Consistency...

The Atlanta Braves opened a seven game home stand, beginning tonight as they hosted the Baltimore Orioles at the Ted. Coming into tonight's game, the Braves had won eight of the last 10 games, well, make it nine out of 11. In the last six games, the Braves starting pitching has been consistent, actually more like dominant. The Braves era over those games has been 1.38. That's nearly unstoppable. Tonight's starting pitcher, Jair Jurrjens, was just that. He had a no hit bid going into the seventh inning until Baltimore's Adam Jones singled up the middle. And only two other batters for the Orioles reached base, one on a walk, and the other on a fielder's choice. Jurrjens improved his record to 11-3, while lowering his era to 1.89 in tonight's 4-0 shutout win. He is also getting strong consideration to start for the NL in the mid summer classic next month in Arizona.

The hitting is coming around as well. I mentioned in an earlier story that if the hitting comes around, with how strong the pitching is, this team can go along way. Third baseman Chipper Jones had an RBI single, driving in center fielder  Jordan Schafer. Right fielder Jason Heyward also blasted a homer to deep straight away centerfield. His first HR since April 29.

So here we go Braves and Braves fans. Braves improved to 48-35, but are still four games behind first place Philadelphia Phillies. Philly (52-31) won tonight's game against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The Braves of old are showing up to play ball. And hopefully I want have to change my tone on how they are playing for a long while.