Jair Jurrjens’ pitching helps Atlanta Braves defeat Texas Rangers 4-2 – MLB Update
Atlanta Braves’ starter, Jair Jurrjens had an extraordinary day with the ball as he pitched just over five dominant innings with an ERA of 2.11 and struck-out four batters in the Braves’ 4-2 win against the Texas Rangers at Turner Field, Atlanta on June
19.
First two innings of the game passed score-less as the batters played slothful shots and got out at various field positions. At the bottom of the second inning, Freddie Freeman was got out to right-field and Alex Gonzalez struck-out swinging.
In the third inning, the Braves’ batters stepped on the gas and exploded three runs to get a 3-0 lead. Jason Heyward singled to left-field while Jordan Schafer and Dan Uggla posted two runs. The third run was taken by Heyward when Gonzalez moved to second
base on the error of the Rangers’ catcher Yorvit Torrealba.
On the other side, the Rangers opened their scoring account in the fourth inning by adding one run to their score-board and reduce their lead 3-1. Nelson Cruz scored the first run for the Rangers when Torrealba drove a single-run shot towards left-field.
The batters failed to score any run during the fifth and sixth inning due to impressive throws of the pitchers. Jurrjens gave just one run on eight hits including one earned run. He allowed two walks on his 116 pitches.
Jurrjens commented on the game and said, “They'd get two strikes and shorten their swings and they kept fouling off pitches. That's not an easy lineup. You don't really want to groove one in there and make it a big inning. You go through spells like that
through the season.”
Both teams contributed one run in the seventh inning to take the score-board to 4-2. At the top of the seventh, Ian Kinsler added one run when Josh Hamilton was grounded out to first base while Schafer posted the last run of the game on the ground rule double
of Freeman towards deep left-centre.
The Rangers’ manager, Ron Washington also praised Jurrjens and said, “Even after what happened in the third, I thought we still had a chance to keep picking and pecking away at Jurrjens and that we would probably get something done.”
The pitchers maintained their perfect line in the last two innings and did not permit even a single run.
Tags: