It happened tonight. Â Nick Markakis hit his first home run as an Atlanta Brave, a two-run blast to center field off former Atlanta Braves RHP Brandon Beachy. Â Atlanta brought the lumber tonight, scoring 7 runs on 11 hits as the Atlanta Braves defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers by the score of 7-5.
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Just when I started thinking Markakis was never going to hit a homer for the Braves this year, he totally redeemed himself with a two-run blast to center scoring Cameron Maybin.  That long ball gives Nick 31 RBI’s on the season as he is hitting a cool .289.  You knew that it was going to take some time for Markakis to get his strength back after undergoing offseason neck surgery.  Hopefully Nick can experience a bit of a power surge and maybe hit 5 or so in the second half.
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Matt Wisler pitched well tonight outside of the 5th inning when he allowed 4 earned runs.  Wisler made only two mistake pitches tonight, one to Howie Kendrick on his two-RBI double and then on Adrian Gonzalez‘s two-run blast.  Matt earned his fourth victory with the Atlanta Braves despite not having his best stuff, having to pitch mostly to contact.  I like him as a front-line starter for the Braves in the foreseeable future.
The offense took care of business tonight against Beachy and the LA bullpen. Â You could tell that Beachy was really trying to pitch his A game against his former team, but the Atlanta humidity seemed to get to him, only last four innings this evening.
Jace Peterson had a great night at the plate, going 2 for 5 with 3 RBI’s.  Nick Markakis also had a double to go with his two-run blast.  Andrelton Simmons had two nice hits.  It’s been a grind for the Atlanta Braves’ offense of late and I enjoyed seeing the team put together some crooked innings against an NL Pennant contending Los Angeles Dodgers team.
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Winning the first game of the series against LA bodes well for the Atlanta Braves to get a nice series victory at home before going on the road to play St. Louis and Baltimore.  Though Atlanta is in the midst of a very rough patch of their schedule, I believe Fredi Gonzalez‘s club caught a break by not getting either Clayton Kershaw or Zack Greinke in this series.
Alex Wood gets the start tomorrow night versus fellow southpaw Brett Anderson.  Wood may want to keep a close eye on Dodgers 3B Justin Turner who had 4 hits tonight in his breakout season in the Big Leagues.  Here’s to clinching a series victory tomorrow.  It was a good night for the Atlanta Braves.
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