The Braves and Dan Uggla took little time to get things going for the Braves, tonight. After going down in order in the first, Uggla crushed one of his trademark Uggla Smashes into the left centerfield seats to extend the streak and start the scoring for the Braves. Chipper and David Ross both followed up with singles to put men on the corners for Constanza. He was called out for going out of the baseline on a drag bunt, but drove in Chipper to give the Braves an early 2-0 lead.
Chicago tried to battle back in the third, as Jeff Baker doubled in the top of the third and advanced to third base on a Castro goundout. Reed Johnson sent him across the plate with a base hit to Prado to cut the Braves lead to 2-1. Chipper, however, wasted no time in grabbing a bit of history himself. His 1000th career extra base hit was a deep three run no-doubter to straightaway center to give the Braves a 5-1 lead.
The derby continued. In the fourth, Constanza followed up with a homer of his own to the opposite field that sent him around the bases in inside-the-park-home-run time. Freeman crushed one out in the following inning, that was then followed immediately by another Uggla Smash to bring the total to 8-1 in favor of the good guys. The back to back homers were followed by one of the most cowardly, uncalled for things I’ve ever seen on a baseball diamond. Zambrano threw two pitches directly at Larry Wayne Jones Jr. though both avoided his fragile knees. Zambrano’s ejection was accompanied by a nonchalant stroll into the visiting clubhouse, making his intentions of removing himself from the ballgame blatantly obvious.
Mike ran into some minor trouble in the sixth when he gave up two singles and a double to Alfonso Soriano that sent Prado into the wall and cut the Braves lead to 8-3. Martinez got the one out that he was assigned before the Braves drove in two more runs in the bottom half behind a Brooks Conrad pinch hit single and a Michael Bourn sac fly. The onslaught was relentless, and deservedly so for Carlos Zambrano.
Arodys Vizcaino pitched two scoreless innings and Anthony Varvaro gave up just a Starlin Castro solo shot to end the game at a score of 10-4. Mike Minor earned a very solid win, Dan Uggla extended his streak to 32 games behind two homers, Chipper Jones hit his 1000th extra base hit, and Braves Country honored the greatest man to ever manage the franchise. It was a pretty solid evening for the 50+ thousand that came out to Turner Field tonight.