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Atlanta Hammered 10-3 in Series Opener
San Diego, California
April 12, 2010
Associated Press
Jair Jurrjens struggled early in this one, and the Braves pitching struggled often. The Braves continue to struggle at the plate, hitting .218 today on just 7 hits. Atlanta continues to strand a lot of runners on base, this time leaving 16 on base. Amazingly, Atlanta did not have a single strikeout and instead put the ball in play all night, just unable to find a hit. Chipper Jones did blast his second home run of the season in the 8th to draw Atlanta within 5, before San Diego added 2 more in the bottom of the 8th off of Luis Valdez to take a 10-3 lead.
Valdez, called up from AAA Gwinnett to replace Kris Medlen struggled in his first outing, giving up two runs in just 1 and 1/3 innings of work.
"We have to do everything better. We started 5-1, and we're going to be fine, but we have got to improve our hitting. Our pitching has normally kept us in the games, but there's time we don't have our best stuff, our hitters have to pick it up," said hitting coach Terry Pendleton.
Atlanta, indeed, has to get better hitting the ball. The Braves rank dead last in the National League in batting average and have struggled to make their mark. Melky Cabrera, the leadoff hitter for Atlanta is just hitting .150 to start the season and Bobby Cox may soon look to make a change at the leadoff space.
Atlanta will have Tuesday off before coming back on Wednesday with Tommy Hanson on the mound, looking to rebound from the loss.
Other News
In other news around the Majors, the Atlanta Braves have signed relief pitcher Mark McLemore to fill the void left by Kris Medlen. In the move, Luis Valdez will return to the AAA Gwinnett Braves and McLemore will instantly fill a void in the bullpen.
McLemore, who last played in 2007 with Houston, was excited about the potential to join the Atlanta Braves. At 29 years of age, Atlanta believes there is still something left in the tank. Atlanta picked him up on a minor league contract.
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