Jo-Jo Reyes starts against former Atlanta Braves golden boy Odalis Perez -- interestingly they both are pretty shitty this year, though if you've watched some of Jo-Jo's starts you'll know that he should have a much better record than he has. He actually has some of the worst run support in the league -- 125th out of 132 starters in the NL  -- that's a measly 2.55 runs per start (save for the four starts that Jeff Bennett (2.16) made). Jurrjens (5.27) has the best run support of any Braves starter except for John Smoltz (6.33) and Tom Glavine (6.07).

The surgeon needed some RS last night as he seemed to have some rust on his arm from the break. Was it just me or did we have base runners and runners in scoring position in every inning only to ground out or line out or fly out or strike out or Francoeur out?

Here are the x-Braves Nationals players vs. us this season:

Willie Harris - .455 BA w/ 2 3B, 3 2B and 5 RBI
Ryan Langerhans - .571 BA w/ 1 3B, and 2 2B
Pete Orr - 1-for-2.... anyone who allows Pete Orr to get a hit is horrible
At least we've handled Johnny Estrada, who is just 3-for-20 against us

Oh, and Odalis Perez has a 1.80 ERA against us in five innings...

Playoffs?... what?

The Georgia DOT is doing construction on the north side of the connector, so if you're headed down to the game via 75 or 85 southbound you may want to allow an extra half-hour to an hour to get to the park. I drove up 85 today and traffic was backed up all the way back to Georgia 400. I would recommend taking 285 to 20 and get to Atlanta that way -- especially if you're one of those who don't like to sit in traffic. Check out this website before you leave for the park.

And back at the Ted, we won a one-run game last night.... how about that. Hudson had a good outing last night despite the line score that says he gave up five runs. Let's hope Gonzo was just shaking off the second half cobwebs, or serving up some free hits for ex-teammates. The surgeon goes tonight.... let's keep this winning streak going!

It's time to see how the Braves handle the second half. Interestingly, our second half starts with the same team that the first half started with. We lost our opening day game to the Washington Nationals by a prophetic one-run. In fact, our first five losses of the season were all by one run. As I said in a column earlier today, this trend of losing games by one run is one of the biggest things the Braves are going to have to reverse if they expect to be competative in the second half.

Chipper Jones is hitting fifth between Pujols and Holliday... not a bad spot.

Brian McCann should get in there at some point -- his third consecutive All-Star game. I wonder what Jeff Francoeur thinks of that. By the way, McCann has already equaled last year's homerun total.

Just like Chris Berman does, sit back, crack open a fifth of bourbon, and turn on the pun machine. (First one to make a gondeee drinking joke gets banned.)

The order will be:

1. Lance Berkman
2. Ryan Braun
3. Josh Hamilton
4. Evan Longoria
5. Justin Morneau
6. Grady Sizemore
7. Dan Uggla
8. Chase Utley

I'm rooting for one of the little guys at the end to win.

Baseball Tonight at 7pm, Derby at 8pm.

The Futures game starts at 12:30 on ESPN2. Make sure you tune in to watch our speedy young centerfielder Gorkys Hernandez lace them up for the World Team. It should be a nice showcase of baseball's up and coming talent. Perhaps some of the guys playing in the game will wind up on our team in the next few weeks... humm.

It was great to see Frenchy have a good game last night and come through with a clutch hit. When was the last time we used the word Francoeur and clutch in the same sentence? Also good to see Morton and Lillibridge have good games.

Our third rookie pitcher in a row toes the rubber today; Jorge Campillo tries to even his record at 4-and-4 and break his two-game personal losing streak.

Greg Maddux hasn't won in his last 11 starts, so fate would certainly like to put us in the position to get him out of his slide. With the way our offense wimpered all night long against Jake Peavy yesterday there's a good chance Maddux will break through with a win. Optimism be dammed.

While we are facing the defending Cy Young winner, we are still playing one of the worst teams in baseball, and we should be able to beat them. I don't know if I'm looking forward to this game or this series.

I feel the same way after a win. The gay lumberjack Braves are making a triumphant return.

What a miserable season. Just when we thought the season couldn't sink any lower we almost get perfecto'ed by Hideo Nomo's doppleganger.

Imagine if we had Andruw Jones on our team this year, imagine the black hole that our outfield would be in that scenario. Francoeur would not have gotten demoted because he's hitting 75 points higher that AJ.

A few more of these losses and we should be in full sell mode. I'm not sure if I want us to lose a few more so that we can make some trades for prospects or if I want us to win some more so we feel like we're still in the race. I've said it several other times, but the underachieving style of this team makes me afraid that if they seem like they're getting back into it, that it won't last long and we will have missed our opportunity at more than just two draft picks.

Perhaps the new homeboy upstairs should just roll the dice: