Atlanta Braves News: The Morning Chop, Box Score, Why Is Nick Swisher Still Talking? Mallex Smith Is Exciting
By Jeff Schafer
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Braves went down 4-0 early on Thursday and battled back late to tie the game at 4-4, but in extra innings the Phillies scored three runs to take two of three games at Turner Field. The stat we shared a couple days ago about all other MLB teams that have played at Turner Field in 2016 have more wins than the Braves have all season…well, it’s still exists, but now the Braves are tied with others. Bravos are 2-17 at Turner Field and now go on a 10 game road trip before coming back home on May 24th against the Brewers.
Braves lose 7-4
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Markakis RF | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | .275 | .373 | .367 | .740 |
| Ender Inciarte LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .172 | .250 | .172 | .422 |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | .288 | .387 | .492 | .878 |
| Kelly Johnson 2B | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | .226 | .314 | .290 | .605 |
| A.J. Pierzynski C | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .205 | .250 | .244 | .494 |
| Gordon Beckham 3B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .303 | .410 | .424 | .834 |
| Erick Aybar SS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .181 | .213 | .216 | .429 |
| Bud Norris P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .286 | .000 | .286 |
| Jeff Francoeur PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .246 | .288 | .279 | .567 |
| Hunter Cervenka P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Arodys Vizcaino P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Chase d’Arnaud PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .286 | .286 | .357 | .643 |
| Jason Grilli P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Ian Krol P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Aaron Blair P | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .200 | .200 | .200 | .400 |
| Eric O’Flaherty P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Daniel Castro SS | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .195 | .235 | .208 | .442 |
| Mallex Smith CF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .224 | .277 | .342 | .619 |
| Team Totals | 35 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 37 | .200 | .243 | .229 | .472 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aaron Blair | 3.2 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4.05 |
| Eric O’Flaherty | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4.00 |
| Bud Norris | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6.82 |
| Hunter Cervenka | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Arodys Vizcaino | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1.26 |
| Jason Grilli, L (1-2) | 0.1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6.35 |
| Ian Krol | 0.2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5.40 |
| Team Totals | 10 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 11 | 1 | 5.40 |
Braves’ Mallex Smith plans on keeping MLB replay center busy
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Braves young-speedster, Mallex Smith has actually made the Braves entertaining on nights where the team wasn’t so much. While he’s still learning at the MLB level, Smith has a slash line of .224/.277/.342 in his 84 plate appearances so far in Atlanta. Smith has tried to steal a base 10 times already, but has been caught stealing four of those 10 attempts. This will and has improved since his call up. Within his first four games in Atlanta, he was caught twice and then in one game in Boston he was caught twice. He’s definitely an excited player to say the least.
"With the kind of speed-based game that’s inclined to produce close calls, Mallex Smith figures to be a familiar sight for those in MLB’s Replay Operations Center.“I’m going for the most replays of the season pretty much every year I show up,” the Braves rookie outfielder joked. “Make things interesting (and) give those guys in New York something to do while they’re up there. That’s my plan.”Twenty-five games into his major league career, Smith has done his part. Of the 11 challenges that the Braves have been involved in — eight of them issued by the team — the 23-year-old has had a part in four.“What fun would it be if that didn’t get reviewed?” Smith said, smiling."
Nick Swisher prefers Minor Leagues to playing with Braves
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Nick Swisher was a part of the Atlanta Braves organization for about eight months from August 2015 to March 2016. When he was in Atlanta, we were happy to have his enthusiastic personality and leadership in the clubhouse. We weren’t too thrilled with his play on the field or his bat at the plate. Eventually, the Braves let him go and now he can’t stop talking about us. He is currently playing with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the New York Yankees Triple-A affiliate. In 22 games, the former Atlanta Braves and AL All-Star has hit three home runs and has a slash line of .258/.280/.382. Swish, man, just let it go…the relationship was short-lived and it wasn’t great on both ends. Why isn’t he talking about the Cleveland Indians?
"Nick Swisher was released by the Atlanta Braves days before the beginning of the season. Now that the season is more than a month old and the Braves look like a potentially historically bad team, Swisher is pleased that Atlanta showed him the door, saying as much to Tim Casey of Vice Sports.“Being released by the Braves in the long run is gonna be the best thing that ever happened to me, man,” Swisher said. “I’m actually happy that it did happen because after seeing what’s going on over there, I don’t know if that’s where I would want to be right now.”"