Always count on your ace

The Braves finally won a game yesterday as staff ace Tim Hudson threw 7 innings of one-run ball to beat the Astros 6-2. The bullpen did OK, with the exception of Blaine Boyer, as usual. Jeff Bennett had a scoreless 2/3 of an inning and Mike Gonzalez threw a scoreless inning. Boyer gave up one run on two hits in 1/3 of an inning, making it three games in a row that he has given up a run. He has given up 6 runs in his last 8 2/3 innings. The offense looked like it had some life. Chipper Jones and Brian McCann each had two hits. Kelly Johnson hit a two-run homer. Jason Perry had an RBI triple in his first major-league at-bat, filling in for the recently demoted Jeff Francoeur. The two teams battle again on Saturday night at 710p. Jo Jo Reyes pitches for the Braves, Chris Sampson throws for the Astros.

Venus Williams beat her sister Serena in the Ladies Wimbledon final. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal play in the Mens final on Sunday.

Albert Pujlos became the fifth youngest player to hit 300 HRs.

The lowest of the low

The Braves were swept by the Phillies last night, losing 4-1. Jair Jurrjens gave up 3 solo homers and an additional run over 7 innings of work to take the loss. It was his first loss since May 12th and he is now 8-4 on the season. Cole Hamels shut down the Braves, only giving up 5 hits and coming one out away from pitching a compete game. With the loss the Braves are now 7 games behind Philly in the NL East. They start a series with Houston tonight at 735p. Tim Hudson will pitch for the Braves, Brian Moehler will pitch for the Astros.

The big news after the game was the optioning of Jeff Francoeur to AA Mississippi. He was batting .234 and was 4 for 33 in his last 10 games. The Braves hope he can get back on track at Mississippi and come back to Atlanta after the All-Star break.

Struggling

The Braves dropped another game to the Phillies last night, 7-3. Jorge Campillo gave up 5 runs in 5 innings of work. Blaine Boyer gave up another run in relief. He has given up 6 runs in his last 10 innings. Royce Ring gave up his first run since May 23rd, a span of 11 innings. Jeff Bennett and Will Ohman threw scoreless innings of relief. Ruben Gotay and Chipper Jones both had solo home runs to lead the offense. Game three of the series is tonight at 710p. Jair Jurrjens pitches for the Braves and Cole Hamels pitches for the Phillies. This is a must-win game for the Braves as they are now 6 games behind the Phillies in the NL East.

The Seattle NBA franchise is moving to Oklahoma City, but the Sonics name will stay in Seattle. I think David Stern and his "buddy" Clay Bennett are setting a bad precedent for the way a franchise should be ran. Moving a team because the public will not pay for renovating an arena that was redone 10 years ago is a pretty bad reason to move a team from its home.

The Rays swept the Red Sox and lead the AL East by 3.5 games. The Rays have the best record in baseball (52-32), followed by the Cubs (51-34).

A-Rod and his wife are splitting up, then A-Rod hits a homer and his team scores 18 runs. I'm not saying there is a correlation, but there's probably a little less stress without a wife to nag you all the time.

You can't recover from a bad start

The Braves were down 5-0 in the third inning and could not recover as the Phillies won 8-3. Charlie Morton gave up 5 runs in 2+ innings. He said that his arm did not have any life and it sure showed last night. The bullpen tried to keep Atlanta in the game. Manny Acosta, Buddy Carlyle, and Will Ohman threw 6 scoreless innings. However, Blaine Boyer gave up 3 runs in 2/3 of an inning to keep the game out of reach. Gregor Blanco and Brian McCann had 2 hits a piece. Greg Norton had 2 RBI on a pinch-hit double. The two teams play again tonight at 710p. Jorge Campillo will pitch for the Braves, Adam Eaton will pitch for the Phillies.

A couple of quick hit headlines....

Baron Davis opts out of his $17.8 million salary with Golden State to sign with the Clippers for 5 years/$65 million.

The Baseball Hall of Fame has received Barry Bonds 756th HR ball. It is designated with an asterisk.

The Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in baseball. Yes, you are reading that correctly.

Quick post

The Braves start an important three-game series against the Phillies tonight at 710p. Charlie Morton will get the start for the Braves. Kyle Kendrick will pitch for the Phillies. If the Braves can take 2 of 3 from the Phils, they would only be three games back in the NL East.

I'm pretty busy today, so I'll post more tomorrow.

Disappointing...

What started out as a good weekend for the Braves ended with two losses to the Blue Jays. The Braves won on Friday as I described in my previous post. However, they lost on Saturday 9-5 and on Sunday 1-0. On Saturday, Mark Teixeira had a home run and Gregor Blanco had 4 hits. Tim Hudson gave up 6 runs in 5 inning to take the loss. On Sunday, AJ Burnett threw 7 shutout innings and struck out 11 Braves. Alex Rios had a double for the Blue Jays for the only RBI of the game. Jo Jo Reyes threw well for the Braves, giving up one run in 7 innings, but took the loss. Gregor Blanco had two of the 5 Braves hits for the day. The Braves have the day off on Monday and host Philly in a three game series starting Tuesday. Atlanta is 4 games behind the Phillies in the NL East and 7 games behind the Cardinals in the wild card race.

I went to Hoosier Park Racing and Casino on Saturday night to watch the Hoosier Cup and the Indiana Sires Stakes finals. I made some money on the horse racing that night, but did not do so well in the casino. The casino was very crowded, the walkways did not seem like they were wide enough, and a lot of machines were broken down or out of order. Plus, I did not like their selection of slot machines. I need to give it a second try on a less crowded day before I totally write them off, but unless they switch some things around it will not be a place I will frequent very often. I would rather go to Indiana Downs instead. Their temporary casino facility is spacious and the air circulation is great so you don't get the smokers making the experience less enjoyable. I can only hope the permanent facility is of the same quality.