If you saw the Braves game last night you saw Peter Moylan come up big for the Braves. You also saw Tommy Hanson, Johnny Venters, Billy Wagner, Mike Dunn, Brooks Conrad, and Finally Omar Infante be huge in a game that counted big time.
It was an eleven inning nail biter that saw Brian McCann hit a home and Mike Stanton show a little bit of why Braves fan will be hating him for the next four+ years or how ever long Jeffery Loria can keep him before the next fire sale in Miami.
The most important thing that happened for the Braves was the Padres losing. That puts them up one game in the Wild Card standings, which is good but they really need to be up two games.
Why? You may ask.
The Braves play five more games and three are against the Philies, the Padres have six to play which gives them the advantage if they can stay within a game to force a one game playoff.
The Philies have to be thinking that they want to kill the Braves at home, if it is a decision to face the Padres or the Braves in the NLCS which is the only time they could face in the playoffs most voters say, give me the Padres. They have a very young starting staff with no post season experience other than Jon Garland who helped win the 2005 World Series with the White Sox. Plus their ace Matt Latos is showing some late season fatigue.
The Braves, however have tow playoff veterans in Tim Hudson who has been to the post season five times, and Derek Lowe who has been six times. That includes being Capitan Clutch for the 2004 Red Sox. Add Tommy Hanson and (a hopefully healthy) Jair Jurrgens and you have a formidable post season rotation.
If JJ is unavailable it looks as if Brandon Beachy will get the call he has been really sharp in two outings, and would likely be more trusted than Mike Minor who has struggled in recent days, or Kenshin Kawakami.
You probably know why he wont start.
So what it comes down to is these final games. If they can win 2 of three or sweep the Marlins and get two out of three from the Phillies they should be fine. Heres to hoping the Phillies want to rest their starters since they have clinched.
Go Braves!
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