The Atlanta Braves finally picked up their first victory of the season on Tuesday night, knocking off the Houston Astros by a score of 6-4. Chipper Jones hit a homer in his season debut, Tyler Pastornicky hit the first home run of his career and Tommy Hanson pitched well enough to claim his first win of the year.
Hanson was impressive throughout his five innings of work, although he was pretty ineffective at times, needing 101 pitches to record 15 outs. He struck out eight, walked three, and allowed two runs on six hits.
Kris Medlen worked 1.1 innings out of the bullpen and allowed two runs to score. The trio of Eric O'Flaherty, Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel allowed a total of five base runners while recording the final eight outs of the game, although they all escaped without allowing any runs.
Houston held an early 1-0 lead, but an RBI-double from Dan Uggla scored Brian McCann to tie the game. Jones belted his homer in the third inning on a hanging slider to give the Braves a 3-1 lead. Pastornicky followed in the fourth with a solo-shot to the Crawfish Boxes.
The two clubs took turns putting runs on the board throughout the middle innings, and a two-out RBI-single from pinch hitter Eric Hinske drove in Jason Heyward to give Atlanta an insurance run and 6-4 lead. Kimbrel closed it down in the ninth, improving Atlanta to 1-4 on the season.
Randall Delgado will take the mound for his first start of the season on Wednesday evening. He will be opposed by lefty Wandy Rodriguez. First pitch is set for 8:05 ET.