Braves Winning The Uggla Way

Dan Uggla's hitting struggles in 2011 seem to be a thing of the past, and that couldn't be better news for the 38-28 Braves.

Riding a six-game winning streak and winning eight of their last ten games, the Braves have gone from 3.5 games behind the Phillies and 1.5 games behind the Marlins, to 2.0 back and only behind the Phillies.

Sweeping a three-game series against the Marlins, and taking the first three from the Astros has the Braves on a six game winning streak going into the final game of the Astros series.

A combination of great pitching (Hanson had career high 14 strikeouts today), Late-game heroics (McCann's three-run homer in top of the 10th-inning yesterday), and players stepping up

[caption id="attachment_76" align="alignleft" width="285" caption="Dan Uggla hits 2-run homer in first inning"][/caption]

(Uggla went 2-3 with a homer, 2 RBI's, and scored twice) led to these past 6 wins.

[caption id="attachment_78" align="alignright" width="165" caption="Tommy Hanson"][/caption]

Dan Uggla's magnificent plate performance (while starting the year out slow batting 1.70, has brought his average up to 1.76, and has been hitting better since he sat a couple days ago.) was overshadowed by Tommy Hanson's strong day on the mound. Hanson (8-4, 2.59 ERA) struck out a career-high 14 Astros, while only giving up 1 ER.

If the Braves continue to play as well as they have, and Dan Uggla gets out of his own head, the Braves can be even better. At 38-28 with Uggla struggling, imagine if Uggla starts to hit again. Instant offense, instant runs, instant wins.

Only time will tell, but right now, the Braves are right where they want to be and doing what they are supposed to do: WIN