The Braves received homers from Alex Gonzalez and Shawn Bowman in route to a 6-1 win over the Red Sox.
The Braves battered the Red Sox with singles, with nine of their 11 hits coming in that form. The only Brave with more than one hit was Ed Lucas, who picked up three singles and a walk. Gonzalez and Bowman had a RBI each on solo home runs, while Brent Clevlen and Jose Constanza recorded one RBI each.
Jordan Schafer went 1-3 with a single off Kyle Weiland. He also threw out Carl Crawford trying to stretch from first to third. Freddie Freeman singled once in three trips, coming off Alex Wilson.
Just as a note: Gonzalez's homer came off John Lackey. The rest of the Braves runs were against reserves. Bowman's homer was against Clevelan Santeliz.
Tim Hudson was a little shaky to begin the first, allowing a single to Jacoby Ellsbury and a walk to Dustin Pedroia. After Crawford hit into a fielder's choice to make it first and third with one out, David Ortiz singled Ellsbury home. The second out came on Schafer's throw that gunned down Crawford, and the third out came on a strikeout of J.D. Drew.
The second inning was much smoother, as he got three straight groundouts from Jed Lowrie, Jason Varitek and Lars Anderson. So Hudson shook off the first-inning rust and allowed one run on two hits with one walk and one strikeout in two innings.
Scott Proctor allowed a leadoff walk to begin the third, but he did well to get three straight outs from the top of the Boston order. That included an infield popout by Ellsbury and strikeout by Pedroia. Not bad from Proctor in his second outing.
Craig Kimbrel was pretty similar, allowing a leadoff single to Ortiz before getting three straight outs in the fourth. Another good bounce-back outing. Cristhian Martinez picked up a quick, perfect inning in the fifth, but he hit a little trouble in the sixth, giving up a single to Ortiz and walk to Drew with two outs before getting out of it. Martinez has looked pretty good so far.
Anthony Varvaro ran into trouble in the seventh due to his big weakness: control. The first batter of the inning reached on an error by Brandon Hicks, but Varvaro got Anderson to hit into a double play. That was followed by a single, walk and walk before getting a flyout with the bases loaded to end the threat. Varvaro will have these innings from time to time.
Arodys Vizcaino stole the show in the final two innings, hitting upper 90s on the radar gun and getting through his outing quickly. He gave up a soft infield single to Jose Iglesias with two outs in the eighth, but otherwise he was perfect. A great first showing for Vizcaino.
Stock:
Nobody gained or lost ground today offensively. The first name that comes to mind on the mound is Vizcaino, who impressed everyone with his hard fastball and good command. He certainly lived up to the billing in his first outing.
Varvaro finally showed his weakness with his two walks, which I'm sure the Braves were waiting to see. He did do well to get out of the bases loaded situation, though.
Notes:
From the AJC: Jason Heyward left after two at bats due to a sore groin, leading to a day off tomorrow as a precaution. He says he's fine. Heyward is forever having these issues, so we may as well get used to it.
Jordan Schafer rolled his ankle while cutting at first base, forcing him to leave the game. He says he's fine and won't miss any time.
From the AJC: Randall Delgado is scheduled to throw Thursday and Julio Teheran could throw Friday. Teheran had back spasms a couple days ago but is said to be fine now.