(Source: Yardbarker.com)
Saturday night’s game at Turner Field cements that old saying that the game is not played on paper and the results on the field are what determine the outcome. Coming into the game and looking at the pitching match up you would have thought that the Braves had the clear advantage. On one side of the line you had the Braves young fire baller Tommy Hanson who came into the game with a sparkling 2.30 ERA. On the other side was Rodrigo Lopez and his 4.30 ERA and the Diamondbacks bullpen. Things don’t always work out as planned and the end result Saturday night is a clear indication of that.
Hanson was sharp early despite allowing a solo home run to Justin Upton in the first inning. He struck out the side in the first and cruised along until everything unraveled in the fifth inning. In that inning it appeared that Hanson lost a little bit of his command and perhaps a little focus. His defense didn’t exactly pick him up either as Center Fielder Nate McLouth lost a fly ball in the lights and had it land some 30 feet from where McLouth was. Some bad luck also happened as Connor Jackson had a broken bat single fall in to score a run as well. By the time the inning was over the Diamondbacks had a commanding 5-0 lead.For the night Hanson battled through 7 innings but allowed a season high 5 runs. He did strike out 10 Diamondbacks.
The struggles of the Diamondbacks bullpen was the story coming into this one, and it continued to be the story as manager A.J. Hinch didn’t have to go to the bullpen until this game was blown wide open. Rodrigo Lopez came up with a sterling performance tossing 8 innings of 1 run baseball allowing only 7 hits while striking out 5 Atlanta hitters. It was the Braves bullpen that imploded this time as Jesse Chavez and Craig Kimbrel combined to allow 6 runs in just 2 innings of work.
Offensively the Braves scattered out 7 hits but couldn’t get the big one as they were 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position. Nate McLouth had two doubles, and Troy Glaus added 2 hits of his own. Chipper Jones, Eric Hinske and Brian McCann each had one hit but the Braves could only scratch a run across on a Martin Prado ground out. There were several times they had Lopez on the ropes but were not able to deliver the big hit.
Also worth mentioning was the play of the former Braves Kelly Johnson and Adam LaRoche. Johnson banged out a double and his league leading 11th home run of the season. Keep in mind Kelly only hit 8 homers all of last season. LaRoche also had 2 of the Diamondback’s 13 hits on the night.
So the Braves missed out on a chance to get back to the .500 mark and the going will not get any easier today as Diamondbacks Ace Dan Haren (4-2, 4.23) will be on the mound for the series finale. Tim Hudson (3-1, 2.64) will get the start for the Braves. It is a long season and one loss shouldn’t worry us as fans that another long losing streak is upon us, however some clutch hits with runners in scoring position would be nice.
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