ATLANTA (AP) — After four at-bats http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-matt-davidson-jersey , DJ LeMahieu was still looking for his first hit and felt he hadn’t made good contact.He was just saving his best swing for extra innings.The Colorado Rockies struck for three runs with two outs in the ninth inning before LeMahieu homered over the center field wall in the 10th Saturday night in a 5-3 win over the Atlanta Braves.LeMahieu’s drive off Luke Jackson cleared the 400-foot mark — the deepest part of the park.“I hadn’t really hit the ball hard all night,” he said. “I was just trying to get on base.”Carlos Gonzalez followed with a double and scored on Nolan Arenado’s single to complete a frustrating blown save for fill-in closer A.J. Minter.Minter came in with a 3-0 lead to begin the ninth and retired the first two Colorado batters. But the Rockies followed with four straight hits, including a two-run double by Ian Desmond and a tying single by pinch-hitter Gerardo Parra.Minter has been Atlanta’s closer since Arodys Vizcaino went on the disabled list last month with shoulder trouble.Braves trainer George Poulis visited Minter on the mound early in the ninth to examine a cut on Minter’s left thumb. Minter said a fingernail caused the cut on his second pitch.“It had nothing to do with the outcome of the game,” Minter said, adding the blown save was “just pretty pathetic on my part. My job was to come in and get three outs, especially in a three-run game, and I didn’t get the job done.”Braves manager Brian Snitker described Minter, a rookie, as “still a work in progress” while mastering the command of pitches.“It hasn’t been great for a few outings, really,” Snitker said. “He has continued to make pitches and not give in and get through it.”LeMahieu hit his 10th homer with one out in the 10th off Jackson (1-1).The Braves stranded a runner at third base in the ninth when Adam Ottavino (5-2) struck out Dansby Swanson to end the inning. Wade Davis pitched the 10th for his 34th save.The Rockies have won the first three games of the four-game series to stay close to NL West-leading Arizona.The NL East-leading Braves remained one-half game ahead of second-place Philadelphia.Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz gave up four hits in seven innings and struck out nine.Nick Markakis drove in two runs with a bases-loaded single off Antonio Senzatela with two outs in the third inning. Ronald Acuna Jr. had three hits and a walk, scored twice and stole a base. Acuna singled, stole second and scored on Freddie Freeman’s single off Bryan Shaw in the eighth.TRAINER’S ROOMRockies: INF Pat Valaika was optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque to clear a roster spot for Senzatela, who had been on the 10-day disabled list since Aug. 5 with right shoulder inflammation.Braves: Snitker said LHP Max Fried (left groin strain) will make another rehab start before he’s able to return to Atlanta. He allowed three earned runs in 4 1/3 innings for Triple-A Gwinnett on Friday.LEADOFF MAGICAcuna extended his Atlanta franchise-record streak to reaching safely in nine consecutive plate appearances leading off a game when he singled in the first inning. He has four homers Lucas Giolito Jersey , three singles, one walk and a hit by pitch when leading off games over that span.RECORD CROWDThere was occasional light rain but no delay following an afternoon of sometimes heavy downpours. Despite the threatening weather, the sellout of 42,143 set a SunTrust Park record.UP NEXTRockies: RHP German Marquez (10-9, 4.51) is coming off a win over Justin Verlander and the Astros in Houston on Tuesday. He is 5-1 with a 2.91 ERA since June 30 and is 3-0 with a 2.73 ERA in his last five road starts.Braves: RHP Anibal Sanchez (6-3, 3.07) will try to extend his perfect career record against the Rockies. Sanchez is 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA in six career starts against Colorado. For a complete history of the win, read Frank Vaccaro's piece for the Society for American Baseball Research. But the concern here is about the stat's origin.Hall of Fame writer Henry Chadwick invented the win in 1884 and began publishing individual totals in 1885.The Sporting News began to follow suit in 1888, but with a disclaimer (via Vaccaro):"[The win] seems to place the whole game upon the shoulders of the pitcher and I don't believe it will ever become popular even with so learned a gentleman as Mr. Chadwick to father it. Certain it is that many an execrable pitcher game is won by heavy hitting at the right moment after the pitcher has done his best to lose it."And yet, assigning wins and losses to individual pitchers made some sense initially.Through the first few decades of Major League Baseball's existence, it tended to be the responsibility of one pitcher to keep the opposing offense in check. He either did or didn't, and games were won and lost depending on his ability on a given day.But baseball isn't like that anymore. There's now a division of labor between starting pitchers and relief pitchers, and it's becoming more even with each passing year:Not surprisingly, the share of wins has followed the same pattern:There's no slowing this train down.On the contrary, it's speeding up.The 2016 (1 http://www.whitesoxfanproshop.com/authentic-nicky-delmonico-jersey ,749) and 2017 (1,903) seasons produced more starts of five or fewer innings than any in history, and there have already been 1,437 such starts in 2018. This is largely reflective of how much teams value and trust their bullpens. And with the Tampa Bay Rays getting solid results from their beta test of using their bullpen to handle entire games, "bullpenning" is more a threat than ever to traditional pitching roles.The win isn't the only statistic which assigns individual credit to team-oriented feats that's holding steady in public discourse. The RBI and the save are as well. It would be best if they were downplayed, if not altogether ignored.But at this point, nothing is more antiquated than crediting individual pitchers with having "won" or "lost" a game. As the effort to keep the opposition in check becomes more and more of a team effort, it will become a downright stupid idea.The bright side, however, is that baseball seemed ready for the win to fall out of favor even before deGrom embarked on his strangely historic season.When FanGraphs' David Laurila surveyed players about killing the win in 2015, few went to bat for it. In 2017, even one guy who gets a lot of wins expressed his indifference."It's really not a good way to evaluate a pitcher," Max Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and two-time 20-game winner Reynaldo Lopez Jersey , told Manny Randhawaof Sports on Earth. "You can be on a good or a bad team and that affects your win-loss record."For his part, deGrom appears to be on the same page. Following the Mets' 8-0 victory against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 8, he told reportershis goal isn't to win games, but to "go out there and keep guys from getting around the bases."Not surprisingly, his manager is fine with this."I don't value win-loss record anymore鈥攐r, as much," Mets skipper Mickey Callaway said, according to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. "I think there is something to be said about run prevention when you're talking about pitching. That's what pitching's all about. And Jacob is probably the best in the big leagues this year at that."This doesn't mean deGrom has the National League Cy Young Award as good as won. If all things are roughly equal between him and Scherzer鈥攚ho's once again dominating with a 2.19 ERA and an MLB-high 227 strikeouts鈥攖he latter's record (currently 15-5) may be what sways voters.However, there's no time like the present for a win-loss record to be disregarded in favor of what actually matters.If that happens, the win may finally and rightfully be laid to rest. Stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs.