Braves avoid sweep move onto Cincinnati

The Braves avoided a sweep by the Brewers with their 8-1 bashing on Thursday. Mark Teixeira has finally gotten going now that it's almost June (about his normal time). He drove in four runs including a homerun, his sixth of the season while Kelly Johnson and Jorge Campillo (yeah, the pitcher) drove in the other four runs. Campillo is turning into a real stop gap while the Braves try to mash up a rotation with John Smoltz headed to the pen and Mike Hampton on what is becoming quite a long vacation. In three games, Jorge has posted two wins and a 0.99 ERA. How long he can continue this run, I'm not sure, but just like Chipper's gawdy .420 batting average, I'm all for it! The game also marked the return of reliever Rafael Soriano, who pitched a scoreless inning in his first appearance since being activated from the DL.

The Braves will move onto Cincinnati to take on the Reds this weekend. Tom Glavine, Jair Jurrjens and Tim Hudson will all take the mound against a streaking Reds team. Although they broke their 9 game home win streak last night to the Pirates, the Reds will be tough especially for the 2008 Braves whose away record is almost as horrible as their home record is amazing.

In other news, Matt Diaz will be out for quite some time after an MRI revealed a partial tear in the posterior cruciate ligament. He is expected to miss at least 4-6 weeks...While outfielder Mark Kotsay will avoid a trip to the DL with his sore back. The outfielder shagged fly balls on Wednesday but was not healthy enough to enter the lineup...And finally, click here for a great article on Chipper Jones in USA Today.

It's been fun blogging with you,
Kate