Colorado Rockies vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – May 20, 2009 – ESPN

Big win. Some losses, too. Pretty much everybody got involved.

The Braves took the lead in the second, when Diaz tripled and came home on a flyout by Francoeur, who even when he gets a run in still makes outs. The Rockies tied it in the fourth on an “unearned” run, but the Braves erupted in the bottom of the inning. They got the first two runs home without a hit, getting a HBP (Francoeur, doing his part!), three walks, and a sac fly. Infante drove in a run with an infield single. And finally Escobar chased the starter with a three-run homer (tying Chipper for the team lead) to make it 7-1. The Braves got three more runs off of reliever (and former Braves prospect) Matt Belisle to make it 10-1.

Javy Vazquez only pitched five innings due to the big lead. He struck out the first four men he faced, winding up with six on the night, and allowed just three hits. Bennett came in, I guess because even he would have trouble blowing a nine-run lead. He actually threw two perfect innings, with three strikeouts.

The Braves finally chased Belisle in the sixth, scoring a couple of runs to make it 12-1. The reliever who followed, on his second pitch, hit Omar Infante on the hand. Infante left the game; x-rays revealed a broken fifth metacarpal. That’s probably a six-week injury. Since nobody else on the roster can back up shortstop, I would expect Diory Hernandez to be called up tomorrow.

The Braves did not do anything about this, the third HBP of a Brave in the last two days. It’s a bad decision. The Rockies are not throwing at the Braves; you’d have to be a moron to throw at Jeff Francoeur. The problem is that the Rockies aren’t being careful, aren’t trying hard enough to not hit opposing batters. This is dangerous. At some point, baseball decided to take an intent standard on HBPs, imposing additional punishment basically only when they were pretty sure that the pitcher was trying to hit the batter. This is a mistake, and the Braves are making a mistake by accepting it. Carl Mays wasn’t throwing at Ray Chapman; he just didn’t really care if Chapman got hit or not.

Jo-Jo Reyes pitched the eighth, and gave up two runs. He was probably already mentally packing his bags, or gassing up his car at any rate, when he turned his ankle after getting a hit in the bottom of the inning. So instead of going to Gwinnett, he’ll go on the DL when Medlen comes up tomorrow. Carlyle, who really should be sent to Gwinnett too, will stay, even though he gave up another run and has an 8.31 ERA.

Everyone had a hit, even Francoeur. Diaz led the way with three, plus a walk, scoring four runs. Schafer had a sac fly, giving him as many RBI since Friday (four) as he had all season.