Braves Win Fifth Straight Behind Great Outing by Beachy

Don't look now, but the Braves have won five straight. This afternoon, they completed a sweep of the Milwaukee Brewers behind great pitching by Brandon Beachy in a 7-4 win. The Braves took the lead early when they manufactured a run off of a Michael Bourn double to leadoff the game. A sac bunt and a sac fly by Prado and McCann, respectively got him across the plate to give the Braves a 1-0 advantage.

The Brew Crew came back to tie it in the next half inning with a little help from the sun, the wind, and Martin Prado. Aramis Ramirez, leading off the top of the second, hit a deep fly ball that the wind carried. Prado got under it and got his glove on it, but dropped it allowing Ramirez to get to second. He was driven in later in the inning by a Lucroy grounder up the middle.

Apparently, if you weren't aware, Chipper Jones still has some offense left in him. In the third inning of his own home opener, he cranked a slider out over the plate over the left field wall with two men on to give the Braves a 4-1 lead. Jason Heyward continued his early season hot hitting in the fourth, when he blasted a ball into the terrace level of the right field seats for a solo shot.

The Braves weren't done, though. In the eighth inning, the Braves knocked around John Axford, who came in to pitch in a non-save situation and was far less effective than in his 45 straight saves. A couple of walks and a booted grounder by Mat Gamel opened the door for a bases loaded 2 RBI single for Eric Hinske that made the score 7-1. Chad Durbin came on to pitch the ninth and made things more interesting, by allowing a Braun double to lead to a run and then tossing a meatball of a slider to Lucroy, who homered to left on an 0-2 count with Corey Hart on second to make it a 7-4 game. Finally, Durbin was able to close out the Brew Crew by striking out Kottaras. Brandon Beachy pitched very effectively this afternoon, allowing only the one unearned run and keeping his pitch count low in all innings aside from the second, when he was forced to pitch around the Prado error.