Lots of bad pitching led to a bunch of losses tonight. Only Rome put up a fight offensively but they got the worst pitching of the night. Surprisingly the only player not to collect a hit for Rome was Christian Bethancourt. J.J. Hoover did have a nice outing for Mississippi but his bullpen and the offense blew it for him. 

Durham Bulls 8, Gwinnett Braves 1

• Matt Young CF - 1-3, BB, K, .277 Avg
• Nate McLouth LF - 0-0, BB
• Stefan Gartrell RF - 1-4, RBI, 2 K, .275 Avg

This was just a bad all around game for Gwinnett. They got out to an early lead but Eric Cordier couldn't make it out of the fourth inning and the offense was woefully inadequate. They collected just three hits for the game and struck out 14 times. The loss drops the Braves to a game behind the Bulls in the division.

Todd "The Forgotten Man" Redmond takes the hill against the Durham to try and move into a tie for the division lead. 

Mississippi Braves 3, Jacksonville Suns 4

• Mycal Jones CF - 1-3, 2B, 2 BB, .239 Avg
• Donell Linares 3B - 3-5, RBI, .274 Avg
• Ernesto Mejia 1B - 2-5, HR(9), 2 RBI, K, .274 Avg
• J.J. Hoover 6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 8 K, 2.79 ERA

Hoover made his second straight good start, but unfortunately his bullpen couldn't hold the lead for him. Myke Jones had a nice night from the lead-off spot and has shown some signs of life recently collecting his first extra base hits in a couple of weeks. Another guy that no one is talking about is Matt Kennelly. He's a guy I had pretty much written off offensively after he never posted an OPS higher than .650 in a full length season. His defense has always been solid, but the bat has never caught up. Well now he has a .750 OPS at AA and has shown the ability to get on base at a decent clip. He is just 22 years old (as a 16 year old Australian signee he h as been around for a while) and I wouldn't be surprised to see him playing backup in Atlanta after Ross is gone.

 Paul Clemens will try tp put an end to the Braves three game losing streak.

Kinston Indians 9, Lynchburg Hillcats 0

• Andrelton Simmons SS - 2-4, K, .302 Avg
• Adam Milligan LF - 1-4, 2B, .276 Avg

Pretty much the same going on in this game that went on in the Gwinnett game, but with some bad defense thrown in to boot! Simmons continues to collect hits and over half of Adam Milligan's hits have gone for extra bases this season.  

Dimaster Delgado will attempt to lead the Hillcats to a win against the Indians.

Lexington Legends 14, Rome Braves 10 - 10 Innings

• Robert Hefflinger LF - 3-4, 2 2B, RBI, .286 Avg
• Jakob Dalfonso 1B - 3-5, RBI, BB, .294 Avg
• David Rohm RF - 3-5, 2 RBI, .246 Avg
• Evan Gattis DH - 2-5, HR(5), BB, K, .316 Avg

I know I said this last night but this may have been one of the craziest games of the year. Lexington got six runs in the first inning and Rome responded with one in the bottom and six of their own in the second. Lexington tied in the third and the Braves countered with one in the fourth and sixth. The Legends added another in the seventh and took the lead with two in the eighth but the Braves countered yet again and tied the game in the bottom of the inning only to lose it in the tenth.Evan Gattis has been hitting the ball well this season but he's 25 and in the Sally League. 

 Aaron Northcraft will attempt to build on his solid season tomorrow against the Legends.

DSL Tigers 0, DSL Braves 1 - 10 Innings

• Daniel Castro 2B - 2-4, 2B, BB, K, SB(1)
• Luis Madrid 3B - 2-3, 2B, BB
• Ibrahim McKenzie 1B - 1-4, 2B, K
• Elvin Garcia 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 6 K

I'm not really sure what is going on in the DSL today. All the stats are a mess (hence no AVG or ERA) and the Braves supposedly played two games but only one has a boxscore. I think one probably got rained out, but I figure if one did they both did. Either way this was a fairly normal game. Elvin Garcia pitched very well, but I would expect that from a 21 year old.