Braves Weekly Wrap-Up

This week was a good one for the Braves and the National League as a whole.  The Major League All-Star Break began on Monday with the Home-Run Derby, which was won by Prince Fielder of the Detroit Tigers.  Fielder became the first player to win the Derby as a part of both the American and National League.  Tuesday, the All-Star game was played.  Dan Uggla recorded an RBI, but the story of the game was Chipper Jones.  In his final All-Star appearance, the 40-year old Brave recorded a single in his only at-bat.  Before the at-bat, he received a standing ovation from the Kansas City fans.  Chipper was quoted as saying that the night went exactly how he scripted it.  The National League ended up winning the Mid-Summer Classic 8-0 with San Francisco Giant Pablo Sandoval being named the MVP.

Chipper Jones looks to stay hot

After the 4-day break from baseball, the Braves suited up to battle the New York Mets on Friday.  The series was an important one not only because of the NL East standings, but because the Braves strung together 4 straight wins before the break.  Carrying that momentum through the break will be necessary to catch the NL East leading Washington Nationals.  On Friday, the Braves were throwing Tim Hudson against the Mets.  The usually consistent Hudson did not have his best outing, going only 4 innings while giving up 4 runs on 8 hits.  However, the Braves offense and some timely pitching from the bullpen were able to overcome Hudson’s poor performance.  Although David Ross’ homer in the third was a big moment for the Braves, two other moments stood out in this game.  When Jack Wilson was injured in the fourth inning, Martin Prado was called upon to play shortstop.  The fact the he is willing to play anywhere at any time, and play well, shows why he is arguably the Braves most important player.  The second moment was Chipper’s home run in the sixth inning.  The home run tied Chipper with Mike Schmidt for second-most RBI’s by a third baseman with 1,595.  The second game of the series with the Mets was another important game for the Braves because of the way it was won.  After Tommy Hanson struggled to pitch effectively, the Braves found themselves down 7-5 in the eighth.  In the bottom of the inning, Martin Prado delivered a single that scored the game-tying run.  Heyward followed with another single that scored the go-ahead run.  Craig Kimbrell struck out the side in the ninth to finish the win.  In the series cap on Sunday, the Braves finished off the sweep behind six shutout innings from Ben Sheets and a big home run from Freddie Freeman.  If Sheets can continue to pitch well, the Braves may have finally found the answer to their starting rotation’s struggles.

Ben Sheets threw a great game in his first start in two years