When you woke up this morning and saw a lineup with no Prado, Heyward, Chipper, McCann or Hinske, I'm guessing a few select 4-letter words were said. Surely a team that had been struggling offensively for three weeks would be killed with a bunch of bench guys playing, right? Wrong. The B-Lineup came to play on Sunday.
Derek Lowe was on the mound for the Braves, and was solid until he left the game with cramps in the 6th inning. He gave up only 1 run on a Juan Uribe double in the 2nd, and shut the weak-hitting Giants lineup down in every inning besides that. The injury didn't seem serious, but with Medlen already being hurt during the homestand, I'm sure the Braves will be very cautious will Lowe.
David Ross hit his 1st long ball of the year (odd, right?) on a line drive shot into the left field seats. Omar Infante continued his excellent play, and hit a solo-HR in the 4th to add on to the lead. Alex Gonzalez plated a runner with a deep sac-fly in the 2nd, and Brooks Conrad ripped a ball down the left field line to score the Braves 5th run of the day.
The Giants chipped away at the lead courtesy of a 2-error play by Troy Glaus and Derek Lowe, which made it 5-2. Travis Ishikawa hit a long ball to center field off of Peter Moylan to make it 5-3 in the 7th. To be honest, I was starting to worry at this point. The Braves had an early lead on a hot day and appeared to be taking it easy.
Melky Cabrera ended these thoughts in the 8th. With two outs and David Ross standing on 2nd, The Melk Man delivered with a RBI-single to right field. Aubrey Huff made a poor throw home, and David Ross scored. Melky advanced to 2nd on the throw, and the crowd of 33,865 at Turner Field erupted.
With Billy Wagner unavailable, Takashi Saito came in the 9th to record the save. He hasn't missed a beat since his closing days in LA. He struck out the side, and recorded his first save of the year.
Braves win 6-3.
So the Braves win 3 out of 4 against one of the the better teams in the National League, and the hottest team in baseball during the last month. It could've been a sweep too. Not too shabby.
The Phillies won against the LOLMets, so our lead stays at 2 games in the East.
Upcoming Game:
Mike Minor will make his Major League debut tomorrow in Houston. First pitch is at 8:05EST, and it's sure to be a good time watching one of our top prospects pitch. Good luck, Mike.