Braves-D-Backs series thread

[General]

Tony Clark leaves the yard...again. 5-0.

[ATLien]

What the **** happened? Jeez.

[General]

This game sucked ass. One to forget.

[777rak]

Vergas pitched amazing!!!

[General]

That and Kelly Johnson's terrible fielding combined to give you the win.

[awefullspellare]

It's a good thing there are 162 games so you can forget a ton of them!

[General]

Good game for the oldies as Julio Franco, AKA, the ageless one, has 4 RBI and a HR. Game over, final is 9-5 Braves. Chipper went 3-for-4 and Andruw had 2 hits. Every spot in the lineup had a hit. Furcal had a triple and McCann, Francouer, Chipper and Langerhans added doubles. Orr stole a base. Andruw had a rare error in CF. Thomson pitched a solid outing, going 6 innings giving up 4 ERs in the process. Foster picked up the win in relief, Kolb got a hold and Reitsma pitched a scoreless 9th but did not pick up a save.

[General]

Rubber match tomorrow.

[ATLien]

That McCann double was wow. Like centimeters inside fair, and then it rolled to the corner. Nice.

**** Dan Kolb. Why is he still on this team?

[General]

Cause nobody wants him.

[General]

ATLANTA (AP) -- Chipper Jones had three hits, including a go-ahead double in the seventh inning, and Julio Franco drove in four runs to lead the Atlanta Braves past the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-5 on Saturday.

Franco hit a three-run homer, helping the Braves avoid their first three-game home losing streak this year.

Jones has five hits in two games since missing eight starts with a strained right rotator cuff. He reached base four times Saturday with the double, two singles and a walk.

Pinch-hitter Ryan Langerhans led off the seventh with a double off reliever Lance Cormier (7-3). Rafael Furcal walked, and both runners scored on Jones' double to center, breaking a 5-5 tie.

Shawn Green hit a two-run shot for Arizona.

Only 10 days shy of his 47th birthday, Franco set a season high for RBI, driving in the Braves' first run with a sacrifice fly in the first inning before connecting for his ninth homer in the third.

Atlanta's John Thomson and Arizona's Russ Ortiz were activated from long stays on the disabled list, and each looked rusty in giving up five runs over six innings.

Thomson, who missed almost three months with a strained flexor tendon in his right middle finger, gave up eight hits and five runs -- four earned -- with five strikeouts. Ortiz, who missed almost two months with a stress fracture in his right rib cage, also gave up eight hits and five runs with one walk and one strikeout.

John Foster (3-1) got the final out in the seventh inning to earn the win.

Pete Orr, making a fill-in start at second base, created a first-inning run with his speed. Orr beat out an infield hit, stole second base, beat out a force play at third on Andruw Jones' infield hit, and scored on Franco's shallow fly to center for a 1-0 lead.

Chris Snyder led off the third with a double and scored on Craig Counsell's single to tie it. Tony Clark drove in Snyder with a sacrifice fly for a 2-1 lead.

After singles by Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones, Franco's three-run homer in the third gave Atlanta a 4-2 lead.

Green's two-run homer in the fourth, his 18th, drove in Troy Glaus to tie the score 4-all.

Furcal led off the fifth with a triple into the right-field corner. Orr followed with an RBI groundout for a 5-4 lead.

Arizona again pulled even in the fifth when Green hit a two-out single and scored when Andruw Jones dropped Quinton McCracken's fly ball a step in front of the center-field wall for a two-base error. The error was only the second of the season for Jones, who has won seven straight Gold Gloves.

Arizona's Brandon Lyon, activated from the disabled list Saturday, gave up a run-scoring double to Brian McCann and an RBI single to Furcal in the eighth.
Game notes:

Green's two-run homer in the fourth inning gave him 299 for his career. ... Furcal's fifth-inning triple was his 10th, matching his career high. He ranks second in the NL.

[General]

Chipper Jones went 3-for-4 with a two-run double and a walk today against the Diamondbacks.
Chipper's bat is just fine, and he hasn't had any problems defensively that have caused him to be removed from either of the last two games. His shoulder probably won't be a problem again, although another injury is always a possibility.

[Kingdom]

Moral of the story kids, don't activate two guys who have been on the DL since the Carter administration at the same time.
Oh, and kids, fear the Chipper.

[General]

Fear the Chipper indeed.

[General]

We were losing 3-2 till the 3rd, where we exploded on Chipper's Langy's and Francouer's HRs. 9-3 us.