Braves Roll Over the Dodgers, Nationals Sweep the Twins
After appearing to get their groove back this past week, the Los Angeles Dodgers (27-35) fell hard on Sunday, losing to the Atlanta Braves (39-24) 8-1.
Dan Uggla
Braves second baseman Dan Uggla showed up with his .183 batting average for the four-game weekend series and hit two homers on Sunday with four RBIs. The first three-run homer came in the third inning and the second one occurred in the fifth inning.
This represented Uggla’s second multi-homer game this season and as for his recent slump, it appears he could be coming out of it.
He said via MLB.com, “You always want to feel like you matter and feel like you’re a factor. It [stinks] to feel like I felt last year and this year. You feel like you’re a non-factor. So to get some homers, get some runs and drive in some runs, it feels good.”
Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman had a three-run double in the fourth inning while lefty Mike Minor pitched for six innings, holding the Dodgers to one run, six hits, six strikeouts and three walks. From his seven recent starts, Minor is now 5-0 with a 1.76 ERA.
For the Dodgers, righty Matt Magill (0-2), who got called up to take Ted Lilly’s spot, gave up seven runs (three earned) with four hits over his 3 2/3 innings of pitching.
The Braves now sit 7.5 games ahead of the Washington Nationals in the NL East race.
On Monday, the Braves will stay out West and play the San Diego Padres (29-34).
Braves righty Julio Teheran (4-2) will take the mound while righty Jason Marquis (7-2) has pitching duty for the Padres.
Look for another Braves win (-131, 7.5 o/u).
Nationals Sweep the Twins in Doubleheader
After going extra innings on Saturday and losing, the Washington Nationals (31-31) rallied on Sunday and swept the Minnesota Twins (27-33) in a doubleheader.
In Game 1, the Nationals defeated the Twins, 7-0.
Nationals righty Jordan Zimmermann
Righty pitcher Jordan Zimmermann (9-3), who’s been battling a stiff neck, gave up just two hits in seven scoreless innings to start things off. In his 111 pitches, he had eight strikeouts, knocking his ERA down to 2.00.
He has now won 11 straight pitching starts at home and is tied for the most MLB wins with the Boston Red Sox’s Clay Buchholz, Arizona Diamondback’s Patrick Corbin and St. Louis Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright, according to The Associated Press.
Second baseman Anthony Rendon had two hits with three RBIs while short stop Ian Desmond had three hits and two RBIs; this extended his hitting streak to 11 games–a career-high.
For the Twins, lefty Scott Diamond (4-5) was the losing pitcher.
In the second game, a 5-4 Nationals win, it was a different story as Washington had to come from three runs behind to finally take a lead in the seventh inning and ultimately the win.
After stellar pitching by Zimmermann in Game 1, the Nationals relied on their bullpen for the second one. Righty Nathan Karns started for the the team and gave up four runs from five hits with three walks and two strikeouts over his three innings.
Reliever Tyler Clippard (5-1) arrived in the seventh inning to pitch for the win while Drew Storen had pitching duty in the eighth; Rafael Soriano pitched for save No. 16.
Twins Samuel Deduno started on the mound for his fourth start and lasted for five innings.
One bright spot in the game for Minnesota, was short stop Pedro Florimon’s two-run homer in the third inning.
After starting the season with high expectations, the Nationals are at .500 after Sunday’s two wins. They have the day off on Monday before playing the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday.
The Nationals sit at +1400 to win this year’s World Series.
