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By Jon Weisman
Even though one start is only one start, it’s hard not to feel good about this afternoon’s post. Atlanta could hardly touch Kevin Correia in tonight’s 6-2 Dodger victory, one that moved them five games up on San Francisco in the National League West.
That’s one victory in the books for the Dodgers from their new No. 6 starter, setting up some nice dominoes for the rest of the Dodgers’ week.
See the spray chart at right? Only two balls hit by the Braves went beyond medium left field, and one of those was Evan Gattis’ inconsequential double off Carlos Frias in the ninth.
Correia faced 23 batters, striking out five and getting 10 groundouts. He allowed a walk, three singles and a double. There were two lineouts, one on a sweet, skyscraping catch by Miguel Rojas. Atlanta reached ball three in the count only three times the entire night.
Maybe sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, but tonight, Correia was plenty good.
Oh, and Correia went 2 for 2 at the plate, scoring the Dodgers’ first run after they trailed 1-0 through five innings. Dodger pitchers have reached base seven of their past 14 trips to the plate.
Despite seeing two of their first three baserunners get picked off, the Dodgers plenty whelmed Atlanta, reaching base 15 times (that’s 33 in their past two games) against Atlanta’s top pitcher, Julio Teheran, and looking sharper than their opponents defensively. Special mention to Carl Crawford, who is 5 for 8 in his past two games.
oldbrooklynfan
It was good to see Correia have such a wonderful outing last night and increase the lead in the NL West for the Dodgers to 5 games.