Welcome Back, Kid: Hanson Dominates, Braves Win 4-1

Tommy Hanson was awesome on Saturday afternoon against a pretty good Marlins lineup. After being in the worst stretch of his professional career, Big Red came up big against the Fish. He threw 6 and 2/3s innings and should've gone longer, but an inconsistent strike zone raised his pitch count up a bit. He allowed only 1 un-earned run, and that was on a missed catch by Martin Prado in the 2nd inning. He struck out 8 hitters on the day and only walked 2, so Tommy had his full command back.

As mentioned above, Florida got on the board first on a botched catch from Prado. The Braves left quite a few runners on base in the first few innings (a trend that's starting to worry me a bit.), but finally broke through in the 4th inning for 4 runs. After Chipper walked and Brian McCann bunt-singled, Omar Infante delivered yet again in the clutch to tie the game up at 1-1. Yunel Escobar (YUNEL ESCOBAR!) then doubled to the right-center field gap to drive in McCann and move Infante over to 3rd. Gregor Blanco, who, in my opinion, is playing his way into the starting CF job against righties once Heyward comes back, came up big yet again with a line drive single to score Infante and Escobar. Braves led 4-1 heading into the 5th.

That was it for scoring in today's game. After Hanson excited in the 7th, Peter Moylan struck out superstar super whiney Hanley Ramirez on 3 straight pitches. Ramirez didn't even take the bat off his shoulder. Way to go, stud.

Takashi Saito allowed two hits in the 8th, but forced Ronny Paulino to promptly hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Billy Wagner, after blowing the save last night, was filthy in the 9th and recorded his 17th save of the season. Yunel Escobar made an incredible play to record the 3rd out of the inning. Be sure to check SportsCenter for the highlights.

Braves win 4-1.

MVP(s):

Tommy Hanson - 6.2IP, 5H, 1R, 0ER, 2BB, 8K

The Braves' 6-7-8 hitters (Infante, Esco and Blanco) - 4-for-9, 4RBI; Great stuff from them today. 

LVP(s):

Eric Hinske - 0-for-4, 1K, 4LOB; 'Ski is slumping. Dude is probably due for a game winning hit tomorrow.

Upcoming Game:

Final game of the 3-game series is tomorrow at 5:05EST. That's odd. It'll be Tim Hudson vs. Ricky Nolasco, which should be a terrific matchup. I'm really hoping Brian McCann gets the day off. Dude needs it.

The Mets lost (again!!!) to the Natinals in the 9th, so the Braves pick up a game on them to increase their lead to 3 games in the NL East. Keep it up Nats.

Go Braves!