Series Recap: Braves vs. Angels

The Braves clipped the wings of the visiting Angels this past weekend, winning two of three for their first wins against an interleague opponent this year. They've could've very easily won all three, but a diving catch in the 10th inning Saturday by Kole Calhoun put the kibosh on that while the Angels would go on to score five in the 13th to win.

It was good to see the Braves rally the way they did in the ninth inning and again in the 10th. Five straight hits led to four runs against Ernesto Frieri, the Angels "closer". We'd all like to see innings like that more often; we've seen ad nauseam big innings fail to materialize that could've been the difference between a win and a loss.

Evan Gattis certainly did his part: 7-13, 2 HR, 5 RBI. He now has a 15-game hitting streak, equaling the longest such streak for a Braves catcher in 47 years.

Freddie Freeman entered the series in a bit of a dry spell, but broke the slump with an RBI double on Saturday and two hits in the series finale.

This wasn't a good series for Justin Upton, who finished 1-15 with 14 stranded runners to his name. Upton has normally performed well at home and against lefty pitchers, and the Angels started two of them in the series. His numbers still look good though: .386 vs. LHP, .341 at home.

Tommy La Stella continues to rake with six more hits in this series. He had his first career three-hit game in the finale and delivered the game-winning hit. He's now hitting .411 since being called up.

Mike Trout and Albert Pujols had big games for the Angels. Trout was 7-14 with two homers with five RBI and Pujols was 6-14 with a homer and six RBI.

Atlanta's starting pitching was unimpressive overall, but Aaron Harang was the least horrible of the three starters. He allowed only four hits and walked three but yielded only one run in six innings for his first career win against the Angels; the run only scored on a wild pitch. Gavin Floyd and Mike Minor combined allowed seven runs on 18 hits in 11.1 innings.