Braves Rally Falls Short in Series Opener

The Braves fell victim Sunday night to a great start from Josh Hall as he had streaks of nine and twelve in a row retired to collect his first win of the season in front of a season high crowd of 6,224 at Bellsouth Park. Josh Hall (1-0, 4.24 ERA) allowed the Braves three runs on four hits in the second inning, but otherwise retired the side in six different innings.

Braves starter Daniel Curtis (2-5, 4.91 ERA) spotted the Lookouts 4 runs in the first three innings and was charged with his fifth loss of the season. David Shaffer pitched the ninth for his Southern League leading 15th save of the season.

The Braves made it interesting in the eighth putting the tying run on put Escobar struck out looking to end that threat. In the ninth Canizares doubled to left which brought the tying run to the plate. Shaffer then recorded to flyouts and a groundout to leave him stranded at third.

The Braves are in Chattanooga to play game two of a five-game set against the lookouts Monday afternoon at 1:15 CT. The Braves will send RHP Sean White (2-3, 5.37 ERA) to the hill in search of his third win of '06 while Chattanooga counters with LHP Tyler Pelland (3-1, 3.83 ERA). The Braves On Deck Circle powered by Nextel starts off the broadcast at 12:15pm (CT) on SuperSport 930. If you're headed to Chattanooga don't forget to bring your radios and tune into 107.1 FM exclusively at Bellsouth Park.

Check out the Braves Minute here. To catch an archived version of tonight's game or any previous MS Braves game head to Minor League Baseball.com and select the day you want to hear.

BRAVES BITES:

* Barbaro Canizares extended his hit streak to five games ... (7-19, .368)
* Martin Prado extended his hit streak to three games… (5-11, .455)
* Josh Burrus extended his hit streak to four games… (5-14, .357)
* The Braves fell to 5-22 when giving up a homerun, 5-12 in two-run games.
* The Braves fell to 1-3 on first game of a road trip and 1-5 on Sundays.
* Luis Hernandez is mired in an 0-18 slump.
* TIME OF GAME - 2:11 – The quickest game of the season.

By
Bryan Eubank