Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Alex Wood pitched great on Monday evening, going eight strong innings while giving up seven hits, one run and zero walks. He also picked up four strikeouts on his way to his fourth win of the season. After his terrific start, Todd Cunningham has been coming back down to earth in the past week – he’s now hitting .233 for the Atlanta Braves. Cameron Maybin was a late scratch from the lineup because of a slight groin strain. He injured this on Sunday, but it doesn’t sound serious. He should be back in a day or so. Andrelton Simmons filled in nicely in the 2 hole for Atlanta going 3-5 with an RBI and a run scored.
Braves win 8-1
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jace Peterson 2B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | .268 | .337 | .348 |
| Andrelton Simmons SS | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | .277 | .329 | .405 |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .297 | .363 | .503 |
| Nick Markakis RF | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .295 | .385 | .347 |
| Eric Young PR-LF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .173 | .235 | .280 |
| Juan Uribe 3B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | .257 | .309 | .376 |
| A.J. Pierzynski C | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | .261 | .309 | .396 |
| Jonny Gomes LF-RF | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | .202 | .274 | .340 |
| Todd Cunningham CF | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | .233 | .298 | .302 |
| Alex Wood P | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | .235 | .235 | .235 |
| Trevor Cahill P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 | .200 | .200 |
| Team Totals | 38 | 8 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 44 | .342 | .419 | .500 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alex Wood, W (4-2) | 8 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3.19 |
| Trevor Cahill | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7.33 |
| Team Totals | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1.00 |
Freeman homers again to lift Braves to 8-1 win over Arizona
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Maybe Freddie Freeman did need a few innings of rest…on Sunday Fredi Gonzalez told Freeman he wouldn’t be in the starting lineup, but would try to work him into the game if they got a lead. They did get that lead and Freeman entered the game in the 7th inning. The Braves bullpen gave up the lead and Freeman became one of the heroes of the game by blasting a homer in the 9th inning to start a comeback victory. Now on Monday, he went 3-5 at the plate with a homer, three RBIs, and two runs.
"Freddie Freeman went 20 games without a home run until Friday. Now he has three in four days.The Atlanta Braves first baseman had three hits, including a two-run home run, and teammates Andrelton Simmons added three hits in an 8-1 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks Monday night.Freeman’s two-run blast came in the fifth inning with Simmons on base, and Freeman also drove in a run with a sixth-inning single. Simmons extended his hitting streak to 10 games, and the runs were more than enough for Alex Wood (4-2), who held the Diamondbacks to a run on seven hits in eight innings.”I always see the ball good here. It’s a great batter’s eye,” Freeman said of hitting in Chase Field. ”It’s just one of those things, for some reason. Hopefully I didn’t jinx myself for the next two days.”"
How can the Atlanta Braves improve on their surprising start?
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Atlanta Braves currently sit one game above .500 for the 2015 season after the victory on Monday night. By many “experts” eyes, that’s quite the accomplishment at this point of the season. But for us fans, some of us anyway, we thought that this team could contend this season. Now that we’re in June, the trade deadline topic becomes the overwhelming storyline day in and day out. The crystal ball will become more clear in a few weeks of what the Braves will be doing at the deadline – buyers or sellers.
"According to espn.com the Braves are ranked 21st in earned run average at 4.12 and 24th in walks plus hits per inning at 1.34. Shelby Miller has been one of the few bright spots in the rotation and has established himself as one of the top pitchers in the game so far this season. Other than that, the rotation has been supremely average. Julio Teheran was supposed to be the ace of the staff but he has pitched to a tune of a 4.87 ERA and a batting average against of .293.The team has gotten help from young pitchers Mike Foltynewicz and Williams Perez and veteran closer Jason Grilli who has blown just one save in 15 attempts. Still, the Braves could use a quality arm in the bullpen. Jim Johnson has done a decent job as the team’s late-inning setup man but so far the problem has been getting to him and Grilli. Braves relievers have an atrocious ERA and are depending on their starters to go deep into games. The team has used 20 pitchers and is in desperate need of reliable bullpen help. Look for the Braves to improve their relief corps as we near the trade deadline."