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With his eight scoreless innings tonight against San Diego, Kris Medlen now hasn't given up a run in 28.1 innings.
The Braves right-hander scattered five hits (all singles) tonight while walking none and striking out nine batters as Atlanta won for the 17th straight time when the California native has started on the mound.
In support of Medlen, Atlanta plated only two runs but that would be more than enough. Martin Prado singled in the first inning against Andrew Werner, then advanced to second on a groundout from Jason Heyward. After stealing third, Prado trotted home on a Chipper Jones double to right-center field.
Things stayed that way until the fifth, as Werner recovered from a rough first to pitch well the rest of the way. His only big mistake came against Uggla in the top of the fifth, as Werner hung a changeup up and over the plate. Uggla turned on it, launching it deep to left field, making it a 2-0 game in favor of Atlanta.
Werner finished with a line of 6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K.
The story of the night, of course, was Medlen. His nine strikeouts tied a career high that he set way back in 2009 against Arizona. He also picked-off two Padres runners, flashing an incredibly good move.
San Diego swung and missed 11 times against him, with eight of those coming on changeups from Medlen.
Craig Kimbrel struck out three batters in the ninth to seal the deal, including a particularly filthy strikeout of Chase Headley. It was one of those nights, (that happen pretty often), where it just does't seem fair for anyone to have to hit against Kimbrel.
Series finale starts at 6:35 ET tomorrow between Tommy Hanson and Eric Stults. The Braves now are only four games back of the Washington Nationals in the N.L. East.