Today, in Denver, it was too cold to go outside. So of course, they played not one, but two baseball games. Well, they’re going to play a second here shortly. It’s 7:30 PM EDT, so we’re just under an hour out of game two’s start time.

In game one, the Braves were who we thought they were. They hit three home runs, scoring four runs, and nearly hit three more. Mike Minor pitched well in Colorado and was backed up by solid outings from Luis Avilan and Eric O’Flaherty. Craig Kimbrel was wild and off of his A-game in the ninth, but got two out so that Bear-Man-Crusher-McGee could add insult to injury by throwing out the opposing catcher trying to steal second to end the game.

Offensively, Justin Upton continues to pound the ever loving hell out of the ball, connecting for his 78th HR in the first. Dan Uggla did that stopped watch twice a day thing he does occasionally and parked another one with a runner on in the second, putting the Braves up 3-0. But then, baseball in Denver happened and the Rox clawed back into it. A walk to Tulowitzki, a double by red hot Michael Cuddyer, a ground out by Wilin Rosario and a single by somebody named Jordan Pacheco pushed two across in the bottom of the second. A triple by Dexter Fowler and an infield single push across a tying run in the bottom of the third. All of a sudden it’s 3-3, Minor is scraping and working hard to find outs, and you’re like, “huh, apparently it’s still arena baseball in Denver even when your breath freezes in front of you when you exhale.” A feeling that only increased in the top of the fourth when Evan Gattis was like, “Oh, hi, did you need this baseball, because there’s a little girl 15 rows up in LF who really looks like she wants a game souvenir dude.”

Then a really odd thing happened, and no one scored again. The whole game. Minor settled down. The Rox bullpen got in there early and were all “yeah, you’re not going to see Jeff Francis a third time thru, because we’re not idiots man.” And the three aforementioned relievers came in and closed it out for Atlanta in as routine a fashion as you can hope for in Denver-ball.

What we learned from this game is that Justin Upton, Dan Uggla and Evan Gattis have power, that Freddie Freeman is good to have back in the lineup (his first two at bats would have been HRs in any other game conditions but frozen air, and he singled in his third) and that BJ Upton is in a funk and couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. But apparently Reed Johnson can, at least in Denver.

Oh, and Jason Heyward’s on the 15 day DL with a ‘splodey appendix and Jordan Pacheco is neither a mechanical Japanese style upright pinball gambling machine, nor a second tier crewman from the original Star Trek. Rather, he’s apparently the guy that plays Todd Helton’s position in Colorado now. So there’s that, I guess.

Game two starts in t-minus 13 minutes…