bouncer to short and beat Rollins's throw to the bag, scoring Francoeur.

Jones led off the fifth inning with a solo home run to cap the Braves' scoring off of Phillie starter Jamie Moyer. After the fifth inning, four Phillies relievers, including fifth starter Chan Ho Park, combined to retire twelve straight Braves batters.

The Braves bullpen was similarly effective. Jurrjens left the game after walking Pedro Feliz with two out in the inning. Jeff Bennett came on to face Carlos Ruiz, but gave up a single to left. Matt Stairs was called on to pinch-hit, so Bobby Cox went with new lefty Eric O'Flaherty. Stairs launched a full-count pitch to right-center, but the hard wind, blowing out to right field, held it in the park for Jordan Schafer.

O'Flaherty pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless ball and Rafael Soriano pitched around a two-out walk to Feliz. Mike Gonzalez, who pitched in the opener, got Eric Bruntlett to line out to left field, where Garret Anderson made up for a misplay in the second inning (a liner by Raul Ibanez popped out of his glove and he couldn't corral it) by tracking down deep liners from Eric Bruntlett and Jimmy Rollins. Shane Victorino hit a fly ball to center that Schafer caught easily, completing the shutout.

W - Jair Jurrjens (1-0)
L - Jamie Moyer (0-1)
HR - Kelly Johnson (1)
Chipper Jones (1)

THREE STARS

GOLD
P Jair Jurrjens, Atlanta - 5 2/3 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, 2 K

SILVER
2B Kelly Johnson, Atlanta - 2-5, HR, R, 2 RBI

BRONZE
3B Chipper Jones, Atlanta - 2-4, 2B, HR, 2 R, RBI

AP Photo By John Amis

EDIT: Added photo credit and changed boxscore to Baseball-Reference.com's boxscore and play-by-play.