With the way Jair Jurrjens has been pitching, he wouldn’t need much more offensive support than back-to-back homers by Martin Prado and Nate McLouth in the first inning against Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon.
But the way Prado has been hitting, Jurrjens was going to get more.
Jurrjens took a no-hitter into the sixth inning, and Prado drove in three runs during the Braves’ 5-3 win against the Phillies at Turner Field, evening the series at a game apiece before Sunday afternoon’s finale in baseball’s annual Civil Rights Game.
“Any game you take from the Phillies is a big game,” said Jurrjens, who limited the Phillies to three hits and three runs in 7 1/3 innings to stay unbeaten and continue his run of success against Philadelphia. “Right now they’re the team to beat in the National League and in our division. Any ‘W’ is a big one for us.”
Jurrjens improved to 5-0 with a 1.66 ERA in six starts, the first Braves pitcher to start a season 5-0 with a sub-2.00 ERA since Tom Glavine in 2000.
The right-hander was nursing a 2-1 lead before the Braves scored three runs in the sixth, when catcher David Ross surprised the Phillies with a two-out RBI bunt single, and Prado added a two-run single.
“Lot of great things out there today, starting the game with back-to-back home runs,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves bounced back after wasting multiple scoring opportunities in the late innings of a 5-4 loss Friday.
They had a 2-0 lead after the first six pitches thrown by Phillies starter Joe Blanton (1-2), who gave up a homer to Prado on an 0-and-1 fastball. McLouth went deep four pitches later, giving the Braves their first back-to-back homers to start a first inning since Rafael Furcal and Mark DeRosa did it against Cincinnati in 2003.
“Dude, I hit the ball, and I was running hard because I didn’t expect it to go out — and it went out,” Prado said of his fifth career leadoff homer and first this season. “Blanton is one of those guys you’ve got to go after early. Because if you let him get into the game, when he starts dealing and he’s got some confidence, he’s rough.”
McLouth followed with a homer to center field on a 2-and-1 pitch, and Blanton found himself trailing 2-0 before many in the crowd of 35,238 found their seats.
“It’s a great way to start a game,” McLouth said. “[Blanton] settled in after that, to his credit. We knew two runs wasn’t going to do it. We were able to add on, but it was definitely a good way to start a game.”
Especially with Jurrjens pitching. He improved to 5-3 with 2.45 ERA in 11 starts against Philadelphia, the lowest of any active pitcher with at least 50 innings logged against the Phillies.
He retired the first 17 batters before Michael Martinez’s two-out pinch-hit single in the sixth inning. Jimmy Rollins followed with a RBI double, and Rollins was out trying to stretch it to a triple.
Jurrjens was asked if there was any point when he began thinking about the fact he was throwing a no-hitter.
“Every time you walk out there you see zeroes [on the scoreboard]. If somebody says they’re not thinking about it, they’re lying,” he said, smiling. “Just one bad pitch, hanging. If a [no-hitter] is going to happen someday, it’s going to happen. I’m not worried about that.”
He got the next four batters out before giving up a one-out walk in he eighth, followed by Wilson Valdez’s RBI double. Jonny Venters replaced Jurrjens, and the third Phillies run scored on a passed ball.
“He’s been good every outing,” said Ross, who has caught all but one of Jurrjens’ starts. “For him to do what he did and save our bullpen — some of those [relievers] pitched yesterday, and we’re going through a stretch where they’ve been up a lot down in the bullpen and pitching in stressful situations. So it was nice for him to help them out today.”
