Freddie Freeman gets revenge against Phillies in Game one

Philadelphia is known for many things.

The Rocky movies, Cheese-steaks, the Liberty Bell and fans that would boo their own grandmother at the plate. That old woman takes an 0-for-4 collar, and she’s not allowed back in the house.

What Philadelphia isn’t known for lately is playing good baseball.

Coming into game one on Friday night of their series with the Atlanta Braves, the Phillies sported a very underwhelming 36-42 record. What will drive Braves fans crazy is that three of those 36 wins came in Atlanta during that awful sweep. Revenge was on the front of my mind when the Braves dropped into Philadelphia, and it was obviously on the mind of Freddie Freeman as well.

Freeman really took charge for the Braves in their 4-2 victory, by netting all four RBIs. He had a 3-5 night with a single, a double and a homer–coming up a triple short of the cycle.

Julio Teheran had to be pleased with that effort, considering the four runs came early. The Braves had a 4-0 lead by the end of the second inning, meaning Julio had a lot of room to work with. And work he did. Teheran went seven solid innings with six hits, one earned run, and nine Ks. Philly netted another unearned run off of a rare Andrelton Simmons error.

One odd thing was the exit of Evan Gattis after just one at bat in the first inning, immediately being replaced in the bottom half by Gerald Laird. Apparently, Gattis left with some sort of upper-back spasm, but it didn’t look too serious. Hopefully, he will be back quickly from that injury. Laird stepped in adequately and finished with a 1-3 day, but you hate to have a power stick like Evan’s out of the lineup.

The Braves hitters finished with nine hits, two doubles, a homer and 10 Ks. They also went 1-9 with RISP, which has been really bad throughout the last week.

Still, wins are wins. The MVP of the game is obviously Freddie Freeman since he was responsible for all the runs. He owned the ballpark on a Philly Friday night. You could tell earlier in the month when Freddie was really struggling that he didn’t have any feel at the plate. For a guy that’s see-ball-hit-ball like Freeman, that’s a huge problem. Well, he’s seeing everything right now, and it looks fantastic.

Game two on Saturday is unfortunately a day game, and the Braves are 10-15 in those this season. Roberto Hernandez goes against Ervin Santana at 2:00 p.m. However, it’s going to be so nice tomorrow, they’re going to play two games! That’s right, it’s a Saturday double header. Game three is the night game, where David Hale will battle Sean O’Sullivan. Hale hasn’t started since April 26th, so that’s going to be a must watch for all of Braves Country.

Stay tuned.