Lehr, Bats Take Care of Business, Drop Braves 8-2
The Bats got things started immediately with Luis Bolivar reaching base on an error by Braves shortstop Chris Burke. After stealing second and tagging up on a fly-ball, Bolivar stood on third with Chris Heisey coming to the plate in only his third game for the bats. Heisey capitalized with an RBI groundout to short scoring Bolivar and giving the Bats the lead. Edwin Encarnacion followed with a walk and advanced on a wild pitch by Braves starter Jonny Venters. Darnell McDonald then added another run with a double to left scoring Encarnacion from second.
As Gwinnett struggled to manufacture runs or hits off of Lehr, Louisville kept pushing. In the top of the sixth inning, McDonald walked and Adam Rosales singled to right putting a runner-in-scoring-position. Chris Valaika then hit a long double off the wall in center scoring both McDonald and Rosales, making it 4-0.
Lehr pitched a near-perfect game until the bottom of the seventh. After a walk by Brooks Conrad and a single by Brandon Jones, the Braves threatened Lehr's streak of 17-consecutive innings of shutout baseball. Clint Sammons then hit a double-play ball to Encarnacion at third that got the force at second, but an erroneous throw by Bolivar to Rosales left a runner safe at first and allowed Conrad to score. Lehr worked his way out of the rest of the inning maintaining the lead 4-1 for the Bats.
Louisville put the game out of reach in the top of the eighth after McDonald, who lead-off with a double, scored on a single up the middle by Valaika. The Bats didn't stop there as Corky Miller hit an RBI single scoring Valaika, his first RBI for the Bats this season. Danny Dorn then pinch hit for the Lehr and hit a two-run blast to center, making it 8-1 Bats. The last pinch hit home run for the Bats was back in 2005 by Jose Fernandez.
Gwinnett fought back in the bottom half of the eighth after two errors by the shortstop Bolivar put runners on first and second. Brandon Jones then hit a single scoring Wes Timmons, who has a league-leading 25 game on-base streak. It made the score 8-2.
Louisville was lead by the white-hot bats of McDonald and Valaika, who both reached base three times and combined for half of the Bats' runs. Dorn also had two RBI's and a homer in one at bat. Miller and Heisey had the other RBI's for Louisville. Rosales had a hit extending his 12-game hit streak and 18-game on-base streak.
Justin Lehr (11-2, 3.21) pitched effectively going seven innings giving up one run on five hits while striking out two and walking two. Lehr expands his league-lead in wins for the International League.
Jeff Kennard and Zach Stewart came on in relief for the Bats to close the game. Stewart struck out two in an inning of work in his 2009 Bats debut.
Braves starter Jonny Venters (0-1, 6.04), a native of Pikeville, Kentucky, was clobbered by the Bats giving up four runs, two earned, in seven innings while walking four and striking out none.
The Bats finish up the series against the Braves and their road trip tomorrow at 2:05pm in Lawrenceville. Probable starters are RHP Sam LeCure (6-5, 4.73) for the Bats and RHP Todd Redmond (4-6, 4.94) for the Braves.