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I’d feel a lot better about winning the game if the Braves hadn’t waited until the seventh to score. And if it hadn’t come against a team that’s now lost eight straight. Well, a win’s a win.

Chipper hit a solo homer in the seventh to open the scoring, and Nick Green scored on a bad throw to the plate in the eighth for an insurance run. The Braves wound up with six hits, but never seriously threatened until the homer. Nobody had more than one hit. Green .333; DeRosa .194. I’m just saying.

Russ Ortiz needed some good defense (much of it from Green) to keep the Dodgers off the board. His control was shaky all night; in seven innings he walked five against seven strikeouts, and 50 of his 112 pitches were balls. But the Braves turned three double plays. Reitsma had a perfect ninth; Smoltz gave up two hits, but one of them was DeRosa’s fault.

Furcal pinch-hit again, singling on a drag bunt, but ran himself out of the inning later. Garcia is leading off for no readily apparent reason except that someone has to lead off and there really isn’t a suitable candidate. Well, Green has a .478 OBP, but come on. I like him, but he’s not that good.