Whether it's the Jonny Venters-like grip on his sinking fastball or something else, Jair Jurrjens somewhat suddenly looks like one of the best pitchers in the National League, all the more so after pitching the Atlanta Braves to a 2-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds Sunday night.
Reds Vs. Braves: Jair Jurrjens Pitches Atlanta Past Cincinnati
Not that Jurrjens' seventh victory -- against just one defeat -- came easy. In the first inning, Jurrjens hung a change-up to Jay Bruce, who deposited the pitch beyond the right-field fence, 456 feet beyond, for his league-leading 15th home run.
The score was still 1-0 after five innings, with Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto pitching a gem of his own. But in the bottom of the sixth, Braves center fielder Jordan Schafer worked a leadoff walk after fouling off three straight 2-2 pitches. Next up, Martin Prado -- whose numbers have been down this season -- took two pitches for balls, then drove Cueto's 93-m.p.h. fastball, right down the middle, over the left-field fence for his seventh homer of the season, putting the Braves up 2-1.
And of course that’s how things ended. But there was some drama yet left.
In the top of the 8th, with Jurrjens still on the mound, Paul Janish led off with a single and moved to second on Cueto's sacrifice bunt. To nobody's real surprise, National League strikeout leader Drew Stubbs struck out. Also to nobody's real surprise, Brandon Phillips followed with line-drive single to left field. Prado fielded the ball cleanly and unleashed an accurate throw homeward, where David Ross tagged Janish just in time.
According to umpire Dan Iassogna, anyway. Replays suggested that Janish’s foot scrapped the plate just before Ross applied the tag, but then replays suggest a lot of things that don’t get into the record books. Whatever actually happened, Janis was out, the inning over and the Braves still ahead.
Having thrown only 97 pitches, Jurrjens gave way to Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning. Kimbrel's struggled some lately, and he got into some real trouble in this game, too. Joey Votto led off with a walk. And after Scott Rolen popped out and Bruce struck out, Fred Lewis singled Votto into scoring position. But Kimbrel finally finished off the Reds -- and earned his 15th save -- by striking out Ramon Hernandez swinging at a high fastball, 98 miles an hour.
Meanwhile, Jurrjens now leads Major League Baseball with a 1.51 ERA.
For more about the Braves and the Reds, please visit Talking Chop and Red Reporter.
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