Cubs shut out Braves in Atlanta's first loss

Last night's 2-0 shutout was a bitter defeat for the Braves in the style of many of the Braves' losses over the past couple of seasons: solid pitching backed by an offense that could get runners on base but couldn't drive them in. (The Braves stranded 12 baserunners on Thursday night).

Tyler Colvin's solo homerun in the top of the second put the Cubs ahead for good. In the fourth inning, Marlon Byrd's second homerun of the year plated the game's final run.

The loss was especially frustrating because - despite the homeruns - Tommy Hanson (5 1/3 IP, 7 K, 3 BB, 4 H) outpitched Randy Wells (6 IP, 1 K, 2 BB).

The Braves nearly won the game in the bottom of the ninth when Eric Hinske took a Carlos Marmol pitch to deep center with Nate McLouth and Yunel Escobar on base. The ball was well-struck but ultimately hauled in by Marlon Byrd for the second out of the ninth inning. Melky Cabrera unceremoniously struck out to end the game.

Lastly, you probably inferred this next bit of news from the fact that I mentioned that the Braves played a baseball game yesterday, but here goes: Chipper Jones injured his oblique and is expected to miss 2-3 days.

Game 3 Preview

The Braves (2-0) and Cubs (0-2) take the field on Thursday night for yet another righty-righty pitching matchup - Tommy Hanson and Randy Wells.

I won't waste your time by reading from Hanson's résumé. He had a great 2009. He had a great spring training. Barring injury, 2010 should be no different.

Randy Wells had a pretty successful 2009 himself, breaking into the Cubs rotation with a moderate strikeout, low walk, high ground ball rate approach. Think of him as Jair Jurrjens-lite - a decent talent, but he's not going to be fronting any major league rotations (unless he gets traded to the Padres, who trotted out Jon freaking Garland on Opening Day).

Before the opener, I outlined the Cubs' and Braves' historical performance against RHPs.