Brandon Beachy's Complete Game Shutout Leads Atlanta to 7-0 Victory

Brandon Beachy continued his torrid start to 2012, firing his first complete game and first shutout of his career in a 7-0 win over Miami. Beachy threw 122 pitches, 80 of them for strikes, as he struck out six and walked none. He also had eight whiffs on his pitches.

Once again, Atlanta got the scoring goes in the first. Michael Bourn led off with a single, and scored on Martin Prado's triple to center that Emilio Bonifacio just missed.

The Braves added on in the third, doing their damage with two outs against Ricky Nolasco. Freddie Freeman launched his seventh home run of the season to right field, making it 2-0. After a Dan Uggla walk, Brian McCann doubled to left, scoring Uggla and upping the lead to 3-0.

In the fourth, Atlanta added another run as Tyler Pastornicky singled with one out. He advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Beachy, and scored on a single from Bourn. That would be all for Nolasco, who finished with a line of 4 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, and 2 K.

His replacement, Chad Gaudin, didn't fare much better. Back-to-back walks to Freeman and Uggla puts runners on first and second. Two batters later, Chipper singled to center, scoring Freeman and putting runners on first and third. Jason Heyward followed with a single of his own, scoring Uggla. That made it a 6-0 game. Two batters later, the player of the game Beachy ended the scoring with a single of his own, plating Chipper and increasing the advantage to 7-0.

Beachy finished strong, striking out two batters in the ninth. He lowered his major league leading ERA to 1.33 on the night. Tonight's win gave the Braves a split in the two game series against Miami.

Up next, Atlanta hits the road again and heads down to Tampa for a three-game set against the Rays.