BMac & Braves Come Out Swinging, Snap Skid

After not scoring a run in both of the first two games of this weekends series with the Milwaukee Brewers, the Braves offense decided to join the show on Sunday afternoon.  Putting up 14 hits as a team and knocking the Brewers staring pitcher, Alfredo Figaro, out in the 4th inning.

Jun 23, 2013; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher

hits a grand slam home run in the 1st inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Jordan Schafer would lead off the game with a double, followed by a loop base hit by Andrelton Simmons.  Then strikeouts of Jason Heyward and B.J. Upton, (and a Freddie Freeman walk) the scoring drought looked like it could continue.  But next in the lineup was our All-Star catcher Brian McCann.  He would blast a grand slam to left center erasing the 24-inning scoreless streak for the Braves.

After the game McCann had to say this about his 10th career grand slam “I’ve been scuffling for the past week or so and I’ve been working really hard to use the entire field again, that’s probably been my favorite home run I’ve hit in a long time because to hit the ball out to left center field is something that is really hard to do.”

McCann went 3-4 in the game to raise his batting average up to .246.  In his last 10 games, McCann has had only 5 hits prior to todays game.

Manager Fredi Gonzalez spoke about the opening inning and BMac’s presence “I think we swung the bats well all day and Mac got three hits, grand slam and is hitting the ball good so that’s a good sign.  It was two outs and we didn’t score and that was a big lift for us to go out and get ahead to get four runs and tack on a couple later on and win the game is big.”

McCann went on to talk more about the team “To come out and do what we did today putting up a four spot in the 1st and to get solid pitching the rest of the way out.  This is how we’ve been playing all year, we’ll win 10 in a row then lose four or five in a row but we know what kind of ball club we’ve got, we have a great team and we’re sitting there in first place.  In the club house, everyone is calm and shows up to play everyday.”

Schafer had another huge game for the Braves going 4-5 with a double, home run, stolen base and a great catch in the outfield.

Jun 23, 2013; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Atlanta Braves center fielder Jordan Schafer makes a diving catch of ball hit by Milwaukee Brewers third baseman

(not pictured) in the 6th inning at Miller Park. Mandatory Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports

Fredi spoke on Schafer’s game “That’s what he can do for you, he gives you that spark plug off the bench and he can play any of the positions in the outfield and he’s a plus defender.  He can beat you with his legs or he can hit one out of the ball park like he did today.”

Paul Maholm started the game off pitching well but ran into trouble in the 5th inning giving up a home run and four runs.  He added three strikeouts and only walked one hitter.  He went on to win his 8th game of the season.

Other notes from the game, Dan Uggla, Chris Johnson, and Simmons each added two hits while Johnson hit his 5th home urn of the season.

Freeman continues to struggle offensively going 0-4 and 0-12 in the series.  Upton left six runners on base today going 0-3 in the win.

Justin Upton will sit for a couple hands with a sore hand, hopefully he will not have to visit the DL.

McCann later said “Any time you win it’s fun, we just have to realize that if we go on a bit of a skid, it’s alright, it happens, you play 162 ball games, your going to go through parts of the season where you go on losing streaks and the good teams show up and play hard every day.”

“Games like this can…they say hitting is contagious hopefully this is catches a couple guys and keeps going” Gonzalez said.