Braves at Nationals, Game 1

Written by Jonathan on April 20, 2009 – 5:37 pm

Derek Lowe takes on the Nationals tonight as their #1 prospect Jordan Zimmermann takes the mound in his major league debut. The Braves have lost six in a row in Washington and need a series win after losing five of their last six this season. The Nationals have done some roster shuffling recently after a dismal 1-10 start to the season – so Braves fans, remember it could always be worse.

Brian McCann is out of the lineup tonight as he’s still experiencing some eye dryness. He may need lasik surgery before he can return – hopefully that’s not the case. Either way, good thing Dave Ross got healthy just in time for this. Fortunately Chipper should play tonight – the Braves are a much better team when opposing pitchers have to think about pitching around him.

The Braves need to step it up and take at least 2 out of 3 from the Nationals. They’re an easy team to take it from – and we need to be back on track soon so we don’t fall behind early in the season. Hopefully our bullpen is less sucky without Blaine Boyer.

Braves: 2 Nationals: 3
Top 9th: Kotchman walks and the Braves can do nothing with him. Nats win 3-2.
Bot 8th: Rafael Soriano on th pitch. Dunn doubles to lead off the inning. Willingham hit by a pitch. Soriano strikes out two to get out of a bases loaded jam.
Top 8th: Two outs in the half inning….rain delay. One pitch for the third out.
Bot 7th: Rain’s coming down again. Eric O’Flaherty on to pitch for the Braves. 1-2-3 inning for the bullpen. That’s refreshing.
Top 7th: Kip Wells on to pitch for the Nats. Schafer draws a two-out walk but doesn’t advance.
Bot 6th: Dukes with a one-out single. Willingham singles past Chipper. Dukes to third. Flores singles past short. 3-2 Nationals.
Top 6th: Quick 1-2-3 inning for Zimmermann.
Bot 5th: Hernandez walks. Johnson singles past short. Two on with one out. Zimmerman grounds into a double play to end the inning.
Top 5th: Ross walks to lead off the inning. Lowe pops up the bunt again and gets Ross and himself out on the double play.
Bot 4th: Johnson walks to lead off the inning. Zimmerman singles to right. Dunn with a sac fly to the track moves the runners up. Dukes singles to right. Johnson scores. 2-1 Braves. Dukes steals second and intentional pass to Willingham to load the bases. Flores sac fly. 2-2 Game.
Top 4th: Chipper triples down the right field line to lead off the inning. Kotchman pops out to short. Francoeur grounds out to second. Diaz turns on one for a two-run homer to left center. 2-0 Braves.
Bot 3rd: Rain’s starting to fall again. Flores singles to lead off. No further damage though.
Top 3rd: David Ross with a leadoff single. Sacrifice by Lowe fails and Lowe’s at first. Johnson singles to right. Double play ends the inning however. Nothing on the board.
Bot 2nd: Lowe gets his second strikeout of the evening while notching another 1-2-3 inning.
Top 2nd: Kotchman leads off with a double but is thrown out trying to take third on a passed ball. Francoeur strikes out but Diaz doubles to center. Left there by a Schafer flyout. Should have gotten a run out of that had Kotchman not caught the tough break.
Bot 1st: Lowe responds with 1-2-3 inning of his own.
Top 1st: Braves down 1-2-3 on 7 pitches.


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