30 April 2006
Welcome back, Jeff Francoeur.
Francoeur was 4-5 with a homer, 3 singles, just missed a double in his last at-bat. He made a great defensive play on a diving catch on a blooper to end the game. In his very 1st at-bat, it suddenly looked like he knew how to use a bat again, and it showed throughout the game.
The Braves got on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd, getting 3 hits in a row for the first time in 131 innings, and scored 3 times. They gave it right back in the 3rd, when Carlos Beltran hit a 2 run homer.
The Braves then knocked out Trachsel in the 4th, and Francoeur took over from there, getting a 2 run single and a 2 run homer. He hit the homer to somewhere in Europe, just like in those new commercials.
Davies (2-2) had a s0-so outing, going 5 innings and giving up 3 runs on 4 hits, 4 walks, and struck out 6. The umpire had a very small strike zone for both teams.
Cormier pitched the 6th and gave up a solo homer. Ray pitched a scoreless 7th. Villarreal walked the bases loaded and walked in a run, and Reitsma had to get the last out in the 8th. Reitsma then pitched around a walk, a bloop infield chopper single, and got saved by Francoeur's diving play to pick up his 5th save.
Offensive contributors: Francoeur was 4-5 with a homer, scored twice, and had a career-high 5 RBIs. Edgar Renteria was 2-3 with a double, a walk, scored, and extended his hitting streak to 16 games. Brian McCann was 2-3 with a walk and scored. Ryan Langerhans was 2-4 with an RBI and scored. Andruw Jones was 1-2 with a double, walked 3 times, and scored twice.
The Braves are 6 games back, and now host Colorado for 3 games. Tim Hudson will face Jason Jennings tomorrow.
