ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Nationals at Braves

Apparently, if you finish the game with more runs than your opponent, you are rewarded with a “win”.  What is this “win” of which you speak?

The Braves went down early 1-0, Horacio allowing a single, a walk, and a two-out double.  But Francoeur made a strong throw, he actually hit the cutoff man, and the second runner held up so that’s all they got.

In the second, the Braves got some two-out lightning of their own.  Marcus singled in Langerhans, then Pena scored all the way from first when Soriano let the ball get under his glove.  (I know he’s really a second baseman, but shouldn’t that make him better on ground balls, not worse?)

LaRoche hit a solo homer in the third — which is nice, but all he does is hit homers, just like the guy who hits after him — to make it 3-1, then in the fourth Pena followed Langerhans’ leadoff triple with a single to make it 4-1.  That man Soriano hit another homer to make it 4-3, but Andruw gave them some insurance with a solo homer in the bottom of the eighth.

Horacio wasn’t quite as sharp as in his last outing, but gave them eight innings and struck out five against but one walk.  He threw 117 pitches, 66 of them for strikes.  Ray pitched the ninth and struck out two for his third save.

The Braves will attempt to win a series tomorrow, but let’s not get greedy.  I think I’ll ask Danny to write the game thread again.