Atlanta Braves might consider inviting Evander Holyfield for tonight’s contest

Tensions were running on a high simmer last night as the Braves and Blue Jays finished up their scrum last night.  Tonight has the potential to see those boil over.

While a lot of the right words may have been said publicly last night, it is apparent that the Blue Jays did not expect to be owned by the Atlanta Braves this week.

As a result, a month of frustration is coming to the surface as there’s the potential for a four-game inter-league sweep tonight.

In Case You Missed It, here’s the sequence of events that has led up to where we are today:

• Toronto is 17-24 on the season.  They had entered the year expecting to compete with Boston for the AL East crown.  Instead, they have the 2nd-worst American League record and are sitting in last place, 9 games back.
• The Blue Jays almost literally have an All-Star team of injuries plaguing them.
• On top of that, Jose Bautista is hitting .208 on the year with an OPS barely above .700.  Since 2010, he’s been averaging closer to .900.
• After a terrible start, they’d started to gain a bit of traction, winning 5 straight and 8 out of their last 10 as of last Sunday.
• Coming into the series with the Braves, they had figured this 4 game set would get them into the thick of competitiveness again.

Then Toronto’s pitching abandoned them as the Braves have put 27 runs up on the board in three games… 6 of those last night before any batter was retired.

About Last Night…

At this point, Freddie Freeman is already out of the game, the seventh batsman struck by a Toronto pitch during this series (we’re monitoring this for new information expected later today).

So now it’s the 7th inning with the Braves up 8-3.  Jason Motte has struck out one and gotten a second out via a fly out to center.  Their CF Kevin Pillar is now up.

With 2 strikes on him, Motte quick-pitches Pillar (0-4 on the night, but .305 for the year – one of the few bright spots on this team) for the strikeout.

Pillar yells something at Motte as he’s leaving the field.  Motte turns and heads toward PIllar.  Benches quickly empty.  Home plate ump Brian O’Nora intervenes (he did a fantastic job of keeping all you-know-what from breaking loose last night).

Some additional jawing, but mostly a lot of standing around.  More on this about Pillar in a moment.

8TH INNING.  Jose Bautista finally gets into a pitch and takes an Eric O’Flaherty offering into the LF seats.  It looked somewhat clumsy, but he then does a version of his signature bat flip… you know, the one he used against the Rangers that later caused trouble with Roughned Odor.

Jace Peterson, playing first base, complains to Bautista as he goes by.  Bautista pauses slightly in his trot, but continues.  Catcher Kurt Suzuki picks up where Peterson left off and the O’Nora’s services are once again called upon to restore order as teams again gathered for a meeting around home plate.

Afterwards… the Quotes

Here are the relevant quotes gather by reporters:

Not about frustration?  Really?

But Now There’s This…

Ummm…. why?

Oh… apparently there’s some rumblings that Pillar may have said something wrong directed at Motte…hence the investigation.  With all of this, that’s a hot button that could get more people exercised – particularly in the wake of incidents in Boston over racial taunts and slurs flung at the Orioles’ Adam Jones.

The league is clearly going out of its way to exorcise such epithets from the sports – both in the stands and on the field.  So if he did say such a thing, that could be another player the Blue Jays eventually lose for a few days.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves, for there will have to be an investigation – something that undoubtedly won’t be completed in time for this series.

More from Tomahawk Take

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• Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
• Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves

Meanwhile

The Braves will almost definitely be without the hottest hitter in baseball tonight… and at least for the next 10 days, one would figure…. with two months of absence being a distinct possibility.

How the team responds to their own dose of adversity remains to be seen, but with all of the above still on the stove and the heat turned up, even having the Jays’ players say “all the right things” may not be sufficient.

Hence the reference to Atlanta resident and former heavyweight boxing champ Evander Holyfield.

They might need him… though I’ve seen the stadium security personnel… you don’t wanna mess with most of them, either.

Next: Freeman Injured

Stay tuned… this has the potential to get ugly.