Saturday, May 12, 2007

Homerless no more, Braves win again.

Coming into the game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Atlanta Braves, after leading the National league in homeruns for majority of the first month of baseball, but we hadn't homered in the last eight games. But finally in the sixth inning we broke out of that slump, when Andruw Jones hit a deep two-run homerun to center and of course, seeing as how we haven't homered in over a week, we promptly went back-to-back when Jeff Francoeur hit a laser to left field.

Kyle Davies had another good start and he got his first win of the season. He went seven strong innings, giving up seven hits and only allowing one run. He did walk two batters while only striking out one, but no matter.

"My confidence is starting to get a little bit better and my pitching is a little bit better, and I think the two go hand in hand," said Davies, who hadn't won since beating Washington 6-1 on Sept. 18.

Tyler Yates came in on the 8th inning and pitched a scoreless inning striking out two Pirates. And then former Pirate, Mike Gonzalez came in for the ninth and was filthy, yet again. He struck out one batter in the inning and earned his second save in as many opportunities. Gonzo hasn't allowed a run in his last 14 appearances. I'll say it again, I love this Bullpen!

"I had to tone it down emotion-wise," Gonzalez said. "It's very different, facing these guys."

The fourth inning was very scary for Braves fans everywhere, when Chipper, just having hit a double, was advancing to third on a Francoeur groundball when he collided with Pirate's third baseman, Jose Bautista and was launched into the air at least a good two or three feet and landed hard on his both wrists, his left shoulder and his quad. Jones laid on third base for several minutes, in obvious discomfort, but stayed in the game to Cox's relief. And contributed a great deal both offensively and defensively.

"I thought I was going to have to take him out when I went out there," Cox said.

WP: Kyle Davies(1-1)
LP: Zach Duke(1-4)
SV: Mike Gonzalez(2)

HR: ATL- Andruw Jones(6) and Jeff Francoeur(6)

The Braves play the Pirates again tonight at 7:05 pm ET. We have Chuck James pitching and they have Tony Armas pitching. I like our chances.

Side Note: Bobby Cox moved into to a tie with with Sparky Anderson for fourth all-time in career victories with 2,194 wins.

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