Atlanta Braves register 11-1 victory against Houston Astros in Grapefruit League clash - MLB Update
Jair Jurrjens keeps his chances of being an opening day starter for the Atlanta Braves alive as he helps the club to a11-1 win during their Grapefruit League encounter against Houston Astros on March 25, 2012 at Champion Stadium in Kissimmee, Florida.
After slumping earlier in training, Braves are starting to resurrect their ways. As the regular season approaches nearer and their batters and pitchers show promising signs, they can be happy with their timely momentum.
On one side the Braves saw their starter Jurrjens drawing seven strike-outs, on the other their centre fielder, Michael Bourn, scored two runs and made one hit in three at-bats.
Braves found Astros’ starter Zach Duke an easy prey in the game as they drew their 10 runs from his pitches. This explains as to how the Astros will have fared if he is sidelined from the line-up.
Duke threw for just over three innings and while he was hit eight times, he also conceded three home runs.
"I just had some balls hit right down the lines, a windblown homer to center field," Duke said. "Their pitcher (Jurrjens) hit one with one hand. I'm just going to keep on doing my work. I'll keep competing."
Barring him, the Astros can take solace from the fact that the rest of their pitchers did a nice job. Their reliever Kirk Clark while going scoreless in little more than two innings afforded no hits to the batters. Similarly their closer Wesley Wright did
not give up any hit or run.
By his fabulous performance in the game, Jurrjens has triggered discussion about an opening day starter for the Braves.
Though nothing is final yet, consistency with command over his change-ups, fastballs and breaking balls he showed in the game if repeated in upcoming games as well can take him well above his competitors for the same spot.
"He has his fastball and his breaking pitch working and his changeup is just disappearing," said Braves' manager Fredi Gonzalez. "His command was really good and he seemed like he could do anything he wanted to do."
As Braves have won their eighth game in Spring Training, only thing they can find missing in their play is consistency. They exhibited their mettle as a team in a couple of games before but barely were they able to replicate their best regularly. Thus, victory
has given them another opportunity to take their momentum to new heights.
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