Friday, June 10, 2011

The brooms came out...

The Atlanta Braves (35-28) finished off division rival Florida Marlins (31-30) to move into second place in the NL East by three games over Florida. The Braves are moving on up as they are only two games behind first place Philadelphia Phillies (37-26). Without left fielder Martin Prado (injured after taking a ball off his knee while stealing second Wednesday night), the Braves are winning games behind their pitching. Jair Jurrjens took the mound last night and earned his eighth win of the season, to only two losses. He finished seven strong inning giving up six hits and two runs. He also improved on his ERA lowering it to 1.82, best on team. Opponents are only hitting .137 against him this year.

Not only did Jurrjens help on the mound, he contributed at the plate as well. His RBI single lifted the Braves to a 3-0 lead in the top half of the seventh off Chris Volstad, who had a no-hitter going into the sixth inning.

With games getting deeper into the season, hopefully the bats are beginning to wake up, and the runs will follow. Hopefully Prado's knee bruise will heal and he will be back into the starting lineup soon. Prado is the type of player that doesn't care where he plays, he just wants to be on the field somewhere. This year he starts in left field, and backs up at third base behind Chipper Jones. If skipper Freddi Gonzalez asks Prado to play anywhere, he would with a smile, probably even pitcher.

Braves are 4-2 on the current road trip, and wrap up the trip in Houston against the Astros. Gametime tonight set for 8:05pm.



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