Braves get a Win... AT HOME!

They have been few and far between this year, but we took our Major League worst home record out to the park on Tuesday and picked up a rare win. With the news from the trainer's room that Horacio Ramirez will likely miss the entire season with his latest injury, it was imperative that we get another starter besides John Smoltz pitching well. Tim Hudson finally answered the call after nine horrid outings and blanked the Phillies for seven strong innings.

Hudson allowed just six hits and two walks while striking out eight batters. It was his second highest strikeout total of the year and the first time since his May 21st start that he didn't allow any runs. His pitches had plenty of movement on them, sometimes too much movement running away from the plate. But he was able to harness enough of the old Tim Hudson to make us remember why he gets paid the big bucks.

Our newly rebuilt bullpen had a scary moment in the eighth inning when Danys Baez, after a masterful strikeout of Jimmy Rollins, then walked the bases loaded. Our new lefty bullpener, Wayne Franklin, then allowed a near grand slam off the bat of David Dellucci that sent Andruw Jones to the track in center field. It turned out to be a noisy sacrifice fly, and Tyler Yates came on to strike out the next batter and preserve the lead. Bob Wickman came on in the ninth and did what he does, registering his sixth save in six opportunities since coming over from Cleveland.

The first run for the Braves was scored the "Bobby Cox way," on a suicide squeeze bunt by Tim Hudson in the fifth inning. We added two more runs in the seventh on a Matt Diaz sac fly and a Scott Thorman double which scored Brian McCann, who had earlier doubled. McCann once again had two hits on the night, his 31st multi-hit game of the year. By my calculations McCann needs to make up about 32 at-bats to qualify for the batting title, which should be doable barring any injuries the rest of the way.

Marcus Giles also continued his hot hitting with another two-hit night. He is now hitting .441 this month after hitting .324 last month. At this pace he will be close to .300 by the end of the year. Overall, it was good to see the Braves piece together some runs and get the win... at home.

Box Score >>

Philadelphia 1, Atlanta 3 at Turner Field
Philadelphia Record: (54-58)
Atlanta Record: (52-60)

Winning pitcher - Tim Hudson (9-10)
Losing pitcher - Cole Hamels (4-6)
SV - Bob Wickman (21)