A Braves' Offensive Explosion: Can the Boys From Atlanta Keep it Up?

Friday night at Turner Field was one to remember.

Greg Maddux saw his number immortalized with the likes of Aaron, Mathews, and Niekro, and the 2009 edition of the Atlanta Braves routed the hated Mets 11-0.

After a night that saw them put five runs on the board (including home runs—something that's been sorely missed since the first series of the season), this performance was very nice, as it appeared that they didn't get "burned out" after one night.

It can't be overlooked that JJ pitched a gem and Logan, Valdez, and Medlen came in behind him to shut-out the "almighty" (hahaha) Mets.

In fact, even if this WAS just mop-up duty, it should be encouraging that these somewhat unsung heroes of the 'pen (minus Valdez who'll be gone when Hanson's next turn in the rotation comes) were effective.

But still, for this club of non-juggernauts to do what they did, the real story lies with them.

Prado and McCann drove in three runs via the long ball; but four doubles that produced six runs from Kotchman, Escobar, Anderson, and (guess who?) McCann is what the foundation of this team is.

When they're doing that, it means that they are "doing they're thing."

Now, this isn't the first time we've seen this team do this.

Many times, in fact, they've managed to put together some pretty impressive scoreless-innings streaks.

However, with power slowly working it's way into the mix and the "death by a thousand cuts" (the doubles and singles) tactic finally being used a lot more effectively, this appears to be a ball club turning the corner.

The promising signs are there, but we'll see how they handle Johan Santana (career 0-4 with a 2.31 ERA against the Braves) on Saturday.

Will we see the Braves of Thursday and Friday, or the Braves of June?

Interesting fact from the realms of stupidity: The last team to go an entire season without hitting an out-of-the-park home run was the 1945 Washington Senators.  The team only mustered ONE inside-the-park-homer at cavernous Griffith Stadium, it came from from Joe Kuhel. (from Great Baseball Facts, Feats, and Firsts by David Nemec and Scott Flatow)