The Comeback

Tommy Hanson has been tremendous this year. He was not tremendous today, giving up eight runs in the second inning, as the Reds chased him from the game. After Laynce Nix doubled in Jay Bruce and Ramon Hernandez, the Braves odds of winning stood at just 2.3 percent.

The Braves would mount a little bit of offense, eventually cutting the lead to 9-3 and seeing their win expectancy peak at 7.3 percent in the 5th inning. But, after a few more dead end rallies and a six run deficit heading into the 9th inning, the Braves odds of winning stood at 0.2 percent. In other words, not good.

Then, this happened.

Troy Glaus singles.
Eric Hinske singles.
Yunel Escobar singles.
Nate McLouth singles.
David Ross walks.
Martin Prado reaches on fielders choice/error

That brought Jason Heyward, hero of the Braves season, to the plate representing the winning run. The major league leader in WPA was given yet another chance to send Atlanta into delirium.

He struck out.

With their odds of winning back down to 18.5 percent, Brooks Conrad, he of the career .289 wOBA, launched a launched a walk off grand slam off Francisco Cordero.

Baseball – it’s amazing.