Hudson Gives The Mets a Reality Check: Braves Win Series

Although Tim Hudson's birthday is on Wednesday, the Mets were adamant about giving Tim an early birthday present...a shutout.

Our ace was beyond extraordinary on the mound this afternoon, and he wasn't too bad at the plate either. Hudson pitched into the seventh inning without allowing a single run on just four hits, and the former Auburn slugger had two base hits today, one of them an RBI double right over the head of former brave, Jeff Francouer. He got a lot of help from the defense with three double plays turned behind him, and was once again successful in delivering the Braves a win, their fourth consecutive and fifty-first of the season.

This game was possibly the most important game of the year before the All-Star break. Now the Braves will head into the break with at least a four game lead in the division, no matter what happens tomorrow, and hopefully a lead of six games. If that doesn't convince everybody out there that the Braves are the new favorites to win the division, then i don't know what will.

Unfortunately for the National League, Jason Heyward has announced that he will not play in the All Star Game on Tuesday, but fortunately Braves fans, Heyward took batting practice back in Gwinnett this evening and said that he "was able to take that high pitch up and away and stay on top of it and use my top hand to hit it, I couldn't do that before, so that's a sign it's feeling better." Thank you Jason, that's all I need to know, now go ice that thumb and be ready for the second half of the season...I love you.

The Braves can beat any team in Major League Baseball right now, and they aren't even completely healthy. We have two starting outfielders on the DL and Chipper Jones continues to be haunted by those mysterious invisible injuries. There is magic in the air in Braves country. Braves fans haven't felt this good since 1995, and I don't need to remind you of what happened that year.

The Bravos take out the brooms tomorrow, when Derek Lowe takes the mound looking to help his team sweep away those annoying little Mets.