Jurrjens Looks For Redemption

Written by Jonathan on April 22, 2009 – 6:06 pm

Jair Jurrjens finally found his stride against the Pirates Friday night.  After struggling with control for his first two starts of the season, Jurrjens threw a great outing, going 6 2/3 innings and only giving up one run.  Unfortunately for Jair, the Braves failed to put a run on the board and he was stuck with the loss.  Jurrjens comes into tonight’s game with a 2-1 record and a 2.04 ERA.  He will face off against a struggling John Lannan, who has posted an 0-2 record with a 6.46 ERA so far this season.

The Braves are looking for a much needed win tonight after dropping two straight to the Washington Nationals and 7 of their last 8 games.  Stay with us for in game updates.

Braves: 1 Nationals: 0
Bot 9th: Soriano in to close. Dukes strikes out. Willingham pops out to left. Belliard strikes out. Braves win, 1-0. Tough break for Jurrjens however.
Top 9th: Diaz singles with one-out. Kotchman hits into a fielder’s choice. Schafer walks. Infante in to run for Kotchman. Hinckley on to pitch. Prado walks. Kelly Johnson draws a bases loaded walk. 1-0 Braves. Julian Tavarez strikes Escobar out on 3 pitches.
Bot 8th: Zimmerman draws a two-out walk and Jurrjens is done. That’s 14 1/3 straight innings of work for him without one run of support from the offense. Gonzalez on to pitch. Strikeout to Adam Dunn. No decision for Jurrjens.
Top 8th: Garrett Mock in to pitch for the Nats. 1-2-3 for the Braves in the inning.
Bot 7th: Willingham doubles to lead off the inning. Sac bunt moves him to third. Two solid outs by the defense saves a run.
Top 7th: 0-0 game at the stretch. Second start in a row for Jurrjens to pitch a great game and just not getting the offensive backing.
Bot 6th: One LOB for the Nats. No runs.
Top 6th: Braves put a runner on base but no scoring. No run support for Jurrjens again.
Bot 5th: Dukes singles to center to lead off the inning. Nats put two on base but a double play ends the inning.
Top 5th: Top of the Braves lineup down 1-2-3.
Bot 4th: Zimmerman leads of the inning with a double down the left field line. Dunn grounds out and moves Zimmerman to third. Defense manages to keep the run from scoring.
Top 4th: Leadoff single for Brian McCann. Francoeur hits into a fielder’s choice. Kotchman with a two-out double into left. Francoeur to third. Intentional walk to Schafer to load the bases. Jurrjens strikes out to end the threat.
Bot 3rd: Jurrjens responds with a 6-pitch 1-2-3 inning of his own.
Top 3rd: 1-2-3 inning for John Lannan.
Bot 2nd: Dukes strikes out looking. Willingham walks. Belliard grounds into a fielder’s choice and advances to second on a throwing error by Yunel. Stranded there however.
Top 2nd: Leadoff single for Jeff Francoeur. Kotchman draws a one-out walk. Schafer comes a foot short of a home run, but moves Francoeur over to third. Jurrjens grounds out to third. Once again, we need to plate leadoff base runners.
Bot 1st: Nick Johnson with a one-out single. A couple of easy outs and Jurrjens is out of the inning.
Top 1st: Kelly Johnson leads off the game with a single. Yunel grounds out, but advances KJ to second. Chipper strikes out looking. Slow grounder downs McCann. No production from the leadoff hit.

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Smoltz Goes For 3000

Written by Jonathan on April 22, 2008 – 5:40 pm

In the finale of a two-game series, the Braves (10-9) square off against the Nationals (5-15) who have struggled to find their offensive stride lately.  The real point of tonight’s game however is John Smoltz (3-0) who is currently at 2,996 career strikeouts after striking out 10 in his last outing.  With 4 more strikeouts, Smoltz will become only the 16th player to ever reach that mark.

Other items of note for tonight’s game:  The Braves are on a five-game win streak in which they have outscored their opponents 31-6.  John Lannan (0-2) will be taking the mound for the Nationals.  Nothing is really important tonight outside of Smoltz’s shot at history.  Is tonight the night?  His photo graces the season tickets for tonight’s game; it must be so.


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Smoltz Smokes Nats

Written by Smitty on April 12, 2008 – 6:29 pm

Dear Mr. Smoltz,

Thank you so much for your good work on Saturday, April 12th. Can you please keep this up all year? We would all appreciate it.

Sincerely,

The Writers and Staff at BravesBlast.com

Coming off of their much needed victory last night, the Braves dove right in to claim another from the Nationals at Washington today. An initial 91-minute rain delay did nothing to soggy the Braves offense.

In fact, they wasted no time at all scoring four runs in the first inning, with a little help from Jeff Francoeur knocking the first of his two homeruns for the day. When all was said and done, the kid From Parkview had a career-best seven RBI’s. You know things are going well when all nine starters bat in the first inning.

Francoeur’s second homer came in the sixth, with one runner on base. Not to be outdone by his childhood friend, Francoeur’s high-fives hadn’t ended when Brian McCann knocked a single shot some 400 feet.

Smoltz had a (for him) shaky first inning, goofing a throw to first and throwing a semi-wild pitch. But after regaining his classic composure, it was nothing but the Smoltz we know and love. Resourceful, professional, and keenly intelligent. I truly don’t think we Braves fans know how good they have it having a stabilizing and consistent force of nature like Smoltz in the line-up. Plus, it was pretty evident his shoulder was bothering him the entire game.

His line for the day? 6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 5 K. The one earned run attributed to Smoltz came in the 4th.

The Nats starter, Scott Lannan lasted through the 4th and the Braves went through three of their relievers by game’s end.

Finally, I am starting to feel good about our bullpen! With very respectable outings by Bennett and Boyer, Manny Acosta zipped it up in the 9th. The one stinker in all this, and the one guy I have truly been pulling for, was Ohman. Lasting less than an inning, he really didn’t do anything to counter the criticism Frank Wren took for acquiring him from Chicago.

So, yeah. Excellent series so far. Can you smell a sweep?

________________________________________________________________________________

Smitty’s Random Notes:
(A stream of consciousness recall of unrelated observations for the short-of-attention span)

» Sorry, Willie Harris, but I totally don’t miss you.

» Tough-guy Hustle Award goes to Matt Diaz for his aggressive and heads-up base-running.

» Still looking for Teixeira’s bat to wake up. The defense is there; let’s get something going at the plate.

» I still believe in you Ohman. I want to believe.


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Smoltz Looks To Stay Undefeated

Written by Jonathan on April 12, 2008 – 1:02 pm

John Smoltz (1-0, 0.00) and the Braves (4-6) face off against John Lannan (0-0, 2.70) and the Nationals (3-8) in a Saturday afternoon matchup.  Smoltz made his first start of the season last Sunday against Johan Santana of the Mets.  He threw 5 innings of scoreless baseball to make a good first start off of the disabled list. with 6 strikeouts  However, he left after 5 innings with the continued soreness in his shoulder and neck.  Hopefully that won’t continue to be a problem for him today.

It’s raining at the stadium right now, so it looks like the game’ll be delayed a little bit, but it sounds like the rain is lightening up now.  Hopefully when we get started here, the Braves can continue what Hudson started last night, throwing 8 innings of scoreless, 3-hit baseball.  Is it time for the Braves to make it two in a row and get one step closer to a .500 record?


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Posted in Game Threads | 151 Comments »

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