Braves continue to pound Nats pitchers

A day after pounding the Nationals into oblivion with a 10-1 victory and win for John Smoltz, the Braves maintained their hot hitting recording sixteen hits, including nine extra base hits, crossing the plate thirteen times. Each starter (excluding the pitcher Oscar Villarreal) had at least one hit this afternoon with Marcus Giles continuing to spark the Atlanta offense going 3-5 and scoring twice, and 22 year old All-star catcher Brian McCann going 4-5 with a pair of doubles and a pair of runs taking his batting average up to .341 for the season, only four points behind Freddy Sanchez of Pittsburgh who leads the league in batting average. Of course, McCann still needs another 123 plate appearances in only 33 games (3.73 per game) to even qualify for the batting title, but he's quietly edging his way forward towards that target, whilst becoming a large part of this outstanding Atlanta offense.
Both Jones' homered today, and while Chipper remains hot, Andruw is finally showing signs of coming around from his 0-13 slump and a 12 game home run draught. First baseman Adam LaRoche is continuing to pound left handed hitters, with his third inning double off Nationals starter Billy Traber he is now hitting .276 against southpaws (including five doubles and five home runs in just 76 at-bats), proving he definitely deserves the extra playing time he is getting from Bobby Cox. Jeff Francoeur is also continuing his torrid sophomore season with three more RBIs this evening with his fourth inning home run off Saul Rivera (its a shame he couldn't come to the plate in the ninth inning of Friday's loss - he was stranded on deck at the end of the game with the braves down one run and two runners on base). He has now 24 HRs and 89 RBIs for the season. With Jeff, Adam and Andruw (who recorded his 30th home run this evening), the Braves have three legitimate contenders for 30HR-100RBI seasons. Chipper Jones is a long shot for a fourth with 21-72 so far.

Oscar Villarreal, the Braves starter, lasted only three innings in tonight's game, giving up four runs, but did just enough to keep the Atlanta in the game although he doesn't look promising to hold down the starting job for too much longer. With Kyle Davies throwing well in his rehab starts in AAA-Richmond (three hits over seven innings - 23/8) and will likely make just one more start down on the farm [CBS SportsLine], and Anthony Lerew looking for a long awaited call up to the rotation in September, Villarreal may find himself back in the bullpen sooner rather than later, but that could be just what the doctor ordered for Atlanta.
Tim Hudson and Chuck James are throwing consistently well, and John Smoltz is continuing to be dominant, couple that with the return of Davies and possible call up for Lerew in September, and the Braves rotation could be finally back at full strength for the series' against Philadelphia and New York at the start of the month.

The Braves however need to get off to a good start against the Giants on Tuesday, when Tim Hudson faces San Francisco's ace Jason Schmidt, and need to take at least two of the three game series to stay in contention for the wild card route to the playoffs, but with James and Smoltz following Hudson in the rotation, and the likelihood Atlanta will not have to face either of the two promising San Francisco young guns Matt Cain or Noah Lowry, this could be the break the Braves need to get on a role just at the right time.