Road = Loss (By 1 Naturally)

Written by Akshay on May 27, 2008 – 11:30 pm

The Braves were in a great position to finally start a road trip on a good note, it just did not happen. Jeff Bennett (0-3) allowed Bill Hall to single with no outs and to come around and score on a sacrifice fly to give the Brewers a win and waste a solid eight innings from Tim Hudson.

Solomon Torres (4-1) got the win in relief after pitching a scoreless top half of the ninth. Chipper started the frame with a single, but what’s new? Teixeira followed Chipper’s hit with a shot of his own, straight to the shortstop, who turned a double play through second base. McCann ended the inning on a single.

Kelly Johnson gave the Braves something to hope for off Dave Bush in the top of the first. After fouling off a fastball down the middle of the plate, Johnson hit an identical pitch 402 feet to right field to give the Braves a 1-0 lead. Gregor Blanco, playing center field with Kotsay out, broke through for the first homer of his major league career in the top of the second off Bush.

But after that Bush was almost un-hittable. Surprisingly, after the second inning Bush faced just one more than the minimum and allowed just one runner past first—Hudson, who doubled in the top of the fifth, but was stranded at third when Johnson struck out.

Hudson pitched very well until the seventh inning. Recently called up veteran Russell Branyan doubled to open the seventh and scored on J.J. Hardy’s single. Hardy also drove in the game tying run on a strange play in the eighth.

Mike Cameron flied out and Ryan Braun grounded out to open the frame. Prince Fielder singled and Cory Hart doubled to put runners on second and third with two outs. Branyan was intentionally walked to bring Hardy up to the plate. Hardy hit Hudson’s pitch right back to Hudson, the ball bounced off the end of Hudson’s shoe and hung in the air long enough to render everyone safe and the score tied.

Brian McCann’s 13 game hitting-streak ended after he went 0-3. Chipper went 2-4 to increase his batting average to a cool .418.


Tags:
Posted in Game Analysis |

BravesBlast.com is not affiliated with or sponsored by the Atlanta Braves organization. Views expressed on this site do not reflect the views of the Atlanta Braves organization.