Atlanta Braves Win Season Defining Game Against Cincinnati Reds

Earlier in the week, I wrote that the Boston Red Sox had a chance to win a season defining game against the New York Yankees and failed to do so. On the flipside, the Atlanta Braves had a chance to win a season defining yesterday against the Cincinnati Reds and hit the ball out of the park — literally.

The Braves were getting the doors blown off them by the Reds as the Reds built a 9-3 lead heading into the ninth inning in Atlanta. The Reds sent out Mike Lincoln for his third inning of work and then the roof caved in.

Below is what transpired in the ninth inning. Sorry for the slight blurriness, but I wanted to get everything on one screen.

The Braves came back to beat the Reds 10-9, who were in first place by the way, so they didn’t beat a couple of bushleaguers.  Every great rally has a great moment involved in it and in this case, the great moment was the game-winning grand slam by Brooks Conrad of all people.

Conrad is a journeyman minor leaguer, who was hitting in Chipper Jones’ spot in the lineup. He has become a nice power source off the bench for the Braves this year as he has seven hits on the year, but he has three doubles and three home runs.

Of course, every great rally is usually helped by a miscue by the other team. In this case, the miscue was a double play ball hit by Martin Prado that was mishandled by Reds’ third baseman Miguel Cairo. That play should have been a rally killer, but instead it opened up the floodgates.

And while Conrad is going to get all the glory for this game, how about we recognize two player who actually weren’t part of the rally. After Tommy Hanson gave up eight runs in 1.2 IP, Jesse Chavez and Jonny Venters combined to give up five hits and one run in 6.1 IP to at least keep the game in striking distance.

The Braves now are 21-20 and have gone 8-2 over their last 10 games. Yesterday’s game is one of those games that could propel the Braves for the remainder of the season.

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