At this point in the season, every game is huge for the Atlanta Braves. Fortunately for Fredi Gonzalez's club, rookie starter Randall Delgado came up huge in the sixth start of his career and led his team to a 4-0 victory.
Despite scoring four runs, the Braves had chances all game to make it a blowout. Atlanta had 11 hits, drew five walks, and homered twice, both of which were solo-shots from Alex Gonzalez and Freddie Freeman.
As for Delgado, the "Baby Faced Killer", as MLB Network called him, worked five innings and allowed just five hits and two walks. He struck out one. Delgado got himself into trouble a few times with two outs, but he was able to wiggle out of it without any runs scoring.
With Eric O'Flaherty, Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel all unavailable, the Braves used Cristhian Martinez and Anthony Varvaro for two innings each. Neither allowed a batter to reach base. While neither of these two relievers will get the headlines in the recaps, both were excellent on Tuesday night.
Outside of the two home runs, Michael Bourn drove in Jason Heyward -- who was 1-for-3 with a double and walk as well -- with an RBI-double to the gap and Martin Prado grounded a ball up the middle to plate a run in the second inning.
It was a huge win for the team. With the victory, the magic number for a playoff spot is down to six games. Derek Lowe will try and change his recent stretch of awfulness on the mound when he makes the start Wednesday evening. He will be opposed by former-Brave Javier Lopez in a 7:10 EDT start.