Juan Francisco Pinch Hits To Drive In Game-Winning Run In The 11th.
Friday night marked the return of Atlanta Braves starting RHP Tommy Hanson who had been sidelined since last month by a lower back strain. The 25-year old right-hander Hanson has had a career worst in ERA at 4.27 but has still managed to pull off a 12-5 record. Starting off in the bottom of the second inning, Chipper Jones who hit two homers Thursday for Braves bobble-head night continued his hot-streak hitting his 13 HR of the year to center field.
At the top of the 6th inning, Dodgers right-fielder Andre Ethier would homer to right bringing in center-fielder Matt Kemp who doubled previously. In the next inning, Dodgers short-stop Luis Cruz would double left. Shortly after that with only 1 out remaining in the inning, Shane Victorino would bring in Cruz making it a two-run game with the score 3-1. This immediately prompted Braves skipper Fredi González to remove Tommy Hanson who was once again struggling with already having a 100 pitches thrown in just 6 innings.
In the bottom of the 8th inning trailing by two runs, Paul Janish would single to right followed by pinch-hitter Reed Johnson singling as well. Proceeding that with two men on, Martin Prado and Jason Heyward would drive in both runs to tie the score. In the top of 10th for extra-innings, Michael Bourn singled to right and Jason Heyward was intentionally walked. With two on and two outs remaining this game looked all but over but Dodgers skipper Joe Torre would bring in Randy Choate to extend the game by striking out Martin Prado and forcing a fly-out from Chipper Jones.
In the bottom of 11th, the Braves would get two quick outs from a fly-out by Freddie Freeman and a grounder to third by Dan Uggla. With only 1 out remaining presumably before the start of the 12th inning at the time, David Ross and Paul Janish would both single to right. Fredi González would soon pinch-hit Juan Francisco for Jonny Venters as he would come up with the game-winning hit to left center bringing in David Ross for the win.
With just a little over a month and a half left until the MLB playoffs and Chipper Jones’s retirement at the seasons end, the Braves have been making a major push in the NL the past few weeks with most recently winning 4-games in a row. This series is very important for the Braves as they start a 3-game series with the MLB leading Washington Nationals on Monday. The Braves are currently tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the Wild-Card standings as they will look to continue closing the gap to the NL East leading Nationals.