Braves Fall To Rockies Once Again

Written by Jonathan on April 9, 2008 – 11:54 am

Without even writing it, I’m sure everyone could guess how many runs the Braves lost by in last night’s outing. That’s right.  One run.  For the fifth time out of five losses this season, the Braves lost a one-run game.  This time, again, to the Rockies, with a final score of 4-3, in a second consecutive game where the Braves struggled to find an offensive rhythm.

The game got off to a similar start to the one from Monday night.  Kelly Johnson and Yunel Escobar got on base and Chipper Jones drove in a run with a single to get the Braves out to an early 1-0 lead.  After that, however, the bats fell flat once again.  The only sign of life for the Braves’ offense outside of that was a 2-run home run that Mark Kotsay drove a little over 400 feet to right-center.  That brought the score to 4-3 and ended the offensive output for the night.

Clutch hitting is still a weak point of the Braves.  We hit well when we’re not pressured and have decent leads, but when the game’s on the line, we just can’t seem to get the bats going.  Bobby Cox said it best after the game when he said that we have a great team and we’ve been in every game.  We just need the one-run matchups to start falling our way.  0-5 in one-run games after only 8 games in the season isn’t the way you want to get started off.

From the mound, Jurrjens had a solid outing, pitching through 7 innings.  He gave up 4 runs on 9 hits while striking out 3.  His 2 walks for the night were both intentional passes.  Manny Acosta pitched the 8th inning for the Braves and looked a little unsettled allowing a hit and a walk before striking out two to get out of the inning.  Jurrjens earned his first loss on the season, bringing his record to 1-1.

The Braves face off against the Rockies again tonight in the third game of this four-game series.  Chuck James is slated to make his first start of the season for the Braves against former Brave Mark Redman.  Hopefully Redman will give up as many runs against us tonight as he did when pitching for us last season.  We’ll also be looking for the offense to break out of the slump that has only produced 9 hits through the last two games.

Tags: Colorado Rockies, Jair Jurrjens, Mark Kotsay
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