atlanta Page 12 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Yadier Molina Flipped His Bat To The Moon After Game-Winning Sacrifice Fly
The St. Louis Cardinals evened up their NLDS series against the Atlanta Braves Monday night, on a 10th-inning sacrifice fly to left field to score Kolten Wong. It was Molina’s second big feat of batsmanship of the game, and he was super-duper pumped to have driven in the winning run. So pumped, in f...

Deshaun Watson Did The Cool Thing Again
Last week, when Deshaun Watson answered a thoughtful post-game question with a hyper-detailed breakdown of Carolina’s defense, there was some confusion over whether he was showing up the reporter. Now that Watson has given a similarly thorough answer to a question following his dominant performance ...

Braves Give The Lie To Rob Manfred's Insistence That The "Tomahawk Chop" Is Being Discouraged
The Atlanta Braves are supposed to be discouraging the “tomahawk chop” celebration at home games. Or, anyway, that’s what commissioner Rob Manfred told the Washington Post back in February, that the Braves had “taken steps to take out” the chant. But they’re not discouraging it, not really—the Brave...

Everyone Mad At Ronald Acuña Jr. Over Baserunning
The Cardinals are mad at Braves superstar Ronald Acuña Jr. for how he ran the bases in Game 1 Thursday night. You can probably guess, that’s some musty “play the right way” bullcrap. But it turns out Acuña’s own teammates are mad at him over a completely different baserunning issue, and when your te...

Cardinals Nearly Blow Game 1 Against The Braves, But Don't, Dammit
Game 1 of the NLDS between the Braves and the vile Cardinals did not represent the best that either team had to offer. There were slick plays and dingers, and there was some gutsy pitching, but there was also some sloppy defense, lots of glaringly bad luck, and some spectacularly crappy late-innings...
![Braves Pitcher Injures Self While Warming Up On The Mound, Replacement Gives Up Dinger On First Strike [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/mmvs42gxlpe9xv5eudo1.png)
Braves Pitcher Injures Self While Warming Up On The Mound, Replacement Gives Up Dinger On First Strike [Update]
Before he got a chance to throw his first pitch of the postseason, Chris Martin of the Atlanta Braves was taken off the mound with an athletic trainer by his side just as the top of the eighth inning was officially about to begin. Martin appeared to injure himself during his initial warmup pitches, ...

Keanu Neal Penalized For Unsportsmanlike Conduct After Throwing Helmet In Injury-Related Frustration
Falcons safety Keanu Neal suffered a pretty bad injury to his leg just before halftime against the Colts on Saturday. That much became clear when he threw his helmet in frustration and was crying by the time the training staff got to him. While the pain certainly played a part in his emotional state...

Ronald Acuña's 40/40 Season Now Feels Inevitable
With his 39th home run and 35th and 36th stolen bases on Thursday night against the Phillies, Ronald Acuña put a historic bow on his season by becoming the youngest player to accomplish a 35-35 season in baseball history. While Acuña bashing dingers and swiping bases has come to feel routine this ye...

Ronald Acuña Jr. Robs Home Run, Immediately Turns It Into Inside-The-Park Home Run
You would think that robbing a home run at the wall comes down to getting a good jump, timing your leap, and having the insane hand-eye coordination to rip the ball out of the sky with your off hand, while crashing into a padded wall. Turns out that’s only most of it. As Ronald Acuña Jr. learned in ...

Francisco Cervelli Lands Flying Karate Kick On Base, Somehow Doesn't Get Hurt
Even relative to the brutal baseline of physical punishment that applies to big league catchers, Francisco Cervelli has been through a lot. When the Pittsburgh Pirates put him on release waivers last week, Cervelli was rehabilitating from what was at least the sixth concussion he’s suffered since 20...

By Banning Protest Signs, MLS Is Trying To Lobotomize The Fandom It Asked For
MLS and its clubs are currently embroiled in a fight against their own supporters over what the league claims are violations of its anti-politics rules. Over the last two weeks, multiple fans in multiple stadiums have been ejected for banners that run afoul of the league’s Fan Code of Conduct. There...

Ronald Acuña Jr. Gives Gravity The Middle Finger, Robs Home Run
Ronald Acuña Jr. has been an absolute stud for the Braves as of late, and even when his team hasn’t been performing to the best of their abilities, he still finds a way to remind the folks at home just how much better he is compared to the bums around him. The latest exemplar of this talent separati...

Josef Martínez Adds Two More MLS Scoring Records To His Growing Collection
Atlanta United forward Josef Martínez can’t stop breaking records. Last season, the 26-year-old Venezuelan shattered the MLS single-season scoring record with 31 goals, four more than the previous record of 27. On Sunday, he added two more records to his collection with this towering header against ...

Why Your Team Sucks 2019: Atlanta Falcons
Some people are fans of the Atlanta Falcons. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Atlanta Falcons. This 2019 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here....

Let's Remember Some Vince Carter Draftmates
Vince Carter is reportedly running it back with the Atlanta Hawks. Holy moly! He’ll turn 43 before the all-star break. He has been on this Earth over twice as long as the Hawks’ stars, John Collins (21) and Trae Young (20). In his last season with Atlanta, gray-bearded Carter logged 18 minutes a nig...

Ronald Acuña Jr. Submits The Bat Flip Of The Year
Braves phenom Ronald Acuña Jr. had an exciting weekend against the Reds. On Friday, he hit a 463-foot homer. On Saturday, he earned the first walk-off hit of his career, smacking a ball down the left-field line to drive in the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Then on Sunday, with his te...

The Falcons Are Bringing D.J. Durkin To Training Camp Because No Bad Coach Ever Goes Away
Disgraced former Maryland Terrapins head coach D.J. Durkin will, bizarrely, be making an appearance in the NFL this year. As Atlanta Falcons training camp begins, the team has announced that Durkin will serve as a “guest coach,” which means he’ll watch practice for 10 days and consult with head coac...

Josef Martínez's Hideous Penalty Kick Run-Up Ends In Humiliation
The reward for Josef Martínez’s frankly insane penalty kick routine is an unreadable technique that makes it easy to best keepers from the spot, as evidenced by the Atlanta United forward’s 14-for-16 penalty record in MLS. The risk is that it makes him look like a huge weirdo and sets him up for rid...

Stephen Strasburg's Mighty Batsmanship Overwhelms The Braves
Stephen Strasburg pitched five-plus innings Thursday night in the first game of an important four-game series in Atlanta against the NL East-leading Braves. It was a solid outing, especially considering the competition: Strasburg struck out seven and allowed three earned runs, and got the win, in la...

Josef Martínez Dribbled Two Houston Dynamo Players Into An Early Grave
Josef Martínez is Atlanta United’s do-everything striker, was the best player in MLS last year, and has been the hottest player in the league over the last two months. The 26-year-old Venezuelan has scored 11 goals in his last seven games, including two against the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night ...