Today is April 5th, although after watching the Atlanta Braves fail to cash in on numerous scoring opportunities, you would have thought it was still September for the club. Despite a very strong pitching performance from Tommy Hanson and the bullpen, the Braves were held without a run on Thursday afternoon against Johan Santana and the Mets.
They fell by a score of 1-0 in front of a crowd of 42,080, the largest in Citi Field history.
Atlanta had three prime scoring opportunities this afternoon. The first came in the fifth inning. With Santana on the ropes and the bases loaded, Michael Bourn came up with two outs. Despite getting out to an early 3-1 count, Bourn fouled off a ball before eventually swinging at ball four, tapping it weakly back to the mound.
In the sixth, Brian McCann drew a walk and Dan Uggla followed with a single up the middle. Freddie Freeman just missed a home run -- moving both runners up to second and third -- but a weak groundout from Matt Diaz ended the threat.
The final legitimate scoring opportunity came in the seventh. Tyler Pastornicky recorded his first career hit with a triple with one out. Jose Constanza came to the plate and struck out on a pitch about two feet off the plate, and Bourn followed with a strikeout as well.
Kris Medlen worked two very strong innings of relief, throwing 20 of his 21 pitches for strikes. Jonny Venters loaded the bases in the eighth, but got out of the jam with a three-pitch strikeout of Lucas Duda.
Frank Francisco made quick work of the Braves in the ninth, striking out Jason Heyward to end the game.
The two clubs will meet up once again on Saturday afternoon at 1:10 ET. It'll be Jair Jurrjens on the mound against R.A. Dickey.