It ended up being a very good start to the season for the Braves, taking 2 out of 3 in a place they've had trouble winning in the past. The Braves got 2 good starts from Derek Lowe and Tim Hudson and rode that to victories on Thursday and Sunday. Also, Fox Sport South was kind enough to not show Todd Coffey sprinting out of the bullpen for his appearance on Sunday, as watching overweight men sprinting as fast as he can for no reason at all makes me uncomfortable. Saturday was ugly however, as the Braves turned in a sub par effort defensively in addition to suffering through a rough outing from Tommy Hanson. Lets take a look at some key contributors.
Tim Hudson- He was outstanding in the rubber game, going 7 strong innings to pick up his first victory of the season. Last year, command was a bit of an issue for him, but he was sharp today after struggling a bit in the first 2 frames. 7 innings, 3 hits, 1 ER, 1 walk, and 5 strikeouts. If he doesn't walk people, he's really tough, and he proved that once again today. Great work from Hudson today.
Brian McCann- McCann is one of the most reliable players in all of baseball, and he had a great series this weekend. Didn't have any extra base hits, but he hit .462 (6-13) and drove in 5 runs over the 3 games, including an important RBI single to get the Braves on top in the opener. He's the best offensive catcher in the National League, and the Braves are lucky to have him in their lineup.
Alex Gonzalez- Gonzalez was the one Brave who played well on Saturday, and he parlayed that into a .364/.417/.818 line for the series. He showed off his plus power and made every play in the field this weekend. He is a key player on a team with a lot of ground ball pitchers, and if he is a consistent fielder while showing some power here and there, he will be an asset. He even took a walk, which hopefully becomes a trend (I would hold my breath unfortunately).
Derek Lowe- He wasn't as economical with his pitches as Hudson was, but he got a lot of ground balls while also striking out 6 in 5.2 innings. It was a good opening outing for Derek, and any improvement he might provide this year will be huge if the Braves want to catch the Phillies.
Goats:
Tommy Hanson- I don't think there is any reason to be alarmed by one bad start, but Tommy clearly didn't have it yesterday. His fastball command was horrific as he labored through 3.2 innings before the hailstorm hit. He will have to spot his fastball better to have success, and I think he will. Lets hope it doesn't become a trend, but it isn't time to get worried about him yet.
Nate McLouth-Nate wasn't awful in this series, scoring 4 runs including 3 today. However, he didn't really hit the ball with much authority, and it occurred to me as well that he didn't look like he was moving as well as he has in the past. I could be seeing things I guess, but that is the way it seemed to me. If he's lost any range in center (it is already extremely limited), it is only going to hurt the pitching staff in the long run. Nate also had a costly error in game 2, leading to an insurance run for the Nats. He needs to be better defensively on a team with many sub par defenders.
What to Watch For:
The Braves move on to Milwaukee, and the main thing to watch is the young pitchers going for the Braves. Brandon Beachy and Mike Minor will each get their first starts of the season, and it will be fun to see how they acclimate themselves. The Brewers lineup is top heavy, so keeping the Brew Crew off the board in the 1st inning will be something to keep an eye on as well. There are some much easier outs at the bottom of the lineup for the Brewers (yes Yuniesky Betancourt still has a starting job in the majors for reasons that are unclear to me), so if Braves pitchers can get into a groove early, they could have a chance to run off some zeroes and give the Braves offense a chance to get out in front early.
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