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BRAVES NEWS
Lack of run support dooms Teheran and Atlanta in loss to New York
The Mets will be leaving SunTrust Park with a series victory after they beat the Braves 5-1 on Sunday afternoon. The game was close up until the ninth inning, which is when the Mets broke out for three runs to put what was a 2-1 game out of reach. It also wiped out a solid six-inning outing from Julio Teheran.
Freeman reaps the benefits from recent lack of batting practice
A while back, Freddie Freeman caused a lot of people (mainly just me) to go into a tizzy when he said he was “swinging a wet newspaper.” So naturally, he’s been raking since that comment and when Nubyjas Wilborn of the Marietta Daily-Journal talked to him about it recently, he had a simple explanation for the recent improvement.
“I stopped having batting practice,” Freeman said. “I haven’t been hitting in the cage for the last couple of weeks. I’m working on saving my wrist and I feel better.”
Freeman has a hit in 12 of his last 14 games since Sept. 2, batting .356 (21-for-59) in the stretch. He also became the second Brave in the last 10 seasons to have consecutive 25-home run seasons, following Justin Upton (2013-14).
Minter makes history on the mound for Atlanta
A.J. Minter has been doing pretty well as a bullpen option for the Braves since being called up. In fact, Minter actually made a little bit of history after his latest outing on Sunday. Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution had the details:
Minter pitched the eighth and 1/3 of the ninth inning against the Mets, striking out two hitters. He became the first Braves pitcher since at least 1913 to not walk a batter in his first 10 appearances.
“I guess everything’s just kind of peaking at the right time,” Minter said after the Braves dropped a 5-1 decision. “During the minors this year, I struggled a little bit. I learned from it, came through with it and everything’s feeling good right now. There’s a lot of things you can’t control in baseball, but I feel like I’m going to make hitters hit the ball, put it in play. I’m going to attack you and you’re either going to strikeout or you’re going to hit it.”
“LA Swiftness” talks with Walk-Off Walk
In case you may have missed it from not following his Twitter account, Lane Adams is pretty good at this whole “internet” thing. He’s also been doing a pretty good job of filling the role that the Braves have asked of him so far this season. Our friends over at Walk-Off Walk actually got the opportunity to have an interview with Lane, and I highly recommend that you go check it out.
MLB NEWS
Houston clinches AL West
For the first time in 16 years, the Houston Astros finished at the top of their respective division. Houston slashed their magic number to “0” after they beat the Mariners 7-1 on Sunday afternoon. Houston basically led the AL West from wire-to-wire this season and now it’s off to October for them, and we’ll see if they can do better than they did back in 2015.
Chicago sweeps St. Louis over the weekend
The Cubs went into this past weekend’s series with the Cardinals knowing that not only was St. Louis breathing down their necks, but the Brewers were also in the mix as well. Three days later, the Cubs are now six games ahead of the Cardinals after a three-game sweep, and the Brewers are now four games back — one more than what they started the weekend. Needless to say, it was a great weekend for the defending World Series champions.