Eyes from all over the baseball world were watching the Braves today, who returned home after a 6-0 road trip and on a nine game win streak. Heads have been turning at Justin Upton's MVP caliber season, the bullpen's lights out performance, and a dominating pitching staff. But now the elusive 10th win in a row was on the line. They have been hot, sweeping the Cubs, Marlins, and Nationals consecutively, to bring their standing to the Major League best 11-1, and they wanted to keep the hot streak alive.
Small ball was not a term in the Braves' vocabulary in today's 6-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals. No, it's wasn't a game of infield hits and RBI singles. Seven of the nine hits on the Braves' end today were for extra bases, and five of their six runs came courtesy solo home runs.
The Braves' home run derby kicked off in the second inning with Juan Francisco hitting a line drive shot to right field, just barely clearing the foul pole, his second of the season. The Royals weren't going to take that lying down, and the next inning Chris Getz hit his first home run in over 900 at bats. This proved to be the lone earned run given up by Kris Medlen today, who pitched seven innings and allowed six hits while notching five strike outs.
The Royals took the lead in the fourth inning. A critical throwing error on Juan Francisco put what would turn into the game leading RBI on first base. A couple of singles later and the Braves had fallen behind 2-1.
The bats stayed quiet until the seventh inning, when Juan Francisco delivered his second home run of the game, tying the game 2-2. But it was the eighth inning when the Braves' bats really came to life. With one out and no runners on, Jason Heyward hit his first home run of the year deep over the left field wall to give the Braves the lead. But, they weren't done yet. Justin Upton, batting next in the lineup hit a towering moonshot past the walkway of the outfield pavilion at Turner Field for his Major League best eighth home run. And just when that left field wall thought it had seen enough, two batters later Dan Uggla hit a no doubter on a 99mph heater to bring the score to 7-5.
Chris Johnson accounted for the other Braves run, in the form of an RBI single to bring home Jordan Schafer, who was pinch running for Juan Francisco. It was the second of two hits for Johnson, having hit a double in the second inning.
But there was a dark side to today's game. In the ninth inning, Luis Avilan collapsed on the mound mid pitch, grabbing the back of his left leg in very obvious pain. He had to be helped off the field, then carted to the training room. Manager Fredi Gonzalez commented that he believed it to be a hamstring injury, though no report has come from the medical staff yet.
After leaving the game Craig Kimbrel, who had been warming up in the bullpen when the Braves were briefly in a save situation, came out to finish the game. Kimbrel allowed the runner inherited from Avilan, bringing the game to 6-3. This was the first inherited run any member of the Braves' bullpen has allowed this year. Kimbrel finished the game not allowing any more runs. Eric O'Flaherty recorded the win today, his third of the season. Atlanta remains 4.5 games ahead of the Washington Nationals and New York Mets, who are tied for second place in the National League East.
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