Just like most of you, I've watched a lot of Atlanta Braves baseball over the years. Throughout the 14 straight division titles and the one World Series title, there have been plenty of incredible moments involving this franchise.
What we saw tonight, with B.J. Upton hitting the game tying home run in the bottom of the ninth and younger brother Justin Upton hitting the walk-off home run two batters later to win the game is now up there among any of those moments as one of my favorites to have watched happen.
Up 5-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth, Chicago brought in troubled closer Carlos Marmol to attempt to close things out. B.J Upton led off, and after working into a 3-1 count, got a fastball down the middle and drilled it to dead center field to tie things up at five apiece. After a Jason Heyward fly out to left, Marmol had to deal with the younger Upton with one out.
After a ball, a called strike, and a foul ball, Justin connected on a 1-2 fastball, sending it over the center field fence to give the Braves a 6-5 victory and one of the best finishes in recent memory.
Early on, Chicago took advantage of Atlanta starter Julio Teheran, scoring all five of its runs against the rookie right-hander during his five innings of work. David DeJesus doubled off Teheran to start the game and came around to score on a single from right field Nate Schierholtz to make it a 1-0 game early.
Justin Upton kept up his hot hitting by launched his fourth home run of the season to dead center field to tie the game at one. Upton is the second Braves to homer in four of the first five games of the season, joining only Dale Murphy in 1985 as the only Brave to accomplish the feat.
With one out in the fourth inning, Luis Valbuena popped a solo home run down the right field line to make it a 2-1 game. The Cubs added three more in the fifth inning on a Anthony Rizzo two-run homer and a RBI single from Welingto Castillo that made it a 5-1 game.
The Braves plated three runs off of Kyuji Fujikawa in the bottom of the eighth to get to the 5-4 point. Justin Upton led off with a double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Freddie Freeman followed with a single to right to drive in Upton and make it a 5-2 game.
After a Dan Uggla single put runners on first and second, Gerald Laird walked two batters later to load the bases for Ramiro Pena. Pena, who was 0-3 at the time, smoked a line drive back up the middle that drove in Freeman and Uggla to make it a 5-4 game. Cristhian Martinez, Anthony Varvaro, Cory Gearrin, and Eric O' Flaherty combined to give Atlanta four scoreless innings in relief.