Atlanta Braves record their first regular season win beating Houston Astros 6-4 - MLB Update
Third baseman Chipper Jones made a dramatic regular season entry hitting a homer and helping Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros 6-4 on April 10, 2012 at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.
Braves record their first regular season win in style. Their struggling offence woke up finally and kept the Braves in the lead throughout the game.
Catcher Brian McCann made one hit in four at-bats. Second baseman Dan Uggla had a fairly decent time on the plate. In five at-bats he hit twice and brought one RBI.
The way Jones hit a homer for the Braves and put them in the lead as a result shows the improvements that the team has made after suffering a string of losses.
Jones had gone through surgery on March 26. As he was set to come out of the disabled list the other day, manager Fredi Gonzalez wanted to send him to Minor League for at-bats.
Terming this way of preparation as a serious wastage of time, Jones refused and insisted for regular season entry right away.
Rightly so, he has eliminated concerns now with a tremendous outing on the plate. Going 2-for-4, he added two RBIs along with a homer.
While experts are pointing at his contribution as pivotal in the victory, Jones is humble enough to deny it, calling it more of a relief for him than his side. After all he had to assert his credentials on his first game after coming back from injury.
"I'm not going to say I was the spark," he said. "Obviously, the two-run homer was a big lift, but I'd much rather be a calming influence, have them look down there, see me and know that I'm going to put up some good at-bats and hopefully make the play when
it's hit to me. And if they feed off that, great."
Braves’ starter Tommy Hanson threw an incredible spell of five innings and struck-out eight. While he conceded two earned runs, he gave up five hits.
In a high scoring game, if it was not for their hitters to keep adding runs occasionally, eventual result could easily have been different. Thus, instead of growing complacent, they will do better to sort out their weaknesses that may go unnoticed in the
shade of victory.
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