TORONTO — Atlanta Braves first-year general manager Alex Anthopoulos was not sure how well his new team would do this season.
“You know what
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we didn’t know what to expect,” the former Toronto Blue Jays GM said before the
opener of a two-game series at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday night.
He has a better idea now and so do the fans of the Blue Jays as they watched the Braves defeat their team 11-4 Tuesday and show why they are in first place
in the National League East.
The short interleague set will end Wednesday afternoon with Atlanta starting right-hander Anibal Sanchez (3-0, 1.93 ERA) against Toronto left-hander J.A.
Happ (8-3, 3.48).
“We knew there was a lot of talent here,” said Anthopoulos, who was the GM in Toronto from 2009-2015 before working for the Los Angeles Dodgers and then
taking the job at Atlanta this past offseason. “There’s a ton of talent here.
Those guys (the previous general managers in Atlanta) deserve all the
credit.”
Anthopoulos said part of the plan was to see just how far players like of Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis could take this club.
“The plan was just to sit back and let these guys play,” Anthopoulos said. “Maybe add some things, bring some information. We had a game plan in the
offseason on what we could be doing from a developmental standpoint, how we
could potentially make guys better with information that we might provide to
them, to the staff, to try to get the most out of their abilities.”
So far it has worked well with Atlanta improving its record to 43-29 while Toronto scuffles in the American League East at 33-39.
Sanchez will be making his eighth appearance of the season, and his seventh start, in the series finale. Last season, while with the Tigers, he was 0-1 with
a 10.13 ERA in two starts against the Blue Jays. He is 3-4 with a 5.70 ERA in 12
career appearances (10 starts) against the Blue Jays. His last win against them
was July 3, 2015, at Detroit, when he allowed four runs, three hits and three
walks in 7 1/3 innings in the Tigers’ 8-6 victory.
Happ is 3-0 with a 2.42 ERA in eight career games, including seven starts
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against Atlanta.
In June, he is 1-0 with a 2.12 ERA in three starts, which is not hurting his trade value as the July 31 deadline approaches. He is considered one of the
better candidates among the Blue Jays to be traded, especially since he can be a
free agent in the offseason.
Happ did not factor into the decision in his most recent start, June 13 at Tropicana Field, when the Tampa Bay Rays defeated the Blue Jays 1-0.
He threw five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and three walks while striking out three.
“I do feel good out there for sure,” Happ said. “I feel confident, and that’s always a huge thing. I’ll try to keep it rolling, and we’ll try to bounce
back.”
The loss on Tuesday ended Toronto’s seven-game winning streak at home. They are 6-3 in interleague games.
The Braves have won three games in a row and six of their past seven as they move to a season-high 14 games over .500. They are 22-16 on the road.
Before the series opener, the Blue Jays put right-handed pitcher Sam Gaviglio on paternity leave — his wife gave birth to a daughter Tuesday — and recalled
infielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. from Triple-A Buffalo. Gurriel did not play on
Tuesday.
LOS ANGELES — The third start of Madison Bumgarner’s return to the San Francisco Giants‘ rotation after a broken finger will take the left-hander to a
mound where he knows success.
Bumgarner will square off with Dodgers left-hander Alex Wood in the middle game of a three-game series on Saturday at Dodger Stadium.
It is a venue Bumgarner knows well, having pitched there 18 times, 17 of which have been starts. He has a career 2.31 ERA in L.A. and gave up just one
run in two starts in the Dodgers’ home park last season.
Add in the fact that the rivalry game will be televised nationally and all the elements to shine appear to be in place for Bumgarner (0-1, 4.76 ERA), who
showed his feisty side in an outing earlier this week at Miami when he was
ejected upon departing the game.
“My stuff is good enough to get people out right now; I’ve just got to execute,” Bumgarner told mlb.com after he was ejected for giving a piece of his
mind to home-plate umpire Jeremie Rehak.
The mild-mannered Wood (1-5, 4.43) might be ready to show an edgier side as well. The left-hander has given up a combined 15 runs (13 earned) in his last
three starts and has pitched just 11 innings in those outings.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has already been asked if Wood is in danger of losing his starting spot, but he remains confident in the All-Star from a year
ago. But left-hander Rich Hill (blister) looks close to a return from the
disabled list after a solid minor league rehab start and could possibly force
Wood from the rotation.
To Wood’s credit, he has remained confident, not sounding like a pitcher who needs to prove himself against the Giants on Saturday.
“There’s a lot of baseball left to be played
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Wood said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I can promise you that, when we
get down that stretch, I’ll be playing my best baseball of the year.”
As a team, the Dodgers (36-32) are doing just that. For a month, the defending National League champions have looked more like the team that roared
into the 2017 World Series, only to lose in seven games to the Houston
Astros.
The Dodgers will enter Saturday having won 10 of their 12 games in June while posting a 20-6 record since May 17. They hit two more home runs Friday and now
have 32 in June, by far the most in baseball during the month. They lead the NL
with 88 home runs this season.
When that 20-6 run began, the Dodgers were in fourth place in the NL West, eight games back, and the Giants were in third place, and four games back.
After the Dodgers’ 3-2 victory over the Giants on Friday, L.A. was in second place, 2 1/2 games back, and the Giants (34-36) were in fourth place, 5 1/2
games back and just a half game in front of the last-place San Diego Padres.
Pablo Sandoval homered Friday night for the Giants, who fell to 3-5 on their three-city, 10-game road trip.
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