Atlanta Braves Beat the Bucs as Alex Wood Stops the Rot
By Fred Owens
Jun 28, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Alex Wood (40) delivers a pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
High Spots
Player of the game was undoubtedly Alex Wood. This was his 50th big league start. In those starts he put up a 2.96 ERA and 3.18 FIP. On Sunday, Wood went 7 1/3 innings striking out eight, hitting one batter, but didn’t allow a walk. He threw 94 pitches – 64 for strikes and was in charge all the way.
The Bullpen did it’s job as well. While the official scorer gave Mercer a double on the collision play, the game would have ended at that point had the players not met unexpected in front of the Braves bullpen.
Chris Johnson went 2-4 and Maybin was 1-4 with a run scored. Jace Peterson seems to have broken out of his slump. After coming through last night with the bases loaded, he went 1-5 today with the aforementioned home run in the seventh.
That’s A Wrap
The losing streak is over, the Braves return to Atlanta to take on the Nationals with Shelby Miller be on the bump for us on Tuesday.
In other Braves news recently acquire Touki Toussaint made his debut for the Rome Braves today. Maybe it was nerves by Toussaint, but he was very wild. He hit Johneshwy Fargas twice and walked five others in his 4 1/3 innings. On the bright side he gave up just one run on two hits and struck out five.
Reports are that he used every pitch in his arsenal on the day; a 91-92mph fastball, 86-87mph cutter, 83-84mph slurve, 84-85mph change and a 74mph curve.