VIDEO LINK: Here, there be glorious highlight reels of my beloved Braves. Here, you shall re-live (or view for the first time) the return of JJ's velocity and location (re: Sit DOWN, Rockies! Where's your no-hitter, now??), MattE D's big day at the plate, Prado's collision (such intense concentration), and... Jason Heyward's no-sweat heroics in the bottom of the 9th. Good-bye, Colorado. Celebrate your no-no, but we still won the series.
JJ recorded 9 strikeouts in 8 innings of work on Sunday. He was solid and watching those Rockies going down swinging was such a wonderful feeling. The velocity of his pitches were back. His changeups were back. And JJ was once again Smiley Brave. :)
Meanwhile, in the lead-off position, MattE hit and hit and hit. He was just one homerun short of a cycle... but still. What a guy.
JJ ended up being taken out of the game in the 8th inning, when he gave up a run. Eric O'Flaherty came in and pitched, preventing the Rockies from scoring in the rest of the 8th inning. We failed to score in the bottom of the 8th, but EOF came back and took care of business once again... and then the pressure was on.
Martin Prado, Chipper Jones, and Brian McCann were the three guys we sent up against the Rockies closing pitcher, Morales.
Martin hit a single! No outs.
Chipper flies out. 1 out.
While BMac is batting, Prado advances on a balk call. BMac is then walked. Natey is put in to pinch run for BMac.
Troy Glaus grounds into a force out (Natey is out at 2nd). Prado is on third, Glaus is on first. Brooks Conrad is put in to pinch run for Glaus. 2 outs.
Yunel Escobar is walked. 2 outs.
Jason Heyward comes to the plate, cool as a cucumber. Two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning. Bases loaded. Braves are down by one run. First pitch, ball. Second and third pitches, strikes. One called strike or one swing or one ground out or fly out from losing the game. But the fourth pitch? Line to left field. Prado scores. Conrad scores.
And the team jumps Heyward as he leaps with joy. What. A. Stud. Is that not a glorious way to end the series? A stellar JJ, a hot MattE, and a cool Heyward? Love it.
In other news, I have a bit of a dilemma (not really). The Atlanta Hawks have made it to the playoffs. Have you read that properly? The HAWKS. Made it. To the PLAYOFFS. HAWKS. PLAYOFFS. I already missed the glorious game 1 on Saturday against the Bucks.... I don't intend to miss game 2 (on Tuesday!). HOWEVER... then there is that issue of... oh, I don't know... money. I have too many hobbies that require money (i.e. music, concerts, baseball games, escaping Georgia, etc.).
Normally, this would be a no-brainer, money or not... After all, even though I'm not as big of a basketball girl as I am a baseball girl, I AM an ATLien... and I support all things Atlanta in any form of competition (as long as it's good... I don't want to win the "worst air" contest.... I want to lose by a mile long list, but that won't happen T_T).
But... here is the pickle that I am in: The Braves are playing a series against the Phillies this week. I am not a Phillies fan. I am, in fact, quite the opposite. As I have said before, I am one of those fans that hates any team that plays the Braves. You will bow down before the Braves, swine! You are not fit to lick the dirt of the bottom of the shoes of the bat boys. (Exaggeration, obviously... I don't actually hate people... but it's still fun to use hyperboles.) In spite of my hyperbolic hatred of them, a member of the Phillies happens to my favorite active pitcher. He is Harry LeRoy Halladay III. Better known to some as... Roy "Doc" Halladay. And he is pitching on Thursday. And I have NEVER seen him pitch live... and I love him. He's going down against my team, of course (we're gonna hand him his first loss), but I still love him. It's out of control.
So the dilemma is this: Atlanta Hawks Playoffs game vs. Doc & the Braves playing in a regular season game (early in the season, no less). Like I said... normally this would be an easy decision. But it's Doc.
What? It's DOC. I am incapable of passing up Doc. I'm sorry. I just can't. Even if I can't root for him, I adore him.
Ah, hell. Screw it. I'm going to both. Life's too short. :P
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