It was tough to imagine the Braves playing a better game this season than their comeback against Roy Halladay and the Phillies on May 2.
On Friday night in front of a near-sellout crowd in Washington D.C., the Braves rallied to win against Stephen Strasburg and the Nationals after trailing early by a score of 9-0. It's safe to say that Phillies game from two months ago has taken the backseat.
Tommy Hanson was on the mound for Atlanta and was not sharp. He surrendered three-run homers to Michael Morse and Ryan Zimmerman, which propelled Washington to their 9-0 lead after five innings.
Then the rally for the ages came.
Brian McCann hit a two-run homer in the top of the sixth to make it 9-2. Martin Prado followed with a two-out double in the same inning to cut the deficit to 9-4.
Jason Heyward walked to bring home a run in the eighth, and then Chipper Jones singled home two more with a line drive to left. Not only did the runs make it 9-7, but they also made Jones the all-time leader in runs batted in among third basemen.
Freddie Freeman followed Jones with an RBI single to make it 9-8. McCann came up with a chance to tie it or take the lead, but he grounded out weakly to first to end the threat.
After a quick bottom of the eighth by Kris Medlen, Atlanta went back to work in the ninth. Uggla walked and Paul Janish was hit by a pitch from Tyler Clippard. David Ross struck out as a pinch hitter, bringing Michael Bourn to the plate. Bourn smacked a ball deep into right-center field, bouncing it off the wall for a triple and scoring two runs.
The Braves led 10-9, heading to the bottom of the ninth with all the momentum on their side.
The lead lasted all of a few minutes. Danny Espinosa homered to center field off of Craig Kimbrel, who had previously blow just one save all season. It was tied 10-10, and that score held until the 11th.
Uggla reached on an infield single to get things going and then advanced on a throwing error from Ryan Zimmerman. He moved into third on a wild pitch. Janish came to the plate and blooped a ball just over the shortstop's glove, bringing home Uggla to make the score 11-10.
Chad Durbin entered and worked a perfect frame, highlighted by an incredible diving stop from Uggla for the final out.
The Braves are now 2.5 games out in the National League East. Three hours ago, it was almost guaranteed they would be 4.5 back.
Wow.
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