Once again, the Braves starting pitching has led them to a series victory. Most notably, Julio Teheran and David Hale both went eight innings in their outings.
As per usual, the offense was driven by Justin Upton, Freddie Freeman, and Evan Gattis. Freeman had five hits including a home run in game two and a walk off single in the 10th inning to finish off the series sweep Upton homered in each of the first two games and added two hits in the finale, bringing his season line to an exceptional .330/.406/.625. Gattis played only the first two games, collecting three total hits including his game two home run as he and Upton went back-to-back.
This series also saw the debut of B.J. Upton wearing glasses. "Melvin" didn’t have a tremendous series but he did collect a hit in all three games, and his season line is now .211/.290/.289. He’s the kind of guy we could live with if his OBP is around .300-.315 because he should be adding a good deal of power and speed as well. Unfortunately so far the power has not been there, but he has been hitting the ball better. Hopefully the glasses help him see the ball better and cut back on the swings and misses.
The bullpen was exceptional in this series, going 5.2 innings and allowing no runs to score aside from Luis Avilan allowing inherited runners to score in the series opener. The bullpen was not asked to do too much, considering Teheran and Hale’s deep outings, but when they were called upon the performed. Jordan Walden’s performance to date has been significant. He came in yesterday to throw a perfect inning with two strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 1.74.
Coming into the series two of the bigger concerns were Devin Mesoraco at the plate and Billy Hamilton on the bases. Hamilton is not that great of a player, but the Braves lack of production in throwing out base stealers early in the season has been prevalent. Hamilton was thrown out in his only attempt and Mesoraco got injured in the first game while rounding third base and was put directly on the disabled list. Todd Frazier was also taken out of the first game and missed the second, but came back for the third game.
A part of me is still in shock that the pitching has been this good. We all know it is impossible for it to be this good in perpetuity and that eventually it will come back down to earth, we just have to hope that when that does happen that some of the cooler bats step up. Great series win, next up is an off day followed by a series with the Marlins.