Ok, so there I was in the 4th inning, typing away and bam, the wireless connection at Turner Field goes down. That's ok, you say, it will come back up. Uh uh. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
So my big gamecast turns out to be a dud. Oh well. Let me at least review the game and some of the highlights.
Picking it up from the 4th innning...
The Braves exploded off Eric Milton with one hit after another, all shots I might add, and tallied 6 runs on 5 hits in the inning, chasing the Reds starter. Tim Hudson ended the tenure for Milton when he reached on his first career triple past the diving Ken Griffey Jr.
With a 7 run lead, Hudson immediately started pitching aggressively. Perhaps he was a little too aggressive as he gave up a single, double, and eventual 3-run home run to Austin Kearns.
Hudson eventually made it through 6 1/3 innings giving way to the bullpen. It wasn't Tim's best outing (6 1/3 IP, 12 hits, 4 runs, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and 2 HRs) but the bullpen made it stand up. Besides, coming into tonight's game, Hudson owned an amazing 84-4 record in his 109 career starts in which he has received run support of four or more. Bet you didn't know that one! :)
Unlike last night, John Foster, Chris Reitsma, and Kyle Farnsworth nailed down the win.
Some interesting notes on the evening...
-I ran into our pal Bill Shanks tonight, author of Scout's Honor. It was good to see Bill and share some interesting baseball stories.
-John Foster pitched to two batters in the 7th inning, striking out both looking. Oh yeah, those two batters were Adam Dunn and Sean Casey. Good eye there Dunn!
-Rafael Furcal robbed Jason LaRue of two hits. He barehanded a slow roller past the mound in the 5th inning and nipped LaRue at 1st. Then in the 8th, Furcal went deep in the hole, actually behind a diving Chipper, to snag the grounder and throw out LaRue with relative ease.
-Speaking of great plays, Marcus Giles pulled out a web gem with a diving over the shoulder stab of a looping liner off the bat of Austin Kearns.
-Kearns was impressive though as he launched 3 rockets for base hits including a 3 run homer. He looks like the Kearns from a few years ago.
-Ken Griffey Jr. is still a marvel to watch. Jr. hit his 34th homer of the season, his 535th career round tripper, as he moved into 13th all-time on the home run list.
-Jeff Francoeur is as big as a rock star in Atlanta. It's amazing the ovation he gets, even in the 8th inning of a 7-3 ballgame. Jeff found a way to keep his fans happy as well with a line drive single to left field on pitch well away out of the strike zone. He then tagged up on a routine fly ball to center field, surprising Griffey, and making it to second ahead of the throw. The kid is just pure excitement.
Well that's about all for now. I'm going to add a few diary entries after this and maybe someone will actually post a comment!
Signing off from Atlanta...good night!