Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: What a moment it was on Saturday evening for the Atlanta Braves when Christian Bethancourt drove a first pitch slider to right field that (just barely) went over the fence! Bethancourt’s first homer of the season and his first career major league home run. In his seven years in the minors, he only collected 34 homers. Nothing like your first home run being just a huge one fro the 23-year-old out of Panama. Cameron Maybin continues to swing a hot bat for the Braves as he’s now risen his batting average to .286 when at the start of May he held a .175 batting average and 18 games ago (May 15th) had a .218 batting average. Julio Teheran pitched a lot better on Saturday then he has in the past weeks. His velocity seemed to be there as well as his control. Hopefully this continues and it’s not just a one off deal. Braves are now 27-28 and look to get back to .500 on Sunday with Alex Wood on the mound.
Braves win 5-4
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cameron Maybin CF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .286 | .364 | .422 |
| Andrelton Simmons SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .263 | .314 | .380 |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .305 | .369 | .529 |
| Nick Markakis RF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .301 | .390 | .369 |
| Chris Johnson 3B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | .267 | .318 | .383 |
| Pedro Ciriaco 2B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .206 | .222 | .324 |
| Juan Uribe 2B-3B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .259 | .317 | .366 |
| Jonny Gomes LF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | .204 | .276 | .340 |
| Christian Bethancourt C | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .205 | .231 | .307 |
| Julio Teheran P | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .100 | .100 | .100 |
| Jim Johnson P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Jason Grilli P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| Team Totals | 31 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 35 | .290 | .324 | .484 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Julio Teheran | 7.1 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 4.87 |
| Jim Johnson, BS (3) | 0.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.20 |
| Jason Grilli, W (1-2) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.93 |
| Team Totals | 9 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 4.00 |
Bethancourt’s 9th-inning HR lifts Braves past Pirates
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Everyone always talks about that one hit, or AB, or one game, that gets a guy going…could this be it from Christian Bethancourt? We’ve seen him have big games like this already this season, but never to this height. Bethancourt really needs to get going at the plate to give the Braves front office, fans and teammates confidence in him. I’m really hoping this give him the confidence that he needs at the plate and goes on a little roll.
"Bethancourt had three hits, including the drive off Worley (2-4). The ball, curving toward the foul pole, cleared the wall beyond the reach of right fielder Gregory Polanco. Bethancourt was swarmed by teammates at home plate.“That’s a moment I’ll never forget,” he said. “My first homer is a walk-off homer.”Bethancourt said Braves coaches sent him to the plate with a scouting report on Worley that “the guy was going to go out and throw sliders and cutters away. I was looking for one of two pitches.”"
Congrats to @ChristianBeth27 on his 1st homer. And 1st walk off 💪💪💪#Braves 1st of many
— Andrelton Simmons (@Andrelton) June 7, 2015
Michael Keaton confronts Andrew McCutchen heckler in Atlanta
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Long time supporter of the Pirates, former Batman and Birdman himself Michael Keaton, put a Braves fan in his place on Friday night’s game. The Braves fan was talking trash to Andrew McCutchen when he was on deck. After hitting a double, McCutchen sarcastically threw this heckling fan one of his batting gloves. A few innings later, Keaton stood up and told this Braves fan to probably shut up. No video has surfaced of this event, but there are some tweets with photos. Good times at the Ted!
"Friday night was a pretty wild night at Turner Field in Atlanta.Not only did the Pittsburgh Pirates walk away with a big 10-8 victory against the home standing Braves, one of their biggest fans, actor Michael Keaton, was on hand to lend his support and at one point even bothered to trash talk a heckler who has been on Andrew McCutchen‘s case all night longBut things got a little more interesting when Michael Keaton wandered over and started heckling the heckler. He even did the sports fans equivalent of a mic drop by pointing at the scoreboard before taking his leave for the evening."