Brandon Beachy made it known across the entire National League on Thursday night: he is now among the best starting pitchers in the league following yet another dominant performance.
After entering Thursday as the league leader in ERA, Beachy threw a complete game shutout against the hottest team in baseball over the course of the last two weeks. The Braves went on to defeat the Marlins by a score of 7-0.
Beachy allowed just five hits on Thursday night, not walking a single batter. He went to a three-ball count one time while throwing 122 pitches. Beachy struck out six and lowered his ERA to 1.33 for the season and improved his record to 5-1.
Ricky Nolasco has been dominated by the Braves throughout his career and was hit hard once again tonight, lasting just four innings while surrendering four runs. He gave up seven hits and walked a batter, striking out two in the process.
All hitters in the Atlanta lineup had a hit outside of Dan Uggla. All hitters outside of Uggla and Tyler Pastornicky had an RBI. Freddie Freeman, who wore glasses in the field to help combat a scratched cornea, hit his seventh homer of the year. Martin Prado continued his bid to win National League Player of the Week, roping out two more hits, including an RBI-triple in the first inning.
At the end of the day, the real story here was Brandon Beachy. This is a guy who went undrafted and was throwing in a local independent league in Indiana four years ago. Tonight, he shut down one of the hottest lineups in all of baseball. What a story.
The Braves will now hit the road once again to take on the Rays in Tampa Bay.
For more on the club, head over to Talking Chop.