I could spend this whole recap ranting about Melky Cabrera, spewing obscenities about why he didn't take care of himself while in Atlanta and is suddenly having a good season offensively and taunted the fans (and players) unashamedly throughout the series, but I won't. Sorry if you're disappointed. Oh, by the way, each game in the series was a multi-hit game for him; that makes four in a row.
The Giants outscored the Braves 20-7 in the series. That's a bit surprising seeing as the Giants were near the bottom of the NL in runs scored before the series.
Atlanta's offense looked lousy in the first game on Tuesday against Barry Zito. Ever since he lost his first start against the Braves while with Oakland, each of his next five starts facing them have been in Atlanta for the Giants and he's 4-0 with a 1.64 ERA at Turner Field.
Jair Jurrjens, on the other hand, took a step back. He had pitched well in his previous four starts, but got beat up for eight runs without surviving the fourth inning. He'll certainly need to improve for his next start against Washington.
Wednesday's extra-inning contest was brutal. Mike Minor matched Ryan Vogelsong, each of them allowing a solo home run in six innings with seven strikeouts. Once the game went to extras, the game really got ugly. Brian McCann hit a game-tying home run to force an 11th inning, but that's when the [excrement] hit the fan. Chad Durbin gave up a pair of three-run homers, but was only charged with one earned run; that being the Brandon Crawford shot that happened right after he fouled a pitch squarely off his right knee. It was one of those games that makes you feel sick.
Tim Hudson, though, proved to be the stopper. He pitched brilliantly in helping the Braves avoid a sweep. He's got an impressive streak going, as the win was his fifth straight over the Giants.
Of the seven runs, Atlanta scored in the series, six scored via home run. Brian McCann, Freddie Freeman, and David Ross all kept their hitting streaks alive in the series; McCann and Ross now have nine-game hitting streaks while Freeman sports a 10-game streak.
Chipper Jones tied George Brett's record for RBI by a third baseman with a home run in Wednesday's loss. If he is to break the record, he'll likely have to do it away from Atlanta, which is a shame. I'd have loved it if he had broken the record in front of his home fans.
The plight of Dan Uggla continues: he has just four hits in 12 games this month and was hitless in the series, taking the golden sombrero in Wednesday's game. His last multi-hit game was the two-homer game he had in Miami June 5. At that time, he was hitting .276; in the 34 he's played since then, he's hitting just .108 (12 for 111) with 46 strikeouts and just nine RBI to drop his average to .216.
Despite losing two of three, the Braves have still won eight of 10.
UP NEXT
The Braves play four in DC this weekend with a doubleheader Saturday.