You have to defend the lead

The Braves started off well on Sunday afternoon, but could never defend the lead or get over the hump of a tie game and lost to the Red Sox 6-5. In the top of the first, Brian McCann had a two-run double that put Atlanta ahead 2-0. However, the Red Sox scored three in the bottom of the first to take a 3-2 lead after one inning. After the Red Sox added one run in the fourth inning to take a 4-3 lead, the Braves fought back and scored two runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Gregor Blanco and Nate McLouth. But, once again, Atlanta could not stay tied and gave up a run in the bottom of the seventh to go down 5-4 after 7 innings. A Garrett Anderson RBI single in the 8th tied the game at 5. But, for the third time in the game, the Red Sox came back. This time Nick Green hit the first pitch in the bottom of the ninth for a home run to give the Red Sox a 6-5 victory. The Braves hung in the game, but could not get hits when they needed them. The offense had 14 hits, led by Yunel Escobar and Martin Prado's 3 a piece. Jair Jurrjens gave up 2 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings. However, the three unearned runs that he gave up were due to his error in the first inning. The Braves have a make-up game with the Cubs tonight at 710p. Javier Vasquez will pitch for the Braves. Atlanta is 4.5 games behind Philadelphia in the NL East and 5 games behind the Giants in the NL wild card race.

The College World Series best-of-three championship series starts tonight at 7pm. #3 seed LSU and #1 seed Texas will play for the title.

Drew Storen struggled again in an innings worth of work for the Class-A Hagerstown Suns last night. Storen was brought in to pitch the sixth inning with Hagerstown clinging to a 2-1 lead. He struck out the first two batters, but then gave up three straight hits (double, single, double) that led to two runs. He then struck out the last batter of the inning. His inning included 3 hits, 2 earned runs, 3 strikeout, a blown save and the loss.