The Legend is back! All-everything rookie Jason Heyward once again delivered a game-winning walk-off hit to send the Braves home winners. With two outs and the game tied in the ninth inning Martin Prado singled to right field. After a long at-bat in which Prado almost got picked off first base, Heyward had seen enough pitches from reliever Nick Masset to know which one to jump on. He got a fastball on the inside half of the plate and roped it to the right field corner. With a full count to Heyward, Prado was running on the pitch and scored the winning run from first beating the throw.
The Braves are now at .500 with a 20-and-20 record.
This was by far the best start of the year for Kenshin Kawakami. One in which he left with a four-run lead, the most runs the team has scored for him, a game that should have given him his first win of the season, but that was before some crappy bullpen management. Takashi Saito, working in his third straight game, was not sharp and got victimized by a pair of doubles and a single. He was not fully bailed out by Eric O'Flaherty who allowed the third run of the inning to score before getting the final two outs. The Reds cut the lead to just one run in that eighth inning.
That's when Billy Wagner came on and blew his second save of the season by giving up a leadoff homer to rookie Chris Heisey. Wagner allowed another hit and a walk before he finally got out of the ninth with the score tied at four, and Kawakami's first victory blown.
Thankfully, Jason Heyward bailed out Wagner and the bullpen and once again bailed out the Braves. It was Wagner's fourth win of the season (he is now 4-and-0), and his second win in two days. After struggling during the Arizona series, and going just 2-for-8 during the New York series, Heyward broke out of it tonight with three hits -- two doubles and his first major league triple.
Chipper Jones followed one of Heyward's doubles in the first with a double of his own to put the Braves ahead 1-0. Brian McCann then hit his fourth homerun of the season to give the Braves a 3-0 lead. Chipper would add an RBI single in the fifth inning.
Kawakami seemed to leave early with a blister on his toe, though that was not confirmed. Strangely, he was working out of the stretch with no one on, likely in an effort to lessen the pressure on his foot and lessen the effects of a blister. Kawakami allowed only five hits in six innings while striking out five, getting some key strikeouts when he needed to.