The Braves' offense has been sluggish in recent games and with Atlanta sending young ace Jair Jurrjens to the mound, all the pieces are in place to cash the Under.
Our Saturday night MLB selection is on the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves remaining under the total at Turner Field.
Despite an amazing lack of run support this season and the realization that his record most certainly should be much better than its current 10-9 ledger, Atlanta's Jair Jurrjens has to be pleased with what he's done. After all, the righthander from the Netherlands is young (only 23) and he must know that there's plenty of time for the runs to come and that eventually (if he stays healthy) he will have perhaps a Cy Young caliber season and help his team get a pennant.
Jurrjens has been incredibly dominant in his last four starts and despite only winning one of those, he has not given up more than two earned runs in any of them and he's gone deep enough into the game each time to give his bullpen adequate rest, something that not many starters can claim these days.
After being used almost exclusively in a relief role for most of 2008 and all of 2009, 11-year veteran righthander Kip Wells has recently gotten a chance to be a starter again with the Reds. And he hasn't been half-bad in his two starts so far. In his last start, Wells labored through six innings of a no-decision won by the Reds, 3-2, over the Pirates. Although he had command issues and allowed four walks, he limited to Pirates to just two hits in a no-decision.
Even when Jurrjens hasn't been pitching, the Braves have found it somewhat difficult to score runs lately. Take the Under.
Big Al McMordie (FP) 9/5
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