The Braves defeated the Marlins Mark your calender, and remember this day. August 31st. The day that BJ Upton woke up from a season-long slumber. Upton took a Ryan Webb offering into right-center field to plate the pinch-running Paul Janish, and after an inning marathon, that was that. It has been a long season to say the least for BJ, but he was tremendous on this night. He tied the game at in the 6th inning with a 2-run home run, and the year-old outfielder put together positive at-bats throughout.
Obviously, it was a team effort, but his showing will be the long-term takeaway. On the mound, Mike Minor was nothing better than so-so, as he allowed 4 earned runs through 7 innings. The first 3 runs that plated against Minor came as a result of the home run ball, as Justin Ruggiano and Giancarlo Stanton took him deep, but he settled in for the most part. Elsewhere on offense, Chris Johnson turned in yet another impressive night.
The NL Batting leader went 4-for-6 with two doubles, and in the process, raised his already stellar batting average to. His storybook campaign continues, and if not for a pinch-runner, he would have scored the game winning run for good measure. Lastly, the unsung hero of the night was the Atlanta bullpen. It was nice to see Fredi Gonzalez utilize Kimbrel in a tie game, and he was typically fantastic in a pitch inning.
Stay tuned.
