Kuzul

After a brutal 10-game road trip that saw the Atlanta Braves go 4-6 against the Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks, they returned home to Turner Field and finally got back on track with an 8-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.The main talking point going into Friday night was the return of Jason Heyward, but by the time Craig Kimbrel closed the game out in the top of the ninth inning with his 12th save of the season, all everyone wanted to talk about was the grand slam delivered by Justin Upton in the bottom of the sixth inning. Upton's 14th home run of the season came at a crucial point in the game, as the Braves were down by two runs and starting pitcher Paul Maholm was reaching the end of his start after throwing 95 pitches. After Upton's shot to left field scored Jordan Schafer, Andrelton Simmons ...

The 2002 World Series Loss Still StingsWinning World Series titles in 2010 and 2012 should have pushed any lingering pain of the San Francisco Giants 2002 World Series loss far into the stratosphere—especially since I was among the million at the purely joyous 2010 parade.Laying eyes upon a villain from that 2002 series, however, proved I'm not fully healed—at all. Most of those Los Angeles Angels are long retired. As the saying goes, out of sight, out of mind.The pain quickly flooded back Wednesday when the CSN camera locked on Toronto's starter—Ramon Ortiz, 40 years young, back in MLB after a two-year absence. He was the winning pitcher in Game 3 of that World Series (thanks to run support, it should be noted).Just seeing his face brought it all back. Some folks lead very successful adult lives and still withdraw upon spotting an old high school bully at a reunion. ...

  SCORE UPDATE:  2-1 Cubs Win!!                           Two-run blast by Nate Schierholtz - 4th inning                           Solo shot by Allen Craig - 2nd inning That's a wrap, folks.  Thanks for joining me in my first foray into B\R live blogging.  Hope I get to do this again sometime soon.Go, Cubs, Go!Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Baseball's best rivalry will be on display Tuesday night when the Cincinnati Reds take on the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. The season series is tied 2-2, and the winner of this game could move ahead of the Pittsburgh Pirates atop the NL Central. The Reds have won back-to-back games on the road for the first time all season, but the Cardinals have dropped their past three home games.Right-hander Bronson Arroyo (2-2, 4.24 ERA) will get the ball for the Reds, and southpaw Jaime Garcia (2-1, 2.89 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Cardinals.Tune in to MLB Network or Fox Sports to catch it live, and be sure to stick around for updates.Final: St. Louis 2 - Cincinnati 1 Winning pitcher: Jaime Garcia (3-1)Losing pitcher: Bronson Arroyo (2-3)Save: Edward Mujica (5)Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Final Score: Phillies 9                         Mets 4 WP: Jonathan Pettibone (1-0)LP: Shaun Marcum (0-1) The Phillies and Mets will conclude their series tomorrow at 1:10 p.m. ET.  The Phillies will be sending out Cole Hamels, who is winless this season despite pitching eight innings and giving up just two earned runs in his last start.  For the Mets, Jonathon Niese will take the mound and try and help the team avoid a sweep, after leaving his last start after taking a ball off his leg in the third inning.Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Join in at 1 p.m. ET for coverage of the NL East battle between the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals. The two teams are coming off an excellent early-season fight last night in which the Braves came back late to pull out a 6-4 victory in 10 innings in their first meeting of the season, and now we get to watch aces Tim Hudson (1-0, 3.27 ERA) and Stephen Strasburg (1-1, 4.38) square off.Can Hudson and the 9-1 Braves do it again? Can Strasburg turn things around for the 7-3 Nationals coming off a bad start last weekend? Check in right here for live analysis.Braves 3, Nationals 1- FINALW-Tim Hudson(2-0)L-Stephen Strasburg(1-2)S-Craig Kimbrel(6) HR: Evan Gattis(4), Danny Espinosa(1)LineupsAtlanta Name Average HR RBI Today BJ Upton, CF .091 1 2  1-5, K Jason Heyward, RF .097 1 2  0-4, RBI, HBP Justin Upton, LF .385 6 10  0-4, Reached on E, 2 SB, R, K, BB Evan Gattis, ...

The Atlanta Braves' hot start to the season has received plenty of attention due to the offensive output of offseason acquisition Justin Upton and Evan Gattis, who has backed up the spring training hype with a strong start.But on Friday night at Nationals Park, it was the role players who stepped up and made key plays in the Braves' 6-4 comeback win over the Nationals.The battle of NL East titans began with the Nationals getting out to a strong start by way of a Bryce Harper two-run homer in the first and RBI singles by Jayson Werth and Denard Span in the second. With Ross Detweiler hurling a gem on the mound for the hosts, the chances of a Braves comeback were slim to none, until the seventh inning began. Although it was just a single run, Chris Johnson gave the Braves a sense of belief with his first home run of ...

 at Los Angeles Dodgers First off: why couldn't Pablo Sandoval's two-out first inning liner have actually decapitated Clay Kershaw in the season opener? (Kidding). Not only did he buzz through the Giants' lineup (only Sandoval and Angel Pagan managed hits)—he did the same to Pittsburgh days later and appears to be even stronger than ever. In case you forgot, Kershaw has made a career of Giants killing. A decapitation may be the only way to curb his dominance. San Francisco did go on to a series win, as Madison Bumgarner did his best Kershaw impression in Game No. 2 and Joaquin Arias handled first base with aplomb. Arias dug out multiple tough hops and impressively stayed with a Carl Crawford pop-up that, had he hit it in his old home ballpark of Tropicana Field, may have went through the roof. Make no mistake, folks—that catch was not easy in any way.  Though minus the flair of Kershaw's opening day home run, "The Eagle" as I call Bumgarner, also ...

The Red Sox won a pitching duel in their home opener. Thanks to a Daniel Nava home run and a phenomenal performance from Clay Buchholz, the Fenway faithful witnessed the ninth straight win on Opening Day in Boston. Unlike the last two seasons, the Red Sox came home to Fenway with a winning record. After beating Baltimore 3-1, they are tied with Oakland and Texas for the best record in the AL at 5-2. Here is my three up, three down for the home opener against the Orioles.Begin Slideshow

It's pretty clear that the Chicago Cubs have bullpen issues. For the third-straight outing, closer Carlos Marmol struggled in relief and the Cubbies lost a heartbreaker, 6-5, to the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.Despite leading 5-1 heading into the last two innings, the Cubs bullpen imploded to give this one away. The collapse culminated in home runs off the bats of B.J. and Justin Upton in the bottom of the ninth.Facing Marmol to lead off the inning, B.J. launched a solo shot to tie the game before Justin's long ball gave the Braves the walk-off victory two batters later. The game-winner was Justin's second home run of the night and capped a three-hit, three-RBI performance for the younger Upton brother. It was the first time this season the brothers have gone deep in the same game, but considering both of their power, it's likely that this will happen more than a ...