The Braves and Brewers took turns putting up crooked numbers on Friday night in front of 50,635 fans at Turner Field. Despite a shaky pitching performance from Jair Jurrjens and the bullpen, the Braves battled back late to claim a 10-8 victory over Randy Wolf and the Brew Crew.
The Braves took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning courtesy of a two-out double from Brian McCann, scoring Michael Bourn from first. Milwaukee answered in the second with back-to-back homers from Alex Gonzalez and George Kottaras, making it 3-1. Dan Uggla doubled in the third to cut the deficit to 3-2, which set the club up nicely for a monster fifth inning.
Bourn started off the inning with a triple, and after a lazy fly ball from Martin Prado, Freddie Freeman drew a walk. McCann belted a 2-0 slider down the right field line, giving the Braves a 5-3 lead. Uggla followed with a single and was then driven in by a two-run homer from Matt Diaz, his first in nearly 18 months. Bourn, batting for the second time in the inning, drove in Jason Heyward to extend the lead to 8-3.
Heyward may not grab any headlines, but the young outfielder continues to look excellent at the plate. He went 2-for-4 with two hard-hit singles, and also drew a walk. His slash line after seven games: .348/.423/.609.
Jurrjens pitched pretty well in the first five innings, but the top of the order got to him in the sixth. He departed after allowing a two-run double to Ryan Braun, cutting the lead to 8-5. Kris Medlen worked two very strong innings of scoreless relief, but Eric O'Flaherty struggled mightily, allowing three runs to score.
With the game tied 8-8 in the eighth, Dan Uggla came up with a huge two-run single back up the middle off Francisco Rodriguez. Craig Kimbrel came in and nailed down the save in the ninth, giving Atlanta a three-game winning streak.
The two clubs will meet again on Saturday night, with first pitch set for 7:10 ET.
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