Braves Hooked By Fish; Volstad Wins Pitching Duel

FLORIDA 5, ATLANTA 1

Marlins starter Chris Volstad, making his sixteenth career start, stymied the Braves for seven innings, and the Marlins produced runs off of Braves starter Javier Vazquez and reliever Jeff Bennett to earn a 5-1 win.

Volstad allowed just three hits, the biggest one being a home run by Kelly Johnson on a first-pitch fastball leading off the fourth inning. That was the first hit the Braves got in the game. Atlanta's only other scoring opportunity came in the bottom of the sixth inning. After pinch-hitter Martin Prado doubled to left-center and Kelly Johnson flied to left, Escobar drew a walk. Chipper Jones was barely thrown out at first base on a tapper to the right of the mound; that moved the runners up. Brian McCann then smoked a liner to first base that Ross Gload got his glove on and was able to keep from going to right field.

The Marlins scored three off of Javier Vazquez in the third inning and two runs off of reliever Jeff Bennett in the eighth. Third baseman Emiliano Bonaficio and catcher John Baker scored two runs. Both were driven by Dan Uggla on separate occasions. The second baseman drove in three runs on the day.

Javier Vazquez pitched his second straight quality start in a losing effort. His 12-strikeout effort was the sixth such game of his career and the 38th game where he struck out 10 batters or more.

Vazquez had a typical game tonight. He allowed hits all at the same time and he struck out a lot of batters. As long as he keeps doing that, he should be able to win ball games. Even Braves fans had to tip their caps to Volstad in this one. He made few mistakes and was able to pitch out of the few jams that he got in. Hopefully, the Braves will do better against Andrew Miller tonight.

W - Chris Volstad (2-0)
L - Javier Vazquez (0-1)
HR - Kelly Johnson (3)

THREE STARS

GOLD
P Chris Volstad, Florida - 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO

SILVER
P Javier Vazquez, Atlanta - 6 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 12 SO

BRONZE
2B Dan Uggla, Florida - 2-4, 3 RBI

Photo by John Amis

EDIT: Added tags. W-L-S-HR tally