Atlanta Braves News: Chop, Box, Braves Sweep The Cubs, Max Povse Promoted
By Jeff Schafer
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The Atlanta Braves swept the Chicago Cubs on Thursday!! Well, not technically. Thursday nights ball game was a make-up game from the rainout on April 30th. But we’ll take it as a one-game series and say the Braves were sweeping in Chi-Town!
At this point, can we really say anything negative about Lucas Harrell? He pitched another fine game against one of the best lineups in baseball. He lasted 7.2 innings, gave up only four hits, one run, two walks and had five strikeouts. Harrell was removed from the game after he hit Kris Bryant with a pitch…Bryant went on to score as did two other Cubs in this inning.
This put the Cubs up 3-2 heading into the 9th. Nick Markakis then hit his second home run of the game to tie and put this ball game into extras.
In the 11th inning, Freddie Freeman got a leadoff walk, leading to an Adonis Garcia single and later a Tyler Flowers single which scored Freeman.
We had some added drama in the bottom of the 11th inning as Dario Alvarez gave up back-to-back singles to start the inning. He was then replaced by, what is developing into possibly our closer, Mauricio Cabrera who got a double play and another ground-out to end the game.
Tempers did flare up a couple times in this game — that’s worth mentioning
Braves WIN 4-3
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jace Peterson 2B | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .271 | .340 | .382 | .721 |
| Gordon Beckham SS | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | .273 | .374 | .424 | .798 |
| Dario Alvarez P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Chase d’Arnaud LF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .260 | .331 | .360 | .691 |
| Freddie Freeman 1B | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | .283 | .367 | .500 | .867 |
| Nick Markakis RF | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | .257 | .334 | .362 | .696 |
| Adonis Garcia 3B | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | .241 | .277 | .338 | .615 |
| Jeff Francoeur LF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 | .262 | .303 | .369 | .672 |
| Mauricio Cabrera P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Tyler Flowers C | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | .249 | .339 | .402 | .741 |
| Ender Inciarte CF | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 5 | .226 | .293 | .304 | .597 |
| Lucas Harrell P | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .000 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Hunter Cervenka P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Jim Johnson P | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Erick Aybar PH-SS | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .223 | .278 | .281 | .559 |
| Team Totals | 40 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 15 | 44 | .150 | .227 | .325 | .552 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucas Harrell | 7.2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1.32 |
| Hunter Cervenka | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.08 |
| Jim Johnson, BS (2) | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4.20 |
| Dario Alvarez, W (3-1) | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0.93 |
| Mauricio Cabrera, S (2) | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.80 |
| Team Totals | 11 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 0 | 2.45 |
Jeff Francoeur: Players overwhelmingly want stiffer PED penalties
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: Jeff Francoeur’s name just keeps popping up! Ha, this time is for his off the field comments about PED usage. I couldn’t agree more with him though and possibly that’s why this is getting so much stir. We haven’t really seen a player come out and say these things in quite some time. Way to go Frenchy! And when you’re at it, take down the entire Cubs!
"Atlanta Braves outfielder Jeff Francoeur estimated that 90 percent of Major League Baseball players are in favor of stronger penalties for performance-enhancing drug use. He also said changes to the game’s drug testing agreement might be necessary as a disincentive to players who are “cheating the system.”“The system is flawed,” Francoeur told Buster Olney on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight podcast Thursday. “There’s no other way around it. Guys get docked 80 games (pay) or whatever it is. Yeah, that’s a lot of money. But if you sign a $60 million deal and you’re losing maybe $5 million, it’s worth it for a lot of these guys. It stinks because there are buddies of mine who were basically battling these guys for jobs. It’s just unfair.“I know a lot of guys that have been busted, and they’re good people. I like them a lot. But at the end of the day, they’re cheating the system.”"
Tomahawk Take Editor’s Note: The 22-year-old, Max Povse, has had a solid season with the Carolina Mudcats so far in 2016 and positive news may continue coming his way. We’re hearing that Povse will be promoted from the Mudcats up to Double-A Mississippi today. In 2016, he’s 5-5 with a 3.71 ERA in his 15 starts. Through 87.1 innings pitched, he’s given up 36 earned runs, five homers, 17 walks and has totaled 91 strikeouts. Povse is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the Braves 25th ranked prospect.