Patience was the name of the game for Atlanta tonight, as the Braves worked Ricky Nolasco for five walks and 105 pitches then waited out an almost two-hour long rain delay to beat the Marlins 6-1.
Kris Medlen's first start began a little rough, as Donnie Murphy crushed a fastball on the outside corner into the seats in right field to give the Marlins an early 1-0 lead.
That would be the only runs scored against Medlen tonight, as he allowed just two hits in his final four innings while striking out three and walking one. Really impressive job by Medlen in his return to a starting role.
Atlanta stormed back in the bottom of the first against Nolasco to take a 3-1 lead. Back-to-back singles from Martin Prado and Jason Heyward put runners on first and second, and they advanced to second and third thanks to a Nolasco balk. Brian McCann followed with a grounder to first, scoring Prado, and advancing Heyward to third.
Walks by Freddie Freeman and Brian McCann loaded the bases with two outs for Juan Francisco. Francisco came through with a single to right, plating both Heyward and Freeman to give the Braves that 3-1 lead.
McCann continued his success against Nolasco in the fourth, as he homered to right field to up the Braves' advantage to 4-1. The blast was McCann's 18th of the season.
The Braves' grounds crew came out to remove the tarp multiple times, but more rain at those very moments prevented that until around 10:25.
After the delay, the Braves added two more runs in the sixth inning off of reliever Dan Jennings. After recent call-up Cory Gearrin pitched a scoreless top of the sixth, Tyler Pastornicky homered to start the bottom of inning and up the advantage to 5-1.
A single and an error put runners on first and second for Heyward, who laced a liner up the middle that brought home Bourn.
With a 6-1 advantage, Atlanta added one more in the eighth inning against Ryan Webb. McCann doubled to left-center, and then scored on a single to left from Freeman that made it a 7-1 game.
Jair Jurrjens pitched a scoreless ninth to close out the game, in what seemed awkward to watch for me.