House Money

Some thoughts about last night. First of all, big props to Anibal Sanchez. He made his first start since returning from the disabled list, and was brilliant. He threw five no hit innings before allowing one run on two hits with seven strikeouts in his six innings of work. Not bad for someone on a pitch count. This is huge. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from Anibal the rest of this season, but if he can give us anything, that would be like playing with house money. With Volstad struggling in the second half, perhaps Sanchez can be that third cog in the rotation coming down the stretch. Hopefully he just stays healthy, because we all know how good he can be.

Mother nature was vying for it's third save in as many chances for the Marlins this year, but ultimately it had to settle for the hold. The weather reports and radar maps I saw didn't give me any reason to believe the last five outs of the game would be completed, but credit the Atlanta grounds crew for making a somewhat playable field for the final nine minutes of baseball.

And lastly, thanks to Cody Ross for making sure it was only nine minutes and not allowing the Braves to bring the potential tying run to the plate after he gunned down Laroche at second on his base hit. That was sweet.