I usually like doing the whole, "good, bad, and ugly" thing in these recaps, but to be perfectly honest, there wasn't much that was ugly or even bad. The Braves pitched well, the Braves hit well, and the Braves fielded well. Simply put, this team is playing their best baseball of the season. So here was all of the good from this week's sweep over the Brewers.
The Good:
Starting Pitching - Jair Jurrjens, Tim Hudson, Tommy Hanson, and Brandon Beachy combined to put up this line in their four starts: 28.2IP, 15H, 4ER, 4BB, 26K. That's incredible. The Brewers have three all-stars in their lineup (Weeks, Braun, Fielder) and guys like Carlos Gomez and Casey McGehee aren't slouches either. Keep up the good work.
Martin Prado's 8th Inning Home Run - Shaun Marcum had pretty much shut our bats down for the first seven innings. Martin worked the count to 3-1 and then blasted a solo-home run to left field that nearly went into the 2nd concourse of the outfield seats.
Craig Kimbrel's Dominance Returns - Two innings pitched, no hits, no runs, one walk, four strikeouts. I think he'll be just fine.
Nate McLouth's Doubleheader - The guy did not make an out. He was 5-for-5 with three walks and hit a monster 2-run home run off Brewers ace Zack Greinke to blow the game wide open. He makes our lineup that much better when he's producing in the 8th spot like he did on Wednesday.
Hitting w/ RISP - 13-for-36; Math was never my strongest subject, but something tells me that's pretty darn impressive. I'll take a .361 batting average the rest of the way without any complaints.
Dan Uggla - Maybe his stat line doesn't reflect it, but Dan Uggla murdered the baseball in this last series. Unfortunately for him, they were right at someone and they didn't fall for a hit. He'll come around soon; he's too good of a hitter not to.
Alex Gonzalez's Defense - He's a human highlight reel out there. Say what you will about his ability at the plate, the guy can flat out change a game with his stellar defense. And as we all saw in Thursday's game, the importance to having Gonzalez in the field is critical for this team to win.
Chipper Jones Keeps Hitting - The man is nearly 40-years old, but you would never know it watching him play. Whether it was him driving the ball to the outfield or making a diving catch at the hot corner, Chipper continued to be our most consistent player this season.
What's Next:
The Braves will travel north to face the NL East leading Philadelphia Phillies for three games. This series is pretty significant because the schedules change drastically for both teams in the next few weeks. Philly will no longer get to feast on the Mets, Astros, Padres, and Nationals and will starts facing some really good clubs (ATL, @ FLA, @ ATL, COL, TEX, CIN), while the Braves will get a much needed break in their schedule (@ PHI, WASH, PHI, HOU, @ ARI, @ LAA, @PIT). It'll be Derek Lowe against Cliff Lee in tonight's matchup.