BRAVES NEWS
Folty helps lead Braves to 2-1 victory over Milwaukee
Mike Foltynewicz was on top of his game on Sunday afternoon, as he pitched 7.2 innings of three-hit, one-run ball, and the Braves offense eked out just enough offense to skate by as they picked up their third win over Milwaukee in this four-game series. The win has put the Braves over .500 at the Memorial Day mark, which is a good (and surprising!) place for the team to be at this point of the season.
Folty had a "coming of age" moment on Sunday
Again, Folty was excellent on the mound yesterday. As such, everybody had nothing but plaudits for him, including the manager himself, Fredi Gonzalez:
In his postgame address, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez characterized Foltynewicz as "dominant" against Milwaukee, saying it was a "nice start to build on" for the future.
Gonzalez also praised the right-hander's stealth repertoire of pitches -- namely the well-placed fastball and wonderfully funky breaking pitch.
"(Foltynewicz's) curveball was sharp. It had some nice bite to it," marveled Gonzalez.
Predictably, the modest Foltynewicz tried to downplay the down-the-road ramifications of Sunday's stellar performance.
"You know, I've felt better in previous starts. But it (turned out) as the best ... I attacked guys early in the zone with my fastball," said the accurate Foltynewicz, who threw strikes for 71 of his 99 pitche
Maybin is making himself at home in Atlanta
Meanwhile, one of the many new Braves who seems to really be enjoying himself here in Atlanta is Cameron Maybin. Of course, location has a lot to do with it (Maybin is from Asheville, North Carolina), but he's also producing at the plate as well. Maybin's currently hitting .257/.355/.419 with four home runs (which is double what he had in 109 games over the past two seasons) and 115 wRC+, giving him a nice fWAR of 0.6 to start the season. Good health and a new approach seem to be the main culprits, here.
"He's healthy this year, knock on wood. And I think (hitting coach Kevin) Seitzer has been good for him," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Maybin said he's gotten a lot out of working with Seitzer.
"I'm competing, man," he said. "Working my tail off every day with Seitz, trusting all the work we're putting in. I think just the quality of the at-bats, the consistency and quality of the at-bats, I couldn't be happier with the direction we're going."
Chris Johnson will start rehab stint today
Meanwhile, the Braves will get some relief from injury woes at the third base position soon. Chris Johnson will be starting a rehab stint this week, and will hopefully be able to join the Braves on their west coast swing later this week.
Check out today's Minor League report
MLB NEWS
Mets manager holds team meeting after disastrous weekend series
After getting off to such a strong start, things are starting to go downhill for the New York Mets. A few weeks ago, the Mets were actually nine games up on the Washington Nationals. However, the Nats have heated up and the Mets have started sliding, and their slide culminated with a debacle of a series against Pittsburgh and news that David Wright has spinal stenosis. As such, Terry Collins decided to hold a team meeting in an effort to stop the rot.
Whether this meeting will have any effect on the Mets' ability to make contact with the baseball remains to be seen, but hopefully this will light a fire under the butts of everybody in the locker room. This could be a strategic move by Collins, holding a meeting about the offense a day before they face Severino Gonzalez, who has a 7.11 ERA this season.
Marlins have pool party after breaking losing streak
As bad as the Mets have been, they haven't been as bad as the Marlins, who were gripped in the throes of an eight-game losing streak heading into Sunday. They broke that streak in dramatic fashion by defeating the Orioles in the 13th inning. This was also GM/Manager Dan Jennings' first career win as a manager, and the Marlins celebrated by having a pool party at the Clevelander in Marlins Park.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Marlins had a pool party after the game tonight at the Clevelander. <a href="http://t.co/k7NzSgC9OT">pic.twitter.com/k7NzSgC9OT</a></p>— Matt Lund (@MattCLund) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattCLund/status/602317920241319936">May 24, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Marlins are weird.