The Atlanta Braves came into Wednesday afternoon losing six of their last nine games. The offense went into another offensive swoon and continued to lose close games. Veteran pitcher Aaron Harang stopped the bleeding Wednesday with a phenomenal pitching performance against the Washington Nationals en route to 6-2 victory.
The Braves right-hander went seven innings allowing only one run on six hits while striking out nine batters without surrendering a walk. Harang did a great job of mixing speeds and working both sides of the plate. Ten of Harang's 21 outs came via the fly-ball variety, most of which were routine.
Harang's counterpart Stephen Strasburg continued his problems against the Atlanta Braves. Coming into the game Strasburg had a career record of 3-6 with a 4.62 ERA in 15 career starts against the Braves. Early on it seemed Strasburg had a feel for the Braves' lineup. In the first four innings, Strasburg was in control and held Atlanta scoreless while allowing two hits and striking out five batters. In his final two innings, the Nationals right-hander allowed three runs on five hits.
Atlanta's lineup remained patient and stuck to the script. The Braves hitters may strikeout a ton, but they are a good fastball hitting team and Strasburg continued to pump fastballs, even at 95 MPH Atlanta's hitters were able to figure out the timing.
The offensive outburst started in the fifth inning when B.J. Upton swung at a first pitch fastball and drilled it over the left field fence. The Nationals tied it up in the bottom of the inning on a Harang wild pitch that scored Denard Span, but the Braves were able to quickly respond. Justin Upton gave Atlanta the lead in the sixth inning with an RBI single that scored Freddie Freeman after a leadoff double. Later in the inning rookie catcher Christian Bethancourt drove in Tommy La Stella with a two-out single that gave the Braves a 3-1 lead.
The Braves lineup kept their foot on the gas as they added three more runs in the seventh inning. Atlanta loaded the bases with a leadoff single by Aaron Harang, a single by Jason Heyward and a walk by Phil Gosselin. Freddie Freeman followed it up with a sacrifice fly, which almost went over the head of Nationals right-fielder Jason Werth. Then Justin Upton laced a double to left that scored Jason Heyward and Phil Gosselin, giving the Braves a comfortable 6-1 lead. Upton's three-RBI game gave him his 96th RBI of the season, which is ranked third in the National League.
Even with Wednesday's victory the Braves are most likely not going to catch the Nationals in the NL East as they are eight games out of first place with 16 regular season games remaining. Atlanta is still within reach of the Wild Card, with the win today they are one game behind the Pittsburgh Pirates who could remain 1.5 games ahead of the Braves if they defeat the Phillies Wednesday night.
With the Braves offensive woes in the month of September the fact they are still in the playoff hunt is a surprise. If the Braves can expand upon this offensive outing moving forward, Atlanta could steal a playoff spot. If that ends up being the case, the Braves could make some noise because once a team gets into the postseason anything can happen.
Posted by Unknown on Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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