Dan Uggla extended his hitting streak to 26 games with an eighth inning single and the Atlanta Braves went on to defeat the New York Mets 4-1. Tim Hudson picks up his 11th win of the season and Craig Kimbrel nails down his 33rd save for the Braves.
Atlanta led 2-1 in the eighth inning but had missed on a number of scoring opportunities in the earlier innings. Jose Constanza led off the inning with an infield single. Michael Bourn then bunted a pitch that almost hit him, sacrificing Constanza to second. Martin Prado followed with his own infield single giving Atlanta runners at the corners with one out. Freddie Freeman then grounded the ball sharply to third where David Wright caught Constanza in a run down and an unfortunate second out of the inning. However, this time the Braves got a clutch hit off the bat of Dan Uggla that scored both Freeman and Prado and put Atlanta ahead by a score of 4-1.
Tim Hudson pitched seven strong innings allowing three hits and one run. That run coming on a first inning double from David Wright with two outs that scored Daniel Murphy. New York threatened in the fourth when they loaded the bases with two outs but Hudson got Josh Thole to fly out thus ending the threat.
Atlanta's first run came in the third inning when trailing 1-0 Constanza tripled home Alex Gonzalez who had led off the inning with a single. Michael Bourn followed with a sacrifice fly to give Atlanta an early 2-1 lead. The score would remain the same until the eighth when Uggla finally gave Atlanta some breathing room.
Freddie Freeman also extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a fourth inning double. Freeman finished 2 for 4 in the game with two doubles and raised his batting average to an even .300 on the season. Prado and Constanza each finished with two hits for Atlanta.
R.A. Dickey takes the tough luck loss for the Mets pitching seven innings, allowing five hits and two runs.
Tommy Hanson (11-6) takes his turn on the hill for the Braves in the second game of a three game set on Saturday. He will be opposed by the Mets Jonathon Niese (10-8)