The Braves were very close to sweeping this series from the road, but they'll have to settle for taking two out of three and being the first team to win a series in Cincinnati against the Reds all season.
Some notes and stats from the series:
- Andrelton Simmons had himself a huge series. In addition to his superb defensive play, he had a big trio of games with the bat. The shortstop went 8-13 with two home runs and two doubles while driving in four runs as well.
- Simmons' double play mate up the middle Dan Uggla also had a really productive series at the plate. He went 5-12 with three homeruns (two on Wednesday). His batting average is finally up over .200, and his wRC+ is now above the 100 (league average) mark at 110.
- Playing against a tough lineup in a hitters park, Atlanta got great work out of its starting pitchers Paul Maholm, Kris Medlen and Mike Minor. The trio combined for a line of 19.2 IP, 12 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 7 BB, and 19 K.
- Craig Kimbrel worked around two hits to record his 99th career save Monday night, but couldn't do the same on Tuesday. With the back-to-back home runs he allowed, he's now blown three saves after blowing three all of last season.
- Shin-Soo Choo only recorded three hits, but he made them count with two of them being home runs during Tuesday's Cincinnati win. Zack Cozart came in struggling at the plate, but recorded a hit in every game (five overall) including a double and a homerun.
- Evan Gattis' struggles at the plate continued. He went 1-11 with five strikeouts and no walks. He's taken two walks since April 14th, a span of 75 plate appearances. That has shown up in Gattis' on-base average, which sits at .294. He did however have a really great throw from left field Wednesday to nail Brandon Phillips at the plate.