Brian McCann’s Grand Slam Revives Atlanta’s Offence
The Atlanta Braves did not play their best baseball in the past few days. Not even close. With that said, Atlanta will surely be content with Sunday afternoon's 11-6 win over the Brewers at Turner Field.
It wasn’t always pretty, but the Braves offence finally got their act together and erupted with 13 hits- none bigger than Brian McCann's third-inning grand slam.
"Everybody hit today," McCann said. "It was a great team effort. Everybody worked the count and took what the pitcher gave us and scored some runs."
McCann’s blast served as the spark the Braves needed as they managed to split the four-game series. McCann had little success against left-handed pitchers and this was just his sixth homer against a southpaw since the start of the 2009 season and the second one this year.
"I've been through some things these last two years that prevented me from staying back," said McCann, who was bothered by vision problems at the beginning of these past two seasons. "Now that I can do that, I can work the ball a little more and take what the pitcher gives me. About a week and a half before the All-Star break, I was starting to feel really good. I made a couple of adjustments and they've been working out for me."
This was the first time in the series that Braves resembled the same powerful club that they were entering the All-Star break.
With Omar Infante notching his third four-hit game of the season and Matt Diaz continuing his recent success with a three-RBI performance, manager Bobby Cox's lineup was poised for a breakout game.
"We finally took advantage when their pitchers made mistakes," said Diaz, who started his productive day with a game-tying RBI double in the two-run second inning.
"The last couple of games, their pitchers made very few mistakes. But they made mistakes and we weren't able to capitalize. Today every time Manny Parra made a mistake we punished him."
Indeed, when the left-hander Parra made a poor throw, the Atlanta Brave turned those mishaps into points. Parra, allowed 10 runs over 5 1/3 innings and Milwaukee manager Ken Macha and pitching coach Rick Peterson would like Parra to go to his splitter more for their pitcher to be much more successful and post much better numbers.
"I'm convinced that the split should be his finishing pitch," Macha said. "Left-handed hitters have been giving him problems."
Parra used the split in the fifth inning to strike out McCann, but by then the damage had been done. "McCann got things started in the second inning and then finished it off in the third," said Macha. "After that, we were behind the eight-ball."
Parra knew he made a mistake as soon as the ball left his hand, but it was too late. He could only hope that the damage would be minimal or that one of his outfielders would come up with a spectacular play. Neither happened and it was unfortunate for Parra.
"My command on that pitch to McCann was horrible," the left-handed Parra said. "It was right down the middle."
It was all downhill form that point on. Mentally, Parra was not in the game. He struck two batters Jason Heyward on the right leg before reliever David Riske came in and then hit Troy Glaus on the left hip.
Umpire Scott Berry issued a warning after Heyward was hit, but the drama was over with.
Atlanta now turns their focus on the Padres, who will be coming to Atlanta looking to damage the only National League club with a better record than theirs.
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