Atlanta Braves at Tampa Bay Rays Series Recap

The Braves continued their winning ways on the road this year, taking two of three from the Rays in Tropicana Field in Atlanta's first interleague series of 2012.

It figures, though, that the Braves earned their wins against the two best pitchers the Rays have in James Shields and David Price, but suffer their loss to a young pitcher they've never seen before. That seems to happen more often than not to the Braves, but Alex Cobb deserves plenty of credit. He pitched a great ballgame and even retired 10 in a row in his win Saturday.

Randall Delgado, on the other hand, struggled with his command and gave up his second grand slam of the season. He recovered nicely after the first one, posting a 2.55 ERA in the four starts after the first slam against Arizona. It was also the first time he had issued five walks in a game in his brief major-league career. Let's hope he recovers after this outing as well.

Tommy Hanson and Tim Hudson both outpitched their respective mound opponents in Shields and Price, but it was Hudson who surpassed Hanson in performance. Hanson allowed two runs in seven innings while Hudson didn't allow a single run in 7.2 innings. When the Braves beat Price on Sunday, they handed him his first home loss this season.

Chipper Jones didn't play in Saturday or Sunday's game after taking a vicious line drive off his left leg just above the ankle in Friday's win. He'll have to wear a shin guard the rest of the season as a result. The Braves are now 7-11 when Chipper is not in the starting lineup. He was presented with a video tribute Sunday.

Michael Bourn's batting average took a hit in the series. He came into the series hitting .339, but was 1-for-13 in the three games with a stolen base. Despite that, he's still hitting .320. Martin Prado's 10-game hitting streak came to end in Saturday's loss. He was hitting .264 before the streak, but in the 10 games, he hit .476 and slugged .762 to raise his average 60 points. He had a pair of hits Sunday and is now hitting .323 this season. Having two hitters with .300 averages at the top of the lineup will pay huge dividends if they're able to maintain those numbers.

The Braves will take their league-leading 16 road wins into Cincinnati for a four-game series starting Monday.