04 August 2005
The Braves offense continued their hot hitting as they upended Cincinnati, 7-4.
Kyle Davies (6-3) started and pitched into the 6th, giving up 3 runs on 4 hits, 3 walks, and 7 strikeouts. After Davies and McBride got into a 6th inning jam, Blaine Boyer got out of it. Boyer pitched a perfect 7th. Farnsworth pitched a shaky 8th, giving up Sean Casey's 2nd homer of the game. Reitsma pitched a 1-2-3 9th for his 15th save.
Here's how they scored: The Braves jumped out to a 3-0 lead thanks to Andruw's 33rd homer, a Davies suicide squeeze, and an RBI single by Furcal. Sean Casey's 1st homer of the night, a 2 run shot, cut it to 3-2. Furcal got a sac fly after hits by McCann and Betemit to make it 4-2 in the top of the 6th. The Reds got it back in the bottom of the 6th off of Davies to make it 4-3. Francoeur homered in the top of the 8th, and Casey answered in the bottom of the 8th to make it 5-4. The Braves got 2 in the 9th on hits by Johnson, Giles, LaRoche, and Francoeur. The Reds didn't answer off Reitsma, and the Braves won.
Offensive contributors: Jeff Francoeur was 2-5 with his 7th big league homer (20th overall if I'm not mistaken), had 2 RBIs, and scored. Brian McCann was 2-4 with a walk and scored twice. Rafael Furcal was 2-4 with 2 RBIs. Wilson Betemit was 2-4 with a run. Andruw Jones was 1-4 with his MLB-leading 33rd homer and scored 2 runs.
Washington kept pace with a win. The Phillies won. The Marlins are winning late. The Mets lost.
The Braves now travel to St. Louis for a 3 game series as the teams with the best records in the NL face off. John Smoltz will open against Mark Mulder.
