{"id":16155,"date":"2011-06-19T10:11:50","date_gmt":"2011-06-19T15:11:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16155"},"modified":"2011-06-19T10:12:06","modified_gmt":"2011-06-19T15:12:06","slug":"power-right-handers-texas-rangers-at-atlanta-braves-pro-baseball-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/power-right-handers-texas-rangers-at-atlanta-braves-pro-baseball-preview-16155\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Righties Take the Mound: Texas Rangers at Atlanta Braves Pro Baseball Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves complete a three-game interleague series Sunday afternoon at Turner Field<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers at Atlanta Braves<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Atlanta Braves 2B Dan Uggla collected his first multiple extra-base hit game of the year Saturday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Texas has won the first two games of the series and expanded its lead in the American League West to 1.5 games with a 5-4 victory over Atlanta yesterday.\u00a0 \u201cA great victory for sure,\u201d said Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus.\u00a0 \u201cWe have been grinding it out this whole road trip.\u00a0 Now we\u2019ve won two games here.\u201d\u00a0 The Rangers have won their last three games and are 3-2 against the National League in 2011.\u00a0 The club has actually won 16 of its last 19 interleague games.\u00a0 Outfielder Josh Hamilton has played a big part in that success, hitting .516 with five home runs and 18 RBI in his last 14 games against NL foes.\u00a0 Texas is 14-12 in day games this season and 59-60 the last three years.<\/p>\n

Rangers starting pitcher Alexi Ogando is scheduled to make his 14th start of the season and is coming off his worst start of the year.\u00a0 He suffered his first defeat of the 2011 campaign, allowing six runs and six hits over 1 2\/3 innings in a 12-4 road loss to the Yankees.\u00a0 The right-hander has registered a 2-1 record and 3.75 ERA in six away starts, allowing opponents to hit for a .206 average.\u00a0 Ogando produced a 3-0 mark and 0.00 over four relief appearances during interleague play last year.\u00a0 He has never faced the Braves in his career.<\/p>\n

Atlanta has committed six errors in the first two games of the series and will be looking to avoid dropping its sixth game in seven contests.\u00a0 The Braves have been held to six hits or fewer in their last six games and managed just four hits last night.\u00a0 At least second baseman Dan Uggla has started to contribute, notching two extra-base hits in a game for the first time this year, coming in with a .177 average.\u00a0 He will need to continue with that success considering that outfielder Jason Heyward is batting .161 with 20 strikeouts in 62 career interleague at-bats.\u00a0 Atlanta is 28-23 versus right-handed starters this year.<\/p>\n

Braves starting pitcher Jair Jurrjens owns the NL\u2019s best ERA, but has given up at least three earned runs in two of his past three outings.\u00a0 He is coming off his shortest start of the season, giving up four runs and eight hits over 5 1\/3 innings to the Mets on Tuesday.\u00a0 \u201cFor his standards, it wasn\u2019t your normal, typical JJ outing,\u201d commented Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez.\u00a0 The right-hander has registered a 4-1 record and 2.29 ERA in five home games, surrendering just a single home run in 35 1\/3 frames.\u00a0 Jurrjens hasn\u2019t faced the Rangers with the Braves, but started once against them in his rookie season with Detroit, tallying a 4-1 win.\u00a0 Atlanta has alternated wins and losses in his last four starts.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Braves due to their 12-3 record in Jurrjen\u2019s last 15 home starts, while the Rangers are 16-36 in their last 52 interleague road games against winning teams<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Texas Rangers and Atlanta Braves complete a three-game interleague series Sunday afternoon at Turner Field Texas Rangers at Atlanta Braves Texas has won the first two games of the series and expanded its lead in the American League West to 1.5 games with a 5-4 victory over Atlanta yesterday.\u00a0 \u201cA great victory for sure,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[4840,243,1953,2150,771,1652],"class_list":["post-16155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-alexi-ogando","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-dan-uggla","tag-jair-jurrjens","tag-texas-rangers","tag-turner-field"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16155"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16157,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16155\/revisions\/16157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}