We only scored one run, but we still got a win

The trials and tribulations of the Braves offense continued on Friday night as they only scored one run on a Omar Infante RBI ground out. However, Jair Jurrjens threw 8 innings of shutout ball and Rafael Soriano pitched a perfect 9th for his 23rd save of the season. Yunel Escobar and Adam LaRoche each had two hits. Game two of the series is today at 4pm on FOX. Tim Hudson will pitch for the Braves.

Atlanta is 8 games behind the Phillies in the NL East and 8.5 games behind the Rockies in the wild card race with 21 games left in the season.

Atlanta's Jason Heyward was named Baseball America's Minor League Player of the Year. Heyward batted .303 with 17 homers in 99 games during stints in A, AA, and AAA. His OPS was .963....and he is only 19 years old!!! The last time a Brave was named Minor League Player of the Year was Andruw Jones in 1995 and 1996. Andruw turned out to be a good MLB player (388 HR, 1173 RBI, 5 All-Star, 10 gold gloves) so we can only hope that Jason Heyward can do more of the same.

The Arizona Fall League starts on October 13th. Lance Lynn and Drew Storen will be competing this year along with Stephen Strasburg and the aforementioned Jason Heyward. Last year's AFL MVP was current Braves pitcher Tommy Hanson.

The Ball State Cardinal football team hosts New Hampshire tonight at 700p. Ball State is coming off of a tough loss to a much-improved North Texas team. New Hampshire is ranked 9th in Division 1-A and is 1-0 on the season.

The offense finally showed up

The Braves beat the Astros last night 9-7. Atlanta scored 3 in the first inning and three in the second inning to take a 6-1 lead. Houston cut the lead to 6-4 in the 4th inning, but would get no closer than that. Derek Lowe got the win by pitching 5 2/3 innings, but he gave up 5 runs. Mike Gonzalez got his 10th save of the season. Brian McCann had 4 hits and 2 RBI, Yunel Escobar had 3 hits and 3 runs, and Garrett Anderson had 2 hits and 3 RBI. The Braves travel to St Louis to begin a 3 game series tonight at 815p. Jair Jurrjens will pitch for the Braves.

The Braves are 8 games behind the Phillies in the NL East and 8.5 games behind the Rockies in the wild card race.

Lance Lynn did not pitch well last night in the Texas League semi-finals. Lance gave up 7 runs in 4 1/3 innings and got a no-decision in Springfield's 12-7 loss. The Cardinals are now down 2-0 in the 5 game series.

Pitching wins championships, but you at least have to have a little bit of offense

The Braves lost to the Astros last night 2-1 on a walk-off two-RBI single from Houston's Miguel Tejada off Atlanta closer Rafael Soriano. That hit ruined the best pitching performance of Tommy Hanson's young career. Hanson threw 8 innings, giving up no runs on 5 hits with 7 strikeouts. He threw 100 pitches and was removed by Booby Cox to give Soriano a clean start to the 9th inning. The offense was pitiful, garnering only 3 hits including a RBI single by Matt Diaz. In the past 5 games, the Braves have scored 7 runs, a pitiful 1.4 runs per game. The pitching has been great in those 5 games, giving up 13 runs for a 2.6 runs per game average. I don't think it matters anymore, but game 3 of the series is tonight at 805p. Derek Lowe will pitch for the Braves.

Atlanta is 9 games behind the Phillies in the NL East and 8.5 games behind the Rockies in the wild card race with 23 games left to play.

Lance Lynn pitches for AA Springfield tonight in game two of the Texas League semi-finals. Springfield is down 1-0 in the series after a 6-0 loss last night.

We only scored two runs, but it was enough...just barely

The Braves beat the Astros last night 2-1 on solo home runs by Adam LaRoche and Nate McLouth. Javier Vasquez gave up no runs in 7 innings on 3 hits, 4 walks and 9 strikeouts. He also led the team with 2 hits. Mike Gonzalez got a hold for pitching the 8th inning and Rafael Soriano gave up a run in the 9th, but held on for his 22nd save of the season. Game two of the series is tonight at 805p. Tommy Hanson will pitch for the Braves.

Atlanta is 8 games behind Philly in the NL East and two games behind the second-place Marlins. The Braves are 7.5 games behind the Rockies in the wild card race.

Lance Lynn is scheduled to pitch tomorrow in game 2 of the Texas League semi-finals series. Game one is tonight at 810p EST.

One last gasp

The Braves travel to Houston tonight to start a three-game series. Game time is 805p and Javier Vasquez will start for Atlanta. The Braves travel to St. Louis after the Houston series and must win 5 of the 6 games on the road trip to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot after a disappointing series against the Reds in which they were swept. The Braves are 8 games behind Philly in the NL East and 7.5 games back in the wild card race.

Lance Lynn was sent back to Springfield after a spot-start for AAA Memphis last week. Lynn will start game #2 of the playoffs for Springfield on Thursday.

Where's the offense?

The Braves failed to score many runs in the entire Reds series, including a 4-2 loss in 12 innings on Sunday that led to a sweep. Atlanta tallied 4 runs in the 3 games against a staff that normally give up that many runs in one game. In the series, the Braves batted .149 with an OPS of .503. That will not win you many ball games. The goats of yesterday's game were Omar Infante, Brooks Conrad, and Garrett Anderson. They were a combined 0-for-14 and left 10 men on base. The poor offense wasted a great pitching performance by Tim Hudson. Huddy gave up 1 run on 4 hits with 6 strikeouts in 7 innings. The Braves have the day off today before traveling to Houston for a 3-game series starting Tuesday.

Atlanta is 8.5 games behind the Phillies in the NL East and two games behind second-place Florida. The Braves are 7 games behind the Rockies in the NL wild card race.

My one year weight loss journey

Today marks the one year anniversary of my weight loss journey. It started on September 6, 2008 when I realized that I was a fat, lazy 33 year old who weighed 227 pounds, which is about 60 pounds overweight. One year later, I have lost 34 pounds and now weigh 193 pounds. There isn't an easy way to lose weight permanently, however if you have a little fun with it, it won't seem like a chore. Your body will thank you for you efforts! How did I do it?

Calories burned must be greater than calories consumed - Find your current base metabolic rate. My current BMR is 1900 calories/day. To lose weight, I need to eat less than 1900 calories/day.

Exercise - Start out walking around the neighborhood. I found a 4 mile loop around my housing addition and started by walking the entire loop in about 55 minutes. I use my iPod when I run and switched one song a week from walking to running. Eventually you will build up to running most of the course. Right now, I am walking one song to warm up, running 3 miles straight, then using the rest of the time to cool down.

Have a goal - My goal was to get into the 190s in one year, which I have achieved. My goal now is to run in a 5k race without stopping to walk and catch my breath. I have entered the Dick Lugar 5k on September 19th and plan to run a 5k every two to three months.

Portion control - This kinda goes along with the calories burned/consumed thing, but sometimes you don't realize how huge the portions are when you eat out at a restaurant. Example, the two cheeseburger meal at McD's has 1,000 calories. That is half of my recommended caloric intake! I try to eat at home whenever possible and I have made it a little fun by getting a digital food scale. I try to see if I can guess the portions correctly!


Overall health and well-being - I have noticed that I can breathe much easier now and have not been sick since I started this weight loss journey. I have shrank from wearing XL shirts to now wearing Medium sizes. My pants have shrunk from a 36 waist to 32s and sometimes 30s. I sleep through the night without waking up and I just have so much more energy during the day.

I hope this will inspire you to go on your own weight loss journey. It may be tough at first, but you will feel so much better. Your body will thank you and you can extend your life by years.