When the numbers bite you in the a** (Braves 2, Cardinals 1)

I'd never seen anything so cowardly as tonight's Cardinals-Braves game. It can be hinted at with Chipper Jones line for the night:

BB, BB, BB, BB.

These walks were not the intentional kind where the catcher steps away from the box but you could tell the Cardinals were not trying to pitch to last year's NL hitting title winner.

So when Chipper Jones stepped up to the batter's box at the bottom of the 8th with just one out and Omar Infante at second, you'd think there would be some kind of attempt to get him out or at least an intentional walk.

No, just the chip, chip, chip cowardly balls.

They struck out Casey Kotchman even though he can be dangerous because he was already 0 for 3.

So with two outs and even though Jeff Francoeur also was 0 for 3, you could almost see the wheels start to spin in the minds of the Cardinals brain trust. He's hitting upwards of .380, but right after him is Matt Diaz who is only like .233.

So the Cards do the subtle walk of Francouer, loading the bases. And then they set to work on Diaz. Foul, foul, foul.

And then he breaks the game open with a 2 RBI single to center.

That basically was the game and props to Mike "The Cobra" Gonzalez for striking out the deep part of the Cards' order, including Albert Pujols after the count was 3-0.

Everybody did their part. Starting pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes had 7 strikes, Peter Moylan looked like a closer.

Someone should tell the Cards that sports bettors consider a base to be roughly a quarter of a point.

Chipper's four walks equaled 1 run.

And that was the game.