BRAVES NEWS
Braves only able to pick up four hits vs. debuting Eflin
It was a night to remember for Phillies rookie Zach Eflin. In his fifth career start, not only did Eflin pick up his first career victory, he did so in dominant fashion by picking up his first career complete game as well. Eflin only gave up four hits on the night, with the only run coming from Ender Inciarte finally hitting his first home run as an Atlanta Brave. Other than that it was a frustrating night for the Braves, who had as many GIDPs as hits on the night.
Julio Teheran will represent Braves at the All-Star Game
The Braves are once again in a position where they’re only going to get a token representative at the annual All-Star Game, and this year that rep will be Julio Teheran. Teheran’s been having a resurgent season on the mound for the Braves — he’s currently sitting on a 2.72 ERA, 3.83 FIP, and he’s already at 1.7 fWAR after finishing 2015 with 1.1 fWAR. The honor is well deserved for Teheran, and he should represent the Braves well in San Diego.
Erick Aybar is reportedly receiving trade interest
Heading into this season, seeing a headline like this wouldn't have been a shock. But now, this is kind of amazing. Ever since returning from the disabled list with an injured ankle following one of the most hard-luck starts to a season that you will ever see for an everyday player, Erick Aybar has slowly but surely turned things around. Granted, his stat line is still wretched (.223/.278/.282 with 46 wRC+ and a -1.1 fWAR), but he’s been playing well enough lately to the point where the AJC’s David O’Brien has reported that there has actually been trade interest in Aybar. If the Braves can manage to get anything of value for Aybar as this point, then John Coppolella deserves a boat made entirely of gold.
Braves ahead of schedule when it comes to putting seats in SunTrust Park
There has been a lot of publicity about the Braves and their stadium lately, and most of it isn’t exactly flattering. However, if there’s one positive thing you can say, it’s that the actual construction of the stadium is coming along nicely and appears to be ahead of schedule. They’re going to install seats in the stadium soon, which is earlier than expected.
MLB NEWS
Pirates come from behind to beat Cardinals and pick up sixth straight win
On the field, things are going pretty well for the Pirates right now. Although they’re still in third place and a decent amount of games (9.5) behind the Cubs in the NL Central, they’re now only half-a-game behind the Cardinals and they inched that close by picking up a 5-2 victory on Tuesday. Pittsburgh fell behind by 2-0, but eventually tied it in the fifth inning and then pulled away in the sixth to go ahead for good. While things are trending in the right direction on the field, there may be some disturbing trouble brewing off of it, though.
Yankees hitting and pitching finally connect on same page
The New York Yankees have been mired in mediocrity for most of this season, but at times they’ve shown flashes of potentially having a really good team. That was the case last night when the Yanks picked up a whopping 20 hits against the White Sox on their way to scoring nine runs as well. Meanwhile, Masahiro Tanaka pitched a gem, and the Yankees ended up picking up a 9-0 win in Chicago. It was a bad night at the office for the home team, but the Yankees will gladly take a game like this to put in the "W" column.