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For the eleventh time this season, Atlanta was shutout. This time, Casey Kelly pitched six scoreless innings while Yasmani Grandal kept up his hot hitting in a 3-0 Braves loss.
Grandal got things going in the second against Braves starter Paul Maholm, who pitched reasonably well for Atlanta. After Maholm walked Carlos Quentin, Grandal lined his eighth home run of the season into the left field stands for a two-run homer.
From then on, the story was Kelly in his major league debut. The right-hander struck out four while walking two and allowing three hits in six innings. He recorded nine whiffs on just 87 pitches, which isn't too shabby for a major league debut. Kelly got four whiffs on his fastball and three on his impressive curveball.
Known as a plus-athlete, Kelly showed that both in fielding his position, and recording a hit against Maholm in the bottom of the fifth.
Maholm left after 6.2 innings pitched, allowing two runs and eight hits while striking out five and walking one.
Fredi Gonzalez made a bad decision by bringing Miguel Batista into a two-run game in the bottom of the eighth. He walked Headley, who then stole second. Two batters later, Grandal singled to right field, scoring Headley and making it a 3-0 game.
Grandal is now hitting .284/.386/.529 with a .382 wOBA and 150 wRC+. He's pretty good.