Another Abject Affair For The Braves, Rockies Win 10-3

In a game that nearly mirrored last night's contest, the Rockies got on top first and spread that lead over the rest of the game as they once again cruised to victory, salvaging a split of their 4-game series against the Braves and doing so in convincing fashion over the last 2 games.

Last night, the Rockies wasted no time getting on top of things and smacking the Braves around. This time, they waited until the 4th to start doing damage, which is when Justin Blackmon hit a 2-run homer off of Ervin Santana to kick off the scoring. This was after Santana gave up a hit to Chacin. Pitchers getting hits shouldn't be a thing, but it was a thing for the Rockies this week, and it seemed like each time it happened, the Braves paid dearly for it.

Chacin and Colorado continued to roll merrily along through the game after that, receiving nearly no resistance from the Braves at the plate. After a 6th inning homer from Justin Morneau made it 3-0, the Rockies completely put the game out of reach for Atlanta in the 7th. The scoring in that particular frame started when the Rockies made Santana pay for putting Dickerson and Stubbs on base to lead off the inning. That's when Charlie Culberson delivered an RBI to make it 4-0. After Santana got the next batter out, it was time for Jordan Walden to come in for relief.

Walden's second appearance from the DL following his activation on Tuesday went just about as well as his first appearance did, which is to say that it didn't go well at all. Ryan Wheeler was the first batter Walden faced, and he used a sac fly to bring in Drew Stubbs to make it 5-0. After an intentional walk of Charlie Blackmon, Josh Rutledge singled to load the bases, which led to Justin Morneau delivering a 2-run single to make it 7-0. One wild pitch later, it was 8-0, and immediately afterward, Walden finally got the 3rd out to end the inning.

After the Braves bats once again showed up to the party 7 innings late with a 3-run inning in the top of the 8th, the Rockies fired back in the bottom half, scoring 2 runs off of Anthony Varvaro. Varvaro only entered the game because David Carpenter got ejected for playing beanball with Corey Dickerson.

Earlier in the at-bat, Gerald Laird was knocked out of the game after Dickerson connected with a backswing. Apparently Dickerson didn't show enough concern, so Carpenter nailed him and was rightly ejected. Walt Weiss was also ejected for having a conniption fit during the whole deal. Either way, the inning ended with the Braves down 7 again.

Nick Masset made an appearance in relief for the Rockies in the 9th and got himself ejected as well after he bounced a ball off of Evan Gattis' back with 2 outs. I'm gonna go ahead and say that we probably could have done without the beanballs today, but hey, unwritten rules and all that jazz.

Jhoulys Chacin had by far the best performance of his season so far, as he went 7 innings and only gave up 2 hits during those 7 innings of work. This was his first scoreless outing since June 28th, 2013, which is when he pitched 8 scoreless innings against the Giants. So basically, he went nearly an entire 365 days between scoreless outings, and the Braves were the lucky ones to catch him on a good day. Wonderful.

To sum it all up, the Braves entered this 7-game road trip against the Rockies and the Diamondbacks reeling but still in first. Now, they find themselves looking up at the Washington Nationals and still locked in a dogfight with the Miami Marlins after a somewhat underwhelming 3-4 road trip.

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=916107&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2014-06-12&team=Rockies&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2014-06-12&team=Rockies&dh=0&season=2014">FanGraphs</a></span>