Heyward 9th Inning Hit Puts Braves Over Reds 5-4

(Source: Yardbarker.com)

Kenshin Kawakami deserved a better fate. He pitched arguably his best game Wednesday night only to have the Braves bullpen squander the lead away along with his first victory of the season. Of course Jason Heyward came to the rescue in the bottom of the ninth doubling home Martin Prado to give the Braves their second straight victory in their last at bat. The win allowed the Braves to reach the .500 mark with a 20-20 record. They remain 4.5 games out of first place but only a half a game behind third place Washington.

Kawakami clearly was in command for most of this game pitching 6 innings of 5 hit ball. He struck out 5 Reds and only walked 1. Takashi Saito had a rough outing in relief getting charged with 3 earned runs in only a third of an inning pitched. Billy Wagner took the mound in the top of the ninth with a one run lead. Wagner suffered his second blown save of the season when Reds pinch hitter Chris Heisey hit a pinch hit home run.

Luckily Wagner was let off the hook when Martin Prado singled to lead off the bottom half of the inning and Jason Heyward later doubled him home. Heyward had a big night going 3 for 5 with 2 doubles and his first career triple. Chipper Jones drove the ball and also came up with 2 hits and 2 rbi’s. Brian McCann hit his 4th home run of the season in the first inning and also had two hits on the night.

The second game of the short two game series will be this afternoon with Tommy Hanson (3-3, 2.88) facing off against the Reds excellent rookie Mike Leake (4-0, 3.09) Today is an afternoon game with the first pitch scheduled for 1:05 start.