It was another shutout win for the Braves -- their second in a row -- on a hot but breezy night at Turner Field. With the wind blowing in, Tommy Hanson and the Braves bullpen kept the Yankees hitters in the ballpark and away from home plate. Hanson won his third game in four starts while pitching through some wildness on the mound. He allowed 4 hits, 5 walks, and hit a batter, but he didn't allow a run; twice pitching out of a bases loaded situation. The Yankees were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base.
Peter Moylan came on to bail Hanson out of a jam in the sixth by getting Derek Jeter to ground into an inning ending double play. Mike Gonzalez pitched a perfect eighth, and Rafael Soriano closed out the game in the ninth.
The Braves did all the scoring they needed in the third inning. With two outs, Yunel Escobar singled, then stole second and went to third on a throwing error. Chipper Jones then walked, and Brian McCann doubled off the left field wall (barely missing a homerun) to score Escobar. Garret Anderson follwed McCann with another double to score two and put the Braves up by three runs. That was all the scoring until the eighth inning when Brian McCann put a little more mustard on the ball and got it over the wall for his seventh homerun of the season to put the Braves up by a score of 4-to-nothing.
Tommy Hanson seemed to have a good batter, bad batter syndrome tonight. He'd look dominant against one guy, then he'd walk the next batter, seemingly losing his ability to locate his pitches from batter to batter. He dominated Jorge Posada, striking him out three times; Posada struck out a total of four times on the night, collecting the golden somrero.
Hanson's good work in the first inning -- getting the Yankees batters 1-2-3 -- quieted down the Yankees fans in the crowd, and the Braves good pitching all night kept them muffled. Some fans in the left field corner next to the 755 club chanted hip-hip-hooray when Brian McCann came to the plate in the eighth inning -- mocking the Yankees chant for Jorge Posada, hip-hip-Jorge. Overall, though, I observed a fairly docile Yankees crowd -- they didn't have much to cheer for tonight.
Let's see how long the Braves can keep this shutout streak going.