Braves 9, Pirates 6

The Braves scored 7 times in the 6th inning to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-6.

Kyle Davies (5-3) started, and had a rough 1st inning. He walked 2 then gave up a 3 run homer to Jason Bay. After that he was terrific, going 6 innings, giving up the 3 runs on just 2 hits, 3 walks, and struck out a season-high 8 batters.

Blaine Boyer came in and overpowered the Pirates in the 7th. He hurt himself though in the 8th, leaving the game with a strained lower back. He is day-to-day. I think it was already affecting him as he gave up a hit and a walk in the 8th. Kolb came on to give up the rookie's runs and give up another run, and to narrow it down to a save situation for Reitsma. Reitsma pitched a 1-2-3 9th against the bottom of the order for his 13th save.

Jeff Francoeur is in a hot streak of almost Andruw Proportions. He homered in the 4th to cut a 3-0 lead to 3-2, and doubled in 2 runs in the 6th to take the lead. He was robbed of yet another double late in the game.

Andruw led off the bottom of the 6th with a routine groundball that suddenly took the most bizarre hop I've ever seen in my 10 and a half years of watching baseball. It bounced over shortstop Jack Wilson's head for a leadoff single. The rest of the inning then progressed as follows: Walk. Double. Double. Double. Single. Sac fly. Triple. Sac fly. The Braves had a 9-3 lead, and hung on from there.

Offensive contributors: Francoeur was 2-4 with his 6th big league homer, his 19th overall on the season, doubled, had 4 RBIs, and scored twice. Julio Franco was 2-3 with a double, a walk, and scored. Rafael Furcal was 2-4 with an RBI. Marcus Giles was 2-5 with an RBI and scored. Andruw Jones was 1-3 with a walk and scored twice. Kelly Johnson was 1-3 with a walk, an RBI, and scored.

Does anyone else think that Ryan Langerhans coming in to play center field and Wilson Betemit coming in to play 3rd base late in the game was a showcase for a possible trade?

Julio Franco had his 2,500th career hit in the 2nd inning and got a long standing ovation from the sell-out crowd.

John Smoltz against Josh Fogg tomorrow.