Just to be clear, the game was closer than the score indicates. Brandon Beachy got his first win in a game that was a shutout until the sixth, when Prado hit a solo homer. The Braves made it 2-0 with a Freeman homer in the seventh, but Linebrink tried to destroy that. He gave up three hits while getting only one out in the seventh to make it 2-1, with one out and two on.

For all the grief that Fredi’s gotten over the past few games, let the record show that he made the right call. Rather than asking O’Flaherty, Sherrill, or The Lisp to get out of it, because it was only the seventh, he went with Venters. Venters struck out the first man he faced, walked the bases loaded, then got out of it with a groundout. Problem solved.

After Venters threw a perfect eighth, the Braves exploded for eight runs in the ninth inning to make it look like a completely different game. Conrad earlier in the game had finally gotten the Braves’ first pinch-hit, and Hinske‘s two-run homer gave them their first pinch-homer. Uggla hit a three-run homer later in the inning, and Hinske came around again and singled, and I don’t know if that counts as a pinch-hit or not.

Martinez pitched the ninth, not Kimbrel, so Fredi’s got that going for him too. The Braves even walked eight times. This is how this is supposed to work.