Atlanta Braves Sweep Behind Unhittable Teheran

The Middle Bit

The top of the fourth was short as deGrom navigated the bottom third of the Braves order on eight pitches; Teheran did the same in the bottom half with 15 pitches.

The fifth was more of the same from both pitchers but in the top of the sixth Markakis hit a belt high changeup into the right field bullpen. The link will show you his homer, as rare as they’ve been it’s worth looking at.

deGrom finished the inning without another hit but the homer – Markakis’ second of the year – gave the Braves a 3-0 lead.

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Antonio Bastardo replaced deGrom to start the seventh inning and Aybar greeted him with a leadoff double and advanced to third on a perfect sacrifice bunt by Teheran. On a 1-1 pitch Bastardo hit Smith on the left hand; after being checked by the trainer he stayed the game but would be replaced by Jeff Francoeur in the bottom of the seventh.

Bastardo continued to be wild and nearly hit Inciarte who had squared around to bunt  in the head. Bastardo then balked scoring Aybar and sending Smith to second. Inciarte popped up behind third base for the second out but Freeman hit a drive deep to right. Granderson almost made a spectacular catch and had in his glove but lost it when he hit the fence allowing Smith to score as Freeman ended up on second with a double.

Teheran was back on the bump in the home half now leading 5-0 and the Mets had apparently decided to swing early.  Asdrubal Cabrera popped up on the first pitch, Cespedes saw six pitches and fouled off a couple before striking out and Neil Walker lined out on the third pitch he saw.

Next: The Unhittable Teheran