Atlanta Braves news and links: Suzuki slugs his way to success

BRAVES NEWS

Atlanta mini-sweeps wounded Mets with 7-5 victory

The rain-shortened series at Citi Field ended up going the Braves way, as they completed their mini-sweep of the Mets with a 7-5 victory. Kurt Suzuki delivered the biggest shot of the afternoon when he made the Mets pay for intentionally walking Nick Markakis by hitting a three-run homer of his own. R.A. Dickey had to leave the game with a quad spasm, but Dave O’Brien is reporting that Dickey doesn’t expect to miss his next start.

“It’s not more than I’ve managed before in my career,” Dickey said, “it’s just unfortunate (because) I feel like I had a pretty good knuckleball today. Outside of the first-pitch cookie that Jose hit out, I felt pretty good with everything. Even after the injury, I had to stay in the stretch but I still had a good knuckleball. I felt good enough to pitch.”

Dickey had thrown only 67 pitches, but Braves manager Brian Snitker saw no reason for the veteran pitch to push it with the Braves ahead 6-3.

“I think he’ll be OK. He doesn’t foresee missing his next start,” Snitker said. “It was just the point in that game, I told him, I don’t want to chance it any more.”

Braves call up Motte and send Recker to Gwinnett

Meanwhile, Jason Motte will be joining the big league bullpen after the Braves called him up. They optioned Anthony Recker to the G-Braves in order to make room for Motte. Also, if you’re looking for Motte to bring his beard with him to the Braves, you might be a bit disappointed.

Minor League Ball profiles Adams

Lane Adams was recently called up, and while there aren’t really huge expectations surrounding the former Kansas City Royals product, there’s obviously the hope that he can provide something for the Braves as a bench player — and as evidenced by Julio Teheran being used as a pinch hitter yesterday, the Braves need all the help they can get from the bench right now. John Sickels of Minor League Ball tried his best to give us an idea of what to expect out of the outfielder.

Lane is a 6-3, 220 pound right-handed hitter and thrower born November 13, 1989. He’s a very good athlete, notably in the speed department where some scouts rate him as high as a 70 runner. His arm is perhaps a bit short for right field but he has impressive instincts and manages center field well.

There’s power in the bat, too, but his feel for the strike zone is very inconsistent. He’s learned to handle Double-A pitching very well but his production in Triple-A has been less reliable. Even the small-sample gaudy slash line this year is yoked to a poor BB/K/PA ratio and questions about his approach.

Boston claims d’Arnaud off of waivers

Speaking of bench players, Chase d’Arnaud is now on his way to Boston. The Braves DFA’d him earlier this week, and the Red Sox swooped in and claimed him off waivers. Thus ends d’Arnaud’s season-or-so-long stint with the Braves. It wasn’t eventful, but he did have that one day when he hit a walk-off single and then performed the postgame concert. Nobody else in baseball can say that they’ve done that!

MLB NEWS

Tanaka pulls a Maddux as New York beats Boston

Chris Sale pitched very well against the Yankees on Thursday night, but Masahiro Tanaka pitched an absolute gem as New York ended up beating the Red Sox 3-0. How good was Tanaka? He pitched a complete game shutout with just 97 pitches. That’s right, folks — we’ve got our first “Maddux” of the 2017 season!

Miller’s forearm tightness turns out to be torn UCL

You have to feel for Shelby Miller at this point. He had a rough start to his tenure in Arizona last season, but he seemed like he was 100 percent ready to bounce-back and at least make “That Trade” look a little less lopsided. Unfortunately, he got bad news yesterday that he’s got a partially torn UCL and now Tommy John Surgery could be on the table for him.