Series Recap: Braves at Blue Jays

The Braves win their first interleague series of the season, earning bookend wins in a weekend series at the Skydome Rogers Centre. Home runs were flying out at a record pace it seemed; a total of 12 homers were hit, five by Atlanta; of those five, Freddie Freeman hit two of them and they were, in a word, majestic.

The first:

and the second:

ESPN's Home Run Tracker lists the true distance of the first homer at 426 ft. and the second at 437 ft.

Nick Markakis had himself a series as well with seven hits (all singles), reaching base a total of 11 times and scoring five runs. Andrelton Simmons contributed four hits and a pair of RBI. He can also play a bit of defense.

Jonny Gomes contributed to the wins with some hits of his own: his pinch-hit homer in the eighth inning Friday broke the tie, and he hit a three-run double as part of a 4-RBI game on Sunday.

On the pitching side, Julio Teheran had a very un-Teheran-like performance on Friday, giving up four homers in five innings; Jim Johnson gave up another for a total of five, yet the Braves still won. Not since 1978 had the Braves won such a game, and it was the first time Teheran had given up four home runs in a start. Johnson's performance on Friday and Saturday left much to be desired; he needs a few scoreless outings after this if I'm going to feel comfortable about seeing him in another close game.

Cody Martin appeared in two games, earned his first major-league win on Friday, and now has 13 strikeouts in exactly nine innings of relief while allowing just one run and two walks. Let's hope his arm doesn't fall off.

Alex Wood and Shelby Miller each had solid starts, especially Miller, who looked sharp in his start on Sunday. Wood's outing was unfortunately marred by the garbage call at first in the seventh inning - there were several garbage strike zone calls as well - and then Jim Johnson serving up a meatball to Jose Bautista in the eighth. Kelly Johnson tied it with a homer in the ninth only for Sugar Ray Marimon to give up a walk-off homer in the 10th.

Markakis: 7-10, 4 BB, 5 runs
Freeman: 5-11, 1 double, 2 HR, 4 RBI
Gomes: 2-8, HR, 5 RBI
Simmons: 4-12, 1 double, 2 runs, 2 RBI
Braves RISP: 5-20, 11 2-out RBI
Blue Jays RISP: 3-15