Mississippi Braves’ J.R. Graham throws 5 innings of no-hit ball!

Braves’ J.R. Graham bedazzles in debut!

In an article yesterday, I mentioned that J.R. Graham was headed back to a starting role inside the organization.   Well, tonight was his first start for the 2014 season  in Mississippi,  and boy was it ever a B-E-A-UTY!

In 5 innings and only 63 pitches, the once former top-prospect struck out 3, walked 1, and gave up 0 hits!  This was the first of a doubleheader and in the Minors, doubleheaders are only 7 innings per game.  Ryne Harper pitched the 6th, giving up a hit, but no runs and struck out 2.  Then, it was Shae Simmons‘ time to shine once again and he pitched a clean inning, striking out one.

The Mississippi Braves won the match 4-0 but it was actually 0-0 until the bottom of the 6th when Emerson Landoni reached on a fielder error, followed by speedster Matt Lipka getting on via bunt.  The next batter, Barrett Kleinknecht sacrificed to push the runners to 2nd and 3rd then Cedric Hunter followed with a walk to load the bases.  It was Seth Loman‘s turn to put his name into the hat with a “hit by pitch”, that scored the games 1st run.  Kyle Kubitza‘s ground out scored run #2, then Kubitza stole second and he and Kleinknecht both scored on a David Rohm single.  There’s your 4 runs! Talk about stringing it together!

Great job, J.R.!  See you in Atlanta soon!