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BRAVES NEWS
Tyler Matzek made his MLB debut last night, and he didn't disappoint; He went 7 innings and only had 2 earned runs, which is just about as good as you can get for a debut. Matzek exhibited complete dominance over the Braves, who didn't score until very late in the game. This was in stark contrast to their performance on Tuesday and Colorado's offensive onslaught on Wednesay.
Jordan Schafer played 8 innings of baseball on Tuesday night, and this was because of the fact that Justin Upton was pulled after the Braves' big 7-run first inning due to what was called a strained hamstring. Despite being listed as day-to-day, the younger Upton brother was back on the field , with all indications that his hamstring was fine.
El Oso Blanco's Legend Continues To Grow
One player who has been swinging a scalding hot bat as of late is Evan Gattis. This is pretty good news considering that our former catcher, Brian McCann, is currently playing in the Bronx with a new, fat contract. After cutting ties due to financial reasons, it was pretty obvious that Gattis and McCann would be easy targets for comparison. It's still relatively early, but so far, Evan Gattis appears to be the better player of the two, and the legend of the former janitor with prodigious talent continues to grow.
Johnson Shows Signs Of Life At The Plate
After going through an absolute nasty streak at the plate, Chris Johnson is finally being somewhat productive again. From the article:
Johnson notched a pair of three-hit performances during the first two games of this week's series at Coors Field and entered Wednesday having hit .379 with a .458 BAbip (Batting average balls in play) in his previous seven games. He had an incredible .394 BAbip while hitting .321 last season
Fredi Will Be Going To The All-Star Game
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez was tapped by Cardinals/NL All Star manager Mike Matheny to join his coaching team for next month's MLB All-Star Game.. Fredi graciously and quickly accepted the invitation and now he will be making the trip to Minneapolis to be part of the NL's coaching staff. No word on whether or not he'll be the bunting guru on Matheny's staff.
LEAGUE WIDE NEWS
Cespedes Makes Another Laser Throw Against Angels
Yoenis Cespedes has been the talk of baseball since he made one of the greatest throws from the outfield of all time (and the linked article from SB Nation MLB tries to rank all of the iconic throws in baseball history. It's a very fun read!), and tonight, he was at it again. It wasn't as good as the throw he made the other night, but it's still pretty awesome. Also, if you listen closely, you can hear some Angels fans screaming "Noooooo" as Cespedes loads up for the throw.
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CarGo Has Tumor Removed From Finger
The Colorado Rockies have sorely missed the presence of OF Carlos Gonzalez, who has been missing from action due to a tumor on his finger. Doctors have referred to the tumor as a "fatty mass with tentacles," which has to be one of the gnarliest things that I could imagine being inside of my finger. Team doctors are waiting until a pathology test comes in to be completely sure, but it appears that CarGo will probably be out for at least another month or so.
After 31 Innings, Rays Finally Score
Thirty. One. Innings. That's how long the latest scoring drought lasted for the Tampa Bay Rays, and once they got that one run, the floodgates opened and they got 5 more, which led to a 6-3 victory for the Rays. Here's a link to the video of the Rays breaking that dreadful streak; a streak that made last night's performance by the Braves look like Murderer's Row in comparison. Yeesh.