Atlanta Braves: Everybody Gets Hits and Gets Hit in Win
By W. M. Lawson
The Atlanta Braves came home Wednesday and continued their recent winning ways. Freddie Freeman, however, was all anyone could think about.
In what has become a theme with the 2017 Atlanta Braves, Wednesday continued a winning streak at three games. The Braves have won 5 of their last 6, and host another game against injured and hapless Toronto tonight. A win there and we’re talking a 4 game win streak and 6 of the last 7 heading into a nasty home series against Washington.
But just as Zeus punished Porphyrion for lusting after his wife, Hera, so too the baseball gods punished our beloved Atlanta Braves for thinking we could have any kind of sustained joy. Using the make-shift, and apparently uncontrollable, arms of the Toronto Blue Jays pitching staff, Freddie Freeman, the best hitter in baseball in 2017, was hit, injured, and left the game.
In fact, the benches cleared twice Wednesday night. It is rare for a home team to want to fight during an 8-4 rout. But they did. Fans did. You see, Toronto has, in three games, hit 7 Atlanta batters in this series. They hit five in one game. If you’ve ever played competitively, you know that, at some point a team just gets tired of getting hit. It doesn’t matter if they are doing it on purpose. Being trash is just as dangerous as being devilish.
But taking Freddie Freeman out is akin to taking out the platoon leader. No one even tries to hide the devastating effect it could have. You’d be foolish to attempt to obfuscate the damage.
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Tests on Freeman were inconclusive last night, and he’ll be re-examined thoroughly today. If he has a broken bone, it is “worst case scenario” for him and our Braves.
Tonight the Braves play the Blue Jays at 7:45 at SunTrust Park. I have a prediction: After last night’s ridiculous bat fling by Jose Bautista during an 8-4 rout, and the fact that their pitchers keep hitting our best players, look for some fireworks tonight.
If their best player keeps showboating in losses, and their awful pitchers take out your best player, there is some baseball justice coming.
We’re about to see just what kind of Manager Brian Snitker really is. If he can control the emotions of the players, and lead to a win, in spite of everything, that says one thing.
If he turns his players loose, and uses old school baseball rules to invoke justice, that is another thing.
Either way, we wait to see if these Braves can sweep Toronto. And we wait with bated breath to learn about Freddie.
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The baseball gods are cruel indeed.