This day in Braves history: Hammerin Hank Aaron hits 2 home runs and breaks Babe Ruths record for most home runs with one team. His second home run comes in the 10th inning to give the Braves a 4-3 win over the Reds. Lets hope that is an omen for today and the Braves can get a needed victory against the Dodgers.
Speaking of a victory, Tommy Hansen looked impressive for most of his start yesterday until he gave up a 2 run shot in the 6th and started to get hit pretty hard. At one point Hansen struck out 4 batters in a row and 5 out of 6 batters overall. Hansen improved his record to 6-2.
Just a fleeting though with a playoff like series with the Dodgers coming up, if I were to pick my starters for a playoff series here is how I would go. Game 1: Javier Vasquez, Game 2: Jair Jurrjens, Game 3: Derek Lowe, Game 4: Tommy Hansen, Game 5: Vasquez, Game 6: Jurrjens, Game 7: Lowe.
I realize that I am not starting Lowe in game one, but this rotation allows him to start a possible game 7, which is where I think Lowe would really shine.
When I was thinking about the upcoming series with the Dodgers, I first thought that it was a must win series and that we had to go 3-1 in LA or we would slowly fall out of the playoff race. But I think that a split would be just fine. The Dodgers are the best team in baseball right now, and we just need to prove we can hang with them. We aren't as banged up as we were last week when we faced off in Atlanta so I think we will be just fine. Our schedule is actually very favourable over the last few weeks of the season and will work to our advantage. That makes this weekend series not much more than a barometer of how good this Braves team is. That having been said, a getting swept would obviously be a huge blow, and barring some sort of miracle I do think that would throw us out of playoff contention. If we can catch fire and pull of a sweep of the vaunting Dodgers, then I think that would be enough to propel us into a nice playoff run.
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