Jason Heyward:  The guy is simply the rookie of the year.  There’s just no doubt about it.  When he is playing the way that he can, there is absolutely no stopping this kid.  Some people like to point to wunderkinds like Strasburg and say that he should get the RotY, but, let’s face it, no other rookie can do what Heyward can do, and as reliably, when he is healthy.  He can field (summon up his first game after the all-star break), he can run bases (any night when you see him go from first to third on a lazy single, or when he jacks second right from under catcher’s noses), and he‘s dynamite in the batter’s box (this series in particular — he’s reached base 9 out of 10 times).  In Heyward’s last five games, his OBP is a whopping .640, and all of which were multi-hit games.  He’s on fire, and I don’t see him slowing down any time soon.  Frank Wren needs to throw up a huge contract to Heyward ASAP.  Nail him down for ten-plus years.  I don’t ever want to see 22 on another team.

Martin Prado: His leadoff home run was just great.  He easily could have had another 3-hit game if it weren’t for the nice play by the pitcher in the third.  He went through a little slump at the beginning of the second half, but it looks like Prado is back where he should be.  Three hits tonight gets his average back up to .320 (instead of the lowly ghettos of the .310′s, of course), and still 15 hits above anyone else in the NL.  He could conceivably take half a month off and still be in the lead. Think Prado is going to ease off the gas though?  Oh no.  You know why?  Because he’s so clutch that the engine fell out.

Eric Hinske: We can’t talk about clutch without talking about Hinske.  He was the hero of the game for the Braves for all of a third of an inning before Conrad’s bomb.  He only had one hit, but he made it count, driving in runs 4 & 5, and playing a huge role in the Braves victory.

Jesse Chavez & Johnny Venters:  The bullpen shut down the Fins when we needed it badly.  Had it not been for these two guys (Chavez in particular! I never thought I’d say that.) it had the potential for another heartbreaking loss.  It just goes to show you the vast chasm that seperates these two teams.  Although the Braves had a bad night last night, our bullpen got it done, setting people down with relative ease.

And now for those guys that were struggling tonight…

Troy Glaus: The guy can’t buy a hit right now.  One month he puts up prodigious, player-of-the-month type numbers, the next, nothing.  I’m losing faith in our number five man; that’s a position we can’t be in if we’re going to contend for the pennant.  I’m not asking for June numbers, I’m just asking for something to feel good about, because right now, we’re not getting any kind of production from him.

Nate McLouth: I think one more bad game pretty much shuts the gate on Nate.  He’s 1-13 since returning to the line-up, and his batting average is lower than some of our pitchers, and he doesn’t even hit the ball hard.  I don’t know if it’s all in his head or what, but right now, McLouth is looking very much like a bust, but what do you do?  There aren’t a lot of options out there.  DeJesus is hurt.  Ross is batting a puny .146 this month.  Someone like Josh Willingham might be attainable, but at what price?  We don’t want to give the Nationals too much.  There’s questions aplenty that are all swirling around the drainpipe that is Nate McLouth.  In the end, I think you sit McLouth and let Hinske, Diaz, and Cabrera platoon left and center.  It’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the best we have right now.

I don’t want to end this in all this prognostication, so let me say that I think that we’re coming up against two more teams to round off this road trip that I think we have the ability to play very good and take some more series.  The first games against the Nats and the Reds should be the most interesting games of the series with the old vet, Hanson, taking on Strasburg, a boy that he has already beaten once this year — but this time, it’s on his own turf.  Then we will see two young bucs — Medlen and Cueto — start the Reds series off with a bang.  The next week should be a fun one for Braves fans.

The Braves took the lead in the bottom of the third last night, with four straight hits – including a two-run single by Chipper Jones and a two-run homer by Brian McCann. Tommy Hanson had surrendered two runs before that, and pitched into the seventh. The Braves took a 4-2 lead into the top of the ninth.

And then Wagner let one get away from him. He’s not a machine – but we’ll forgive a blown save here and there because of just how damn good he’s been. Kris Medlen took the loss in extras – the seventh pitcher the Braves sent to the mound last night. He’ll make his next start, I hear, and just skip a throwing session today.

We’ll drop a game here and there, and it’s not the end of the world. The goal here has always been to win series. We can do that tonight – we’re sending Huddy to the mound and he always puts us in position to win. Brush it off and go back out tonight and do what you do, boys – win.

Prado had three singles last night, bumping up his average to .337 and furthering his already distended hit count to 114 — SEVEN more than the next closest bat in the entire league (Robinson Cano of NYY).  Clutch aspect: Prado had the first two RBIs of the game.

Blanco continued right where he left off in June, going two for three tonight with a walk.  He was the only Brave to cross the plate through the first 10 innings of play tonight for the Braves.  This play is not out of place for Blanco who has been playing great as of late.  He’s making a strong statement to be part of the lineup, but with Hinske also playing some great baseball, I think we will see these two sharing time out in left.

Glaus came up big in the bottom of the 11th, redeeming the error from the top of the inning in a big way with a huge double.  After being on an 0-20 drought, this hit couldn’t have been any more timely.  Despite going one-for-five in last night’s game, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him have some great games to close out the first half of the season.  That smack can inspire confidence in even the lowliest of slumping sluggers (to which fraternity Glaus does not yet belong).

And finally, the hero of the night: Omar Infante.  You can’t say enough about this guy.  Very much in the same vein of Gregor Blanco, Infante has been a quintessential utility player — showing up to play and getting huge clutch hits like we saw last night.  Incredible situational hitting has been the calling card of the 2010 Atlanta Braves.

With all of this in mind, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see an Infante, Blanco, or Hinske move up to the 2-slot behind Prado until Heyward gets back in shape.  I think it would create some fantastic scoring opportunities that we’re going to need to get win these final three series before the break.

Jurrjens’ admitted to being nervous before the start after two months on the Disabled List because of a hamstring injury, but showed none of it on the mound. His fake bunt and slash RBI single to left field almost took out Ryan Zimmerman on its way to left field.

As our own Kent Covington has pointed out, Jurrjens’ hamstring injury was a blessing in disguise. In Spring Training, Jurrjens battled an inflamed shoulder and elbow. The two months on the bench gave his shoulder and elbow time to recover that simply wasn’t happening before the injury, when his fastballs were routinely in the high 80s. Last night, Jurrjens’ fastball was what Kent calls “resting” in the low 90s – indicating Jurrjens is likely not experiencing the arm issues he was before his DL stint. The other hidden blessing of Jurrjens’ injury was of course the rise of Kris Medlen as the best 5th starter candidate on the team.

If Jurrjens can stay healthy the rest of the season and be as effective as he was last night, his return from the DL will become the equivalent of pulling off a blockbuster trade for another ace. Jurrjens is probably our number two or three pitcher in this rotation, and with his return, our rotation is stronger than it was with Kawakami in Jurrjens’ spot.

The bottom line yesterday was Tim Hudson. Through seven innings of ball, Hudson struck out six, picked off one, walked three, and gave up a total of five hits. His extremely effective sinking two-seamer led to twelve groundouts – and only one fly out. Hudson showed that he’s back in ace form last night – as the nation watched expecting such a performance from the opposing pitcher.

Strasburg was almost as good. Through six innings he held the Braves’ offense scoreless. Nats manager Jim Riggleman almost pinch-hit for Strasburg when his spot in the order came up in the bottom of the sixth (someone came out on deck for Strasburg but was pulled back) and Strasburg came back out to pitch the seventh inning. Right now I’ll bet he wishes he hadn’t. Following a leadoff walk to Chipper (his 46th of the season), the Braves loaded the bases with no outs (thanks to an error) and tattooed WonderBoy for four runs (three earned). They then tacked on another unearned run.

Hustler of the night: Gregor Blanco, who surprised everybody with a bunt down the first base line that the pitcher couldn’t field cleanly for an RBI comes in second to Tim Hudson, who was absolutely ace-like last night.

Slacker of the evening: In the first inning, Melky Cabrera roped a double to left. Chipper then knocked a fly ball to deep left and Melky got caught somewhere between second and third. Had he tagged up, he could have scored when McCann singled to left. Instead, Melky’s slow self got caught trying to score from second to end the inning.

Strasburg Effect: 9601 walkup tickets were sold yesterday and a total of 21,608 tickets were sold since Strasburg’s previous start. The Braves’ franchise thanks Strasburg for coming to Atlanta, selling tickets, and then giving up the loss to improve the Bravos’ home record to 27-8.

]]> http://www.bravesblast.com/2010/06/29/atlanta-braves-tim-hudson-tackle-stephen-strasburg-5-0/feed/ 3 http://www.bravesblast.com/2010/06/28/braves-up-next-on-the-strasburg-show/ http://www.bravesblast.com/2010/06/28/braves-up-next-on-the-strasburg-show/#comments Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:00:42 +0000 Jonathan http://www.bravesblast.com/?p=1679 The Washington Nationals come into Atlanta tonight leading the season series over the Braves 2-1 and the most anticipated game of the upcoming series is the kickoff match this evening when rookie pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg takes the mound against Tim Hudson.  Strasburg is 4 starts into his major league career and comes to Atlanta with a 2-1 record (his loss was a 1-0 matchup his last time out).  In those 4 starts he has struck out 41 batters and allowed more than 1 earned run in a game only one time (his first outing he gave up 2 earned) and has an ERA of 1.78.

Tim Hudson’s coming off of one of his worst outings of the season where he gave up 4 earned runs in 7 innings of work to the White Sox.  Hudson is 7-3 on the season and averaging 6 2/3 innings of work per outing and has a 2.54 ERA.  He has struck out 45 and walked 37.

Strasburg isn’t unhittable; the Braves offense will just have to get going.  He’s issued 19 hits in his 4 starts this season (9 of which were in his last outing against the Royals) and has walked 5 (all in the same start).  The key to winning tonight for the Braves is to not get behind the 8-ball by not allowing the Nationals to create an insurmountable early run lead.

Just as a sidebar, and I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sick of all the “future Hall of Famer”, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc talk going on every time anyone mentions Strasburg’s name in the news.  He’s pitched 4 games, people!  Yes, he’s good, I’m not denying that at all.  He was 13-1 his last season of college, he was 7-2 in the minors and he’s 2-1 so far this season.  Those numbers speak for themselves, but for someone that has been in the majors for all of 20 days, I think it’s a little early to say he has a Hall of Fame career in progress.

This isn’t just how I feel because we’re going against the Nationals and they are in the Braves division.  I’ve said the same thing about Jason Heyward this season.  Let the kids go out there, play baseball and worry about if they had Hall of Fame careers in another 20 years or so.  That’s what this game’s all about……..well that, and beating the Nationals.  Go Braves!

Here are some stats from the past week of play.

The only player with an OPS above .800 is Jason Heyward, at 1.994.

Nate McLouth, Troy Glaus, and Melky Cabrera have all been better than they have been the whole season, sporting .762, .760, and .753 OPS’s respectively.

Chipper Jones is 2-18 with one double, no RBI, and a significantly lower SLG(.167) than OBP(.273). To say the least, Chipper has had a rough past six games.

Martin Prado has also started to slump, going just 6-25 this past week with a line of .240/.269/.280 and just one double.

There are only two players with more than one extra base hit through these past six games, Jason Heyward and Nate McLouth. Nate McLouth has a double and a home run, while Jason Heyward has hit four home runs and one double. They are also the only two Braves to put the ball over the fence since the Braves thrilling walk-off victory against the Phillies, which coincidentally was hit by McLouth, and the game-tying homer hit by Heyward. Combined, they have hit the Braves past seven home runs.

On the pitching front, Kenshin Kawakami has gotten hit rather hard in his past two starts, amassing 9.1 innings and a 6.76 ERA with just 5 strikeouts to four walks.

Tommy Hanson went eight strong in his last start while allowing just two earned runs, and he will go again tonight.

Kris Medlen has been solid in relief, totally five innings pitched with just five baserunners and one earned run allowed.

Jesse Chavez’s stats entering Friday’s relief appearance were 9.1 innings, 0.96 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 9 k’s, 1 BB, 5 hits allowed.

His numbers now stand at 12.1 innings, 5.11 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 13 K, 3 BB, 12 hits allowed. Over the past three innings pitched, Chavez has allowed seven hits and two walks, good for a 3.00 WHIP.

But enough with the negative stuff, lets get back on Heyward and his unbelievable past six games. Of players with at least 19 plate appearances, Heyward leads the league in OPS over the past week of play. His 1.375 slugging percentage also ranks first, as does his .619 on base percentage.

My last musing on Heyward’s past week is his RC/27, or his runs created per 27 outs. Basically it says how many runs a team full of a certain player would score. So if there were nine Jason Heyward’s playing over the past week, they would score 34.19 runs per game, again the highest total in the league.

That leaves three franchises in Major League Baseball without a no-hitter on record.  The Rays, the Padres and (insert joke of choice here)…..the Mets.  Here’s hoping that Jurrjens can spring back to for today after his rough outing last week.

• Heyward sure looks like the real deal.
• Brian McCann could get some MVP votes this year if his spring/opening day performance is any indication.
• There may be no 40 homerun hitter on this roster, but the Braves lineup is STACKED with very good hitters, and there is more power here than most people realize. (The bench is stacked as well).
• Derek Lowe’s got to get back to whatever he was doing in the spring that allowed him to consistently keep his sinker at the bottom of the zone.
• Yunel Escobar might be the best RBI producer in baseball with fewer than 25 homers (he drove in a career high 5 on Monday).
• Melky Cabrera was the only Braves starter without a hit (0-5 with a walk).
• Peter Moylan’s changeup is having the desired effect on left-handed hitters… outs.
• Billy Wagner was throwing 97mph with relative ease, and opposing hitters looked as helpless against him as ever.
• The Back end of the Braves’ bullpen, as a whole, looks SICK (in a good way). Absolutely dominant on Monday.

So that’s just the start of it, but how do you feel after Opening Day?  Here’s to hoping we can crack the scoreboard tomorrow.

Don’t get me wrong – I like the guy – but I am glad he’s not hacking away for our team as we’re trying to take a crucial series from the Mets. This first few series after the All-Star Break are important. This one, particularly so. After a polite and well-deserved ovation, Francoeur hit into a double play on the first pitch – vintage Francoeur. There’s a microcosm of his career with the Braves – we love him, but he hacks and gets out. He went 0-4 on the night.

The real story is Chipper’s continued dominance of the Mets – he poked a go-ahead RBI single through the infield to give the Braves a lead they wouldn’t give back. Lowe pitched an excellent game, the bullpen was great, and the Braves took home the first game of the series.

Now it’s time to do it again – we need to take this series!

Braves vs. Yankees - 06/23/2009

Sparked by a 3-run third inning with a 2-RBI double from Garret Anderson and a solo home run from Brian McCann in the 8th, the Braves shut down the Yankees 4-0, issuing only 4 hits.

The game wasn’t without tense moments however, with Tommy Hanson and Peter Moylan both working out of some jams with runners in scoring position.  Let’s hope this is a good sign for the Braves when the Yankees series continues tomorrow and we can put together a much-needed win streak.

While the Braves’ offense faced Johan Santana, Lowe went to the mound in the brand new Citi Field to ensure the Mets continued the trend of offering Santana little or no run support. Santana, for his part, was very good – he held the Braves to seven hits and two unearned runs in 6 1/3 innings. But the Braves’ offense backed Lowe’s great start with enough productivity to take advantage of the Mets’ errors. What was a tie game turned into an 8-3 win for the Braves – and Lowe improved to 5-1 on the year.

Santana has had some bad luck against the Braves. Despite being arguably the best pitcher in baseball, he’s 0-4 against the Braves in six starts (Braves have won 5 out of 6). The Mets are paying Santana a LOT of money and though he’s been effective, he’s not walking off with the win against the Bravos. After yesterday’s outing, Santana’s ERA is a ridiculous 0.78, by the way. Interesting tidbit: The Braves are the only team in baseball Santana has faced without winning.

This is why Derek Lowe is the ace of the staff – he’s a big game pitcher. “I love facing guys like that – especially Santana,” Lowe said, “He’s going to beat you more than you beat him. But it’s fun to pitch in those games, when every pitch could be the game.”

Interestingly enough, Lowe offered some high praise after the game for Jair Jurrjens. “We have our best pitcher going tomorrow,” Lowe said – referring to the young Curacao native. I’ll also point out that New York’s beloved “Larrrry” was sitting out of last night’s game.

Star of the road trip: The Braves are 5-1 on this 8 game road trip so far, and you have to pin a lot of it on Casey Kotchman, who has 10 RBI in the past 5 games. Kotchman is hitting the ball well and showing us why the Braves thought he’d be a good fit at first base.

But let’s be honest, if your bullpen gives up six runs (5 in the 9th inning), chances are you’re sunk, no matter what happened in the first five innings. Rafael Soriano and Eric O’Flaherty were the only good spots for the Braves – Soriano pitched a perfect 8th inning and O’Flaherty struck out his only charge. Peter Moylan struggled (needed to get that ERA back above 20.00), Blaine Boyer couldn’t find the plate (seriously – he had no clue where it was) and Jorge Campillo had to come in and close the game out in the bottom of the 9th. If we were the Yankees, we’d have sent in Nick Swisher to pitch at that point.

In the end, we lost 10-4. Not even close. The bullpen’s gotta work these jitters out – last year I got so sick of one run games – this year I am going to get mad even faster if we continue to give up six runs every time our bullpen shows up. An ERA of 7.00 from our bullpen is hardly anywhere near acceptable.

Oh, and by the way – if you’re heading out to the game – grab a few layers. It gets downright COLD at night with the wind blowing.

Glavine’s MRI came back to reveal an inflamed rotator cuff. And yes, it may be about time to stick a fork in him – he may be done. The Braves are reporting that Glavine is frustrated with the rehab process and is considering retirement. Frankly, if we’re paying him this year, I don’t want him to give up and retire in a couple weeks. I want him to fight back as long as he can. I’m torn on this – I really don’t WANT Glavine back in anything but fully effective as a starter (with his historic first inning woes, I don’t want him in a relief role).

I’m not really sure what I want to happen with Glavine – I don’t want him back unhealthy and I don’t want him stuck in rehab forever – I really wish we just hadn’t signed him when we did. Couldn’t we have spent that money towards Smoltzie? I’m just bitter about the whole thing. Why sign Glav when we don’t know he’ll pitch? I’m not just an armchair GM, I’m a bitter armchair GM. What are your thoughts on the situation?

First point of discussion: should the Braves have expected to sweep the Nationals? Or is it more a taste of what is to come for the remainder of the season? Are we just getting warmed up, or are we the type of team that just squeaks on by? Or did we more than squeak by?

Second point: should we keep our lineup the way that it is? During games, I do regular score-keeping. I scored the Friday and Saturday games and noticed that at a certain point in the batting order, we tend to leave runners on base. Francoeur did a wonderful job today showing us what we used to love about him – two triples, but let’s look at the big picture. Yes, he hit that homer in Philadelphia, but Frenchy’s OBP is only 0.269, and on Saturday, he was 0-4 with a walk.

Matt Diaz is more impressive than we’re giving him credit for. He’s not turning out incredible stats, but keep your eyes on him. He has a higher on base percentage than Francoeur, and has dropped some of those extra pounds so is showing a lot more speed. Jordan Schafer is living up to his hype and was beyond impressive on Saturday night in my book. Anyone complaining about his strikeouts better not claim that makes him inferior to his predecessor, Andruw Jones, or less of a young attribute than Jeff Francoeur. So far, the Braves’ weak spots are not what anyone would have expected. Statistically speaking, Francoeur, McCann, and Kotchman are where we see those LOB stats add up, with the lowest on-base percentages. Do we break that up, move it around, keep it, change it? Or is it too early to tell?

As an armchair GM, what changes would you propose? Would you change the lineup? Where are we falling short? What should we be noticing but aren’t praising?

This was a disgusting loss. Sickening. It was all I could do not to throw the remote through the living room window. Part of me feels that Blaine Boyer and Jorge Campillo should take turns beating the #$@%^ out of each other just to make peace with the universe after that pathetic display. (Moylan must be forgiven, under the circumstances. It was, after all, his very first appearance since undergoing Tommy John surgery).

That’s the bad news.

But despite the physical illness all Braves fans no doubt share after Wednesday’s bullpen meltdown, there is good news to report after this opening series. A LOT of good news, actually.

Here are some things Braves fans can take away from this opening series in Phili:

• Derek Lowe looks like he’s up for the challenge of being the new Atlanta “Ace”.
• Jair Jurrjens was very good in his start, and Javier Vazquez was solid against a tough lineup in a hitter’s park. 
• Though he got off to shaky start, Mike Gonzalez settled in and closed the door in game one. He then breezed his way through hitters in game two. And Rafeal Soriano was excellent in his first appearance of the season on Tuesday. Back end of the pen looks solid. 
• Brian McCann appears to be locked in, and could be headed toward a big season. 
• Chipper Jones looks like he’s ready to make good on his promise to hit a few more into the seats this year (that is, when he’s in the lineup). 
• How about that KID?!! There’s a long way to go, but Jordan Schafer has given us reason to think he might turn out to be a legitimate Rookie of the Year Award candidate. 
• Yunel Escobar (who may have been robbed of a homerun on Tuesday) is showing some nice pop in his bat early. 
• Jeff Francoeur’s game-one homer, and solid RBI single up the middle on Wednesday provide further evidence that he’s back on track. 

The Braves’ offensive depth and balance was on display, proving that there are no coffee breaks in this lineup for opposing pitchers. Every single member of this lineup is a quality, professional hitter – with at least moderate power – who can hurt you. I’m not sure there’s another lineup in the league that can say the same.

And oh yeah… I suppose it is good news that the Braves did, after all, win the series on the road, even if they did throw away a sweep that was all but in their pocket.

And there’s more good news for the Braves… in the form of bad news for the Phillies. It is quite clear that the defending champs have starting pitching problems. There is a lack of depth in the Philadelphia rotation that will go from apparent to neon-lights if Cole Hamels misses any more time this season.

But the Phils aren’t alone. There is also some doubt surrounding the depth and quality of the New York Mets’ rotation, after Johan Santana. Doubts that Mets’ #2 starter, Mike Pelfrey, did nothing to alleviate Wednesday night with a lackluster performance in Cincinnati.

There are no perfect teams in the NL East. Each team has potential problems areas. Many expected offense to be a weak link in Atlanta’s game. But after getting a live look at this Braves lineup; after seeing the kinds of swings Jeff Francoeur is putting on the ball; after seeing the kind of talent (offensive and defensive) they now have roaming Center Field; and after seeing the depth and balance of this lineup… I’m not buying the notion that Atlanta is offensively challenged. I think this lineup is going to be a strength for the Braves. And decidedly so.

The offense looks good. The back end of the bullpen looks good. And unlike their two most talked about division rivals, the Braves appear rich – or at least reasonably well off – when it comes to starting pitching. That leaves middle-relief as the only apparent pothole on the post-season highway.

My point is this: If the Braves do indeed have a middle-relief problem… then they have a better problem than the one potentially facing the Mets and/or Phillies.

A middle-relief sized crack in the hull is a helluva lot easier to repair than a starting pitching sized gorge. And the Braves certainly have the trading chips, should they find it necessary to bolster the middle of their ‘pen. Also, it should be noted that, in addition to the Mets’ starting pitching challenges, they too have unanswered questions where their middle-relief is concerned. 

In short, despite a game-three finish that drove me into a frenzied fit of profanity reminiscent of the furnace-fighting scene in A Christmas Story, I’ve seen enough to earnestly say… “I like the Braves chances this year.”

How about you? Good news? Bad news? Whaddya think of this team after watching them play the champs up in Philly?

Derek Lowe Is Solid

He’s not going to wow us every night with heaters – he’s not the typical power pitcher ace most people think of – but he’s a very solid, methodical pitcher who is going to give us quality start after quality start. And when he’s on – like he was last night – he can be very, very good.

Francoeur Will Be Back

You saw Francoeur’s line drive home run last night – he’s going to hit the ball hard night after night this year. Once he gets more used to his stance, we’ll see more power forthcoming – but I’ll take the Francoeur we saw last night. That said, he needs to work on his throw from the right field corner to third. He’s got a reputation to keep.

Jordan Schafer Is Fast

Did you see how fast he cleared the bases after his homerun? What about when he almost ran over Kelly Johnson who was taking a couple steps back to field a fly ball in short right center? The guy has legs. What a night for his first game – a single, an intentional walk and finally a strikeout that made him look silly. I think we’ll see some good stuff from Jordan this year – I’m certainly looking forward to it.

The Braves Looked Good

Lowe pitched well. Schafer showed us a little bit of what he can do. Francoeur looks good. But let’s not forget Chipper – who did what Chipper does – stroking balls comfortably the other way. Yunel almost knocked a homer of his own. Kotchman showed us some defense. McCann crushed a ball that almost landed in another state. Gonzo came out of the bullpen with (a little too much) energy – but once he gets that under control he’ll be the dominant closer he is. When all was said and done, Lowe had an 8 inning, two-hit performance and the Braves beat the Phillies 4-1.

For the first time this season, New York Mets fans cheered for the Braves. And when the Mets played today, Braves fans cheered for the Reds. It’s baseball season, folks. It’s back, and so are the Braves. Now we just have to prove that to the rest of the baseball.

Trailing 3-0 in the top of the fifth, the Braves proceeded to put 3 unearned runs on the board to tie up the game.  Future first baseman prospect, Freddie Freeman, brought two runs in with a two-out single and Brian McCann also added an RBI in the inning, plating Jordan Schafer.  Jordan also cracked the board later in the game with a leadoff home run in the top of the seventh.

Everyone anxious to see Jeff Francoeur at the plate today will still have to wait to see some performance out of him.  Jeff went 0-for-4, but it’s only the first game.  Most will say you can’t count on much that happened today to be telling as to how the season will go.  These early Spring Training games are where we really should be looking toward the young guys and seeing what they can do.

The Braves open up their home Grapefruit League season at Wide World of Sports tomorrow against the Astros at 1:05pm EST.  Jorge Campillo will take the hill for the Braves, making his campaign for a long relief spot in the bullpen.  Catch the game on ESPN.  So one Spring Training game closer to the season, what’s the good news of the day?

Here are some notes:

• Charlie Morton gave up a grand slam, but got a no-decision despite giving up six runs in six innings in a little bit of a rough outing.  He’s looking promising as a young pitcher in the organization, though.
• Six Braves relievers pitched 11 innings of scoreless baseball.  Bravo!
• Yunel Escobar made an amazing diving grab in the 15th.
• Two injuries occurred that led to DL time – Manny Acosta and Omar Infante tweaked their hamstrings running the bases and will see DL time.
• The Braves also placed Jeff Bennett on the 15 day DL after he partially dislocated his shoudler yesterday in the Braves’ 6-1 loss.
• The Braves expect to recall two pitchers and one utility player to fill out the rosters.
• Sources say the Brewers have traded for C.C. Sabathia in exchange for minor leaguers.  This should make for some interesting central division baseball.

Braves 7, Astros 6.  Good to see the Braves hang in there like that and show some character.  Maybe good things are coming down the chute for the Braves.  Next up – long road trip!  We’ll be around more now that it’s not July 4 weekend.

Mark Teixeira is absolutely on fire right now – he opened up the game with a two run home run before Jurrjens even went out to the mound the first time.  He added another RBI in the third inning as he knocked Gregor Blanco in on a double.  Blanco added an RBI of his own in the seventh.

Jeff Francoeur continues to struggle – striking out to end the top of the 8th and leaving two men on base.  He was 0-4.  We’ll hope Frenchy an pull through here soon.  Good to see some solid defense on the Braves tonight – Jones laid out for a nice grab in left field, and Mark Teixeira made a couple nice plays at first.

Mike Gonzalez came on to close the game out in the ninth – and he looked good.  Working quickly, Gonzalez retired the side and the Braves walked away from Toronto with a win.  Jurrjens got the win and is now 8-3 on the season. 4-0 Braves.

Let’s hope we can build on it tomorrow!