The Braves finally won a start for Javier Vazquez, his first win since May 20th. The Cubs had their seeing-eye-single bats working tonight, and ended the night with 10 hits, but not a one seemed to be hit too hard, just properly placed. Ten singles with no runs to show for it is something the Braves are very familiar with. Luckily this time it didn't happen to them.
The Braves offense took advantage of several run scoring opportunities with the new guy, Nate McLouth, in the middle of it all. A leadoff walk to Diory Hernandez in the third inning, and a perfect sac bunt by Vazquez, allowed McLouth to drive in Hernandez to give the Braves the lead. In the seventh, McLouth got the inning going with a one-out double, then moved to third on a Martin Prado single, and finally scored on a sac fly by Chipper Jones.
Vazquez worked his way in and out of trouble all night, but he used the strikeout to escape jams and didn't really give up any hard-hit balls, the hits just found holes. Peter Moylan bailed Vazquez out of a two-out, two-on situation in the seventh by getting Derek Lee to fly out. Mike Gonzalez looked sharp in the eighth, and Rafael Soriano, despite giving up a seeing-eye single and a walk, struck out the side to end the game.
It was a good win for the Braves, who needed a good start to this homestand. It only gets harder, but it should be a lot of fun.
Yunel Escobar sat out the game with a strained hip flexor, the same injury that limited him earlier in the season, and Kelly Johnson left the game with bilateral cramps.