Home Dominance: Reds Swept

Written by Jonathan on May 5, 2008 – 12:42 pm

The Braves are 11-4 at home so far this season (now if only we weren’t 4-11 on the road) and it was a much needed 3-game sweep of the Reds after we had dropped 4 straight on the road.  We’ve been pretty lax about getting game recaps up lately, so I’m going to do my best to give a quick recap of the Reds series:

Game 1 – Friday – Braves 2, Reds 0
Friday night’s game was an absolute gem for Tim Hudson.  We’ve been a bit worried about Hud lately with his visible lack of speed and inability to get deep into a game.  But Friday night, he looked like the Tim Hudson we expect to see on the mound.  He threw a complete game, 3-hit shutout of the Reds, while striking out 10 and not issuing a walk.  The offense didn’t really provide much support outside of a two-run home run for Brian McCann in the bottom of the 4th, but who needs it when you have a pitching outing like that.  Hudson only seems to be doing well in every other start however, so we’ll see how he looks next time out.

Game 2 – Saturday – Braves 9, Reds 1
I’m not going to lie.  I was worried going into the game on Saturday with Jo-Jo Reyes making his first big league start for the Braves this season.  Jo-Jo has tended to pitch amazingly well in the minors and then not been up to snuff when he made his appearances in the bigs.  For 5 innings on Saturday, however, he looked decent.  His control fell apart in the top of the 6th and Bobby Cox wisely got him out of the game.  This was definitely the right decision for the team as a whole and for Jo-Jo’s confidence in his ability to pitch.  Through 5 1/3 innings, Reyes issued 4 hits and only gave up 1 run while striking out 5.  He gave up three walks as well, all in the top of the 6th.  The offense helped seal up the win for Jo-Jo with a 6-run bottom of the 7th.  The Braves had 7 doubles on the day.

Game 3 – Sunday – Braves 14, Reds 7
Yesterday’s game can best be described as a slug-fest with the teams putting up a combined 30 hits and 21 runs.  Tom Glavine didn’t have his best stuff for the game, going only 4 2/3 innings and giving up 6 runs.  Royce Ring came in to finish off the 5th inning, and, by throwing one pitch, gained the win on the day.  The offense looked stellar yesterday however, bolstered by 3 doubles from Kelly Johnson (which gave him 5 doubles in two games) and home runs from Chipper Jones and Mark Kotsay.  Chipper had a total of 5 RBIs on the day.

Overall, I know the Reds aren’t really a great team in the league this season, but the sweep was just what the Braves needed at this point.  They’re back to .500 baseball again with a record of 15-15 and have an off-day today before a three-game set at home against the Padres.


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