Braves pitcher Jo-Jo Reyes didn't get the win Tuesday night, but he deserved a whole lot of the credit.
After Reyes threw seven innings of one-run ball, Matt Diaz hit a two-run single in the eighth inning of a riveting 2-1 Braves victory against the St. Louis Cardinals at Turner Field. Reyes still hasn't won in his past 15 starts, but the left-hander pitched a whale of a game Tuesday, allowing three hits and one walk with seven strikeouts in seven innings against the best-hitting team in the National League.
The Braves loaded the bases on three walks against reliever Kyle McClellan in the eighth inning before Diaz hit a two-out single up the middle that drove in two runs and quieted the many red-clad Cardinals fans in the crowd of 18,121.
Reyes went pitch-for-pitch with Cardinals right-hander Kyle Lohse, who allowed four hits in six scoreless innings.
Lohse is unbeaten in his past 11 starts dating to last season, and the Cardinals had won six of their past eight games against the Braves . St. Louis entered Tuesday with the league's best record at 14-6.
It was Reyes' finest performance since a June 13 game against the Angels in Anaheim, when he gave up two runs and five hits in eight innings of a Braves win --- his last win.
Reyes is 0-8 with a 6.56 ERA since, and the Braves have won only three of the 15 games he has started in that period.
Until Diaz's single, it looked like this would be the third time the Braves lost when Reyes gave up one run in six or more innings in his winless stretch.
It was the seventh time in his past 15 starts that the Braves failed to score even a single run while Diaz was in the game.
Chipper Jones drew walks all four times up, in the first, third, sixth and seventh innings, and the Braves grounded into inning-ending double plays soon after the first three of those walks.
Casey Kotchman grounded into double plays with two runners on immediately after Jones' first two walks.
In the third inning, Yunel Escobar's latest base-running mistake resulted in the second out of the double play when he raced past third even though he had no chance of beating the throw home.
When Escobar attempted to turn back and retreat to third, he was thrown out.
In the eighth inning, Omar Infante drew a leadoff walk from reliever Kyle McClellan and advanced to second on an Escobar sacrifice. Jones walked, and Kotchman struck out with two runners on for the second out of the inning.
Francoeur drew the third walk of the inning from McClellan to bring up Diaz. With bases loaded, he hit a full-count grounder past diving shortstop Khalil Greene --- a soft but huge two-run single for a 2-1 Braves lead.
Next for Braves
Who: vs. Cardinals
When: 7 p.m. today
TV; radio: WPCH; 640 AM/96.1 FM
