Making Most Of Being Home; Braves Sweep 'Stros

ATLANTA 4, HOUSTON 2

The Braves had the kind of game they envisioned having a lot this year: just enough offense to win and the starting pitching absolutely dominating the opposition. Tommy Hanson pitched brilliantly for eight innings, got some offense support, and Billy Wagner held off the Astros in the ninth to break Atlanta's nine-game losing streak.

A few notes about the losing streak:

• It was the longest road losing streak for the Braves since 1949, when the Boston team lost two straight four-game series against the Phillies and Dodgers.
• In nine games, the Braves scored just seventeen runs, one more than the amount they scored on Opening Day.
• Four quality starts, two by Tim Hudson, were blown by the Braves. Atlanta also lost four games where they took the lead first.

Hanson threw all that out the window in the 4-2 victory.

The Braves struck instantly when leadoff batter Nate McLouth homered to center on the first pitch from hurler Brett Myers. Martin Prado singled, Chipper Jones walks and Brian McCann hit into a double play, moving Prado to third. Troy Glaus then bounced a grounder to short which rolled up shortstop Tommy Manzella's arm and struck him in the throat. He stayed in the game, but was charged with an error on the play. He committed another error which allowed Jason Heyward to reach base. After Melky Cabrera walked, the Braves were held off the board when Omar Infante lined to second.

After an RBI single by J.R. Towles tied the game at two, Hanson retired 20 of the 21 batters he faced, giving up just a single to Carlos Lee to lead off the fourth inning. Heyward provided all the support Hanson would need when he smacked a two-run homer to right in the third inning. Jason would have had a second home run in the eighth inning off of lefty reliever Tim Byrdak, but Hunter Pence leaped up at the wall in right and snagged the ball just as it was about to disappear behind the yellow line.

Astros starter Brett Myers tossed seven innings, allowing just one other single and walk after Cabrera's two-out single in the third.

When the ninth inning rolled around, Hanson was pulled in favor of closer Billy Wagner, who had just two save opportunities up to that point. The situation mirrored an infamous game from September of last season:

The Braves were up 1-0 on the Astros at Minute Maid Park. Hanson had just pitched eight innings, walked no batters and struck out seven men. Cox lifted him for closer Rafael Soriano. Soriano struck out Michael Bourn, but Kazuo Matsui hit a single to right. Lance Berkman then hit a double on the next pitch. Carlos Lee then was intentionally walked to set up the double play. However, Miguel Tejada spoiled that with a single up the middle, scoring two runs and winning the game for the Astros.

This time, Billy Wagner got Jeff Keppinger to ground to Glaus at first base. He then walked Pedro Feliz on four pitches. Lee ended the game by hitting into a double play, preserving the win for the Braves.

ATLANTA 10, HOUSTON 1

After going down early, the Braves broke out their bats and Houston lost their gloves, leading to a 10-1 Atlanta win.

The Astros struck first off Braves starter Tim Hudson when Michael Bourn singled, stole second, moved to third on Keppinger's single and scored on Berkman's groundout.

It didn't take the Braves long to answer off of Wandy Rodriguez. Hudson led off the third inning with a single and moved to second on Martin Prado's single. The two moved up one base on Chipper's fly ball to center and both scored on Glaus's fly ball double that went over Pence's head in right field.

The Astros didn't mount a serious threat after the third inning while the Braves just kept on scoring. Houston didn't get a runner to second base until the ninth inning, when they were down nine runs. The Braves scored three in the fifth, one in the sixth, and four in the seventh.

Heyward led off the seventh with his seventh home run and Prado had a bases-loaded double. Omar Infante scored three runs and went 3-5. Prado also had three hits scored two runs.

Hudson pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing just one run on five hits and two walks. Peter Moylan finished the seventh inning with a strikeout and Eric O'Flaherty and Jonny Venters finished the game with a scoreless innings each.

ATLANTA 7, HOUSTON 1

Once again, Derek Lowe got more run support. This time, however, he didn't have to work so hard to help the Braves complete their first three-game sweep of the Astros in seven years. Atlanta scored three runs in the fourth and fifth innings off of Astros starter Bud Norris to cement a 7-1 victory.

McCann walked to lead off the second inning and moved to third on Glaus's liner to left that was hit so hard, Troy had to settle for a single. Heyward then launched a ball to right field, but Pence corralled it at the warning track. That scored McCann and gave the Braves the lead.

In fourth, Hewyard doubled home McCann, moving Glaus to third base, and Cabrera singled home both runners. Infante also reached with a single and then Derek Lowe tried to bunt the runners over. Instead, he popped up the ball to the on-rushing first baseman Berkman. Lance then let the ball drop to start a 3-6-5 double play. It would have been possible for him to get a triple play because Lowe wasn't running out of the box, but the attempted sac bunt turned into two outs anyway.

Atlanta loaded the bases in the fifth with one out for Heyward. The rookie hit a bouncer to the left of the mound that Norris was able to cut off with a stumbling roll. He then tried to throw home, but the toss went to the backstop, allowing Chipper to score. However, the ball bounced right back to Towles and he was able to tag out McCann attempting to score. Cabrera then completed the scoring by hitting a ground ball between first and second that rolled all the way to the wall because Pence was positioned in right center. This gave Melky a two-run double and ended Norris's day.

Both the Braves and Astros bullpens pitched scoreless stints. Kris Medlen, Takashi Saito and Wagner pitched four scoreless innings (Medlen had two), while Chris Sampson got one strikeout, Jeff Fulchino pitched two shutout innings and Lyon had a scoreless eighth frame.

Near Misses, Strange Plays, Offensive Woes Add To Mets Win

NEW YORK 5, ATLANTA 2

Nate McLouth missing the game-tying home run by about 5-10 feet capped the weirdness of this game as the Mets defeated the Braves 5-2 in the opener of their three game series.

The game started normally, at first: the Braves struck first with Chipper Jones's RBI single off of starter John Maine. New York almost tied the game when former Brave Jeff Francoeur just missed a home run, hitting a ball off of what I would like to call the Black Monster in left field. Francoeur took third base on an ill-advised throw by Cabrera to second base. He then tried to score on Rod Barajas's grounder to third, but Chipper was able to throw him out at the plate.

Maine would leave the game in the middle of the fourth inning as he felt some muscle spasms in his left elbow. "Rookie" reliever Hisanori Takahashi, a 10-year veteran of the Yomiuri Tokyo Giants, went on to strike out seven of the twelve Braves that he faced.

In the meantime, the Mets tied the game with Ike Davis's first major league home run, a bomb to straight right off of Braves starter Kenshin Kawakami that knotted the score at one. New York went ahead in the bottom of the sixth on consecutive triples by Jose Reyes and Jason Bay. David Wright's sacrifice fly to the warning track in center field plated Bay and the Mets went up by two runs.

Kawakami finished the inning and left with his second quality start in three tries, with six hits and three earned runs allowed in six frames. The Braves finally chased Takahashi with a leadoff double by Omar Infante and a two-out single by Martin Prado.

The bottom of the seventh is where things got wacky. With one out and setup man Takashi Saito on the hill, Angel Pagan singled to left. He went to second on Luis Castillo's walk. Jose Reyes then hit a pop fly on the infield and the infield fly rule was called. Here is the rule and its points:

2.00: An INFIELD FLY is a fair fly ball (not including a line drive nor an attempted bunt) which can be caught by an infielder with ordinary effort, when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before two are out. The pitcher, catcher and any outfielder who stations himself in the infield on the play shall be considered infielders for the purpose of this rule.

6.05(e): A batter is out when An Infield Fly is declared.

This rule was made to prevent fielders from intentionally dropping balls to start double or even triple plays. Another key to this rule is that when the ball is dropped, it's still a live ball; any base is fair game if unguarded.

That's exactly what happened: Chipper Jones dropped the ball and picked it up as the Pagan and Castillo advanced a base. McCann then left home plate unguarded as he tried to get an explanation on why he didn't need to throw it to first. The ball was still live, however, because Saito didn't have it and he wasn't on the mound. So Pagan, with a heads-up notice from base coach Chip Hale, bolted for home plate and beat McCann's tag by a full second.

David Wright added on to the free run with a single, so it looked like the Mets would coast to a victory.

Not quite.

Pedro Feliciano and Jonny Venters provided a scoreless eighth inning, so it was up to Frankie Rodriguez to earn the save for the Mets. Melky Cabrera, who was 0-3 in the game, greeted him with a single to right. Infante, who had three hits up to that point, gave the Mets an out with a first-pitch fly ball to center.

However, Rodriguez then lost control against pinch-hitter Yunel Escobar, walking him. That brought up Nate McLouth, who had struck out three times already. He battled with Rodriguez a bit, and at one point absolutely crushed a high fastball that ended up 5-10 feet to the right of the foul pole. Rodriguez got him looking on a change-up on the outside corner then blew away Prado with an 0-2 breaking ball to end the game.

Braves Don't Give Nationals A Bailout

ATLANTA 8, WASHINGTON 5

With solid bullpen work and timely two-out hitting, the Braves completed their first sweep of the Washington Nationals since June 25-27, 2007, banging out an 8-5 victory.

The Braves scored three in the bottom of the fourth, all with two outs. Brian McCann walked and stole second. Matt Diaz doubled him home, Jeff Francoeur chased Diaz home with a triple and Martin Prado drove in Francoeur with a single.

Elijah Dukes returned the favor with a two-out, two-run double in the fourth. A bad hop that ate up Martin Prado at first allowed Dukes to score to tie the game.

The Braves didn't stay behind for long. With Omar Infante on first with two out, he went to second on a passed ball and scored on Chipper Jones' single to give the Braves the lead again. Jones went to second on the throw. McCann drove him home with a single to up the lead to two.

Jeff Bennett relieved starter Jair Jurrjens in the sixth inning after Jurrjens' fifth walk of the day. That walk, given to Alex Gonzalez, came back to bite the Braves as he came around to score on a single by Lastings Milledge and a two-out single by Elijah Dukes.

Atlanta scored two more in the seventh on a Yunel Escobar double off the right field wall and a second RBI single by Jones. The Nationals eked out a run off of Buddy Carlyle and Eric O'Flaherty, but the righty Carlyle struck out Adam Dunn with two men on to preserve the lead.

Casey Kotchman added another insurance run with a pinch-hit RBI single after Francoeur's second triple (aided by right fielder Austin Kearns losing the ball in the sun). Rafael Soriano finished off the game in the ninth by getting two strikeouts. It gave the Braves a sweep of the Nationals for the first time in nearly two years.

I was glad to see the timely hitting by the offense and the bullpen hold together after the rain delay sort of messed up the plans. The fast start is very encouraging, and I hope the Braves are able to keep it up.

W - Jair Jurrjens (2-0)
L - Scott Olsen (0-2)
S - Rafael Soriano (1)

THREE STARS

GOLD
3B Chipper Jones, Atlanta - 2-3, R, BB, 2 RBI

SILVER
2B Omar Infante, Atlanta - 2-3, 2B, BB, 2 R

BRONZE
RF Jeff Francoeur - 2-4, 2 3B, 2 R, RBI

AP Photo by John Amis

EDIT: Changed boxscore link to Baseball-Reference.com