2013 Atlanta Braves season

Offseason

The Braves began the offseason with some major holes to fill. The Braves were losing future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones to retirement, and centerfielder and lead-off man Michael Bourn was lost to free agency. The idea going into the offseason was to get a centerfielder and either a thirdbaseman or left fielder, with Martín Prado playing either third base or left field depending which way they decided to go.

The Braves signed B. J. Upton to a 5-year $75.25 million contract very early in the offseason, filling the need in centerfield. In January, they then acquired B.J.'s brother Justin Upton, a left fielder from the Diamondbacks, along with third baseman Chris Johnson, in exchange for Prado, Randall Delgado, and three minor league prospects.

The Braves also traded Tommy Hanson to the Angels for relief pitcher Jordan Walden, signed back-up infielder Ramiro Pena, and signed Gerald Laird to replace back-up catcher David Ross, who signed with the Red Sox as a free agent. They also brought back a former teammate by claiming outfielder Jordan Schafer off waivers from the Houston Astros.

Offseason subtractions and additions

On November 16, 2012, the Atlanta Braves signed free agent C Gerald Laird to a two-year deal worth $3M.

On November 29, the Braves signed free agent CF B.J. Upton to a five-year deal worth $75.25M.

On November 30, the Braves traded RHP Tommy Hanson to Los Angeles Angels for RHP Jordan Walden.

On December 6, the Braves signed free agent LF Reed Johnson to a one-year deal worth $1.6M with the possibility to earn $150k in incentives, as well as a 2014 club option worth $1.6M or a $150K buyout.

On December 7, the Braves signed free agent SS Ramiro Pena to a one-year deal.

On January 24, 2013, the Atlanta Braves traded 3B Martín Prado, RHP Randall Delgado, RHP Zeke Spruill, SS Nick Ahmed and 3B Brandon Drury [1] to the Arizona Diamondbacks for LF Justin Upton and 3B Chris Johnson.

Season highlights and Impressive Features

On April 6, down 5-4 in the ninth Melvin Upton Jr. hit a solo homerun off of Carlos Mármol to tie the game at 5-5. His brother Justin came up 3rd in the inning and he hit the walk-off homerun to dead center and the Braves won 6-5.

On April 23, 2013 against the Colorado Rockies, the Upton brothers hit back-to-back home runs, the first to do so since 1938.

On May 21 down 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning, Evan Gattis hit a two-out, solo homerun to tie the game. In the 10th inning, Freddie Freeman hit a bloop single scoring Jason Heyward from second base to win the game.

On June 1 against the Nationals, with the game tied at 1-1 in the 9th inning, the Nationals had runners at 3rd and 2nd with no outs and Craig Kimbrel pitching. Kimbrel came through, though. Ian Desmond struck out looking, Roger Bernadina hit a chopper to third, Chris Johnson fielded and threw Ryan Zimmerman out at home. Finally, Danny Espinosa flew out to Justin Upton to end the inning. In the bottom of the 10th, Melvin Upton Jr. singled and Jordan Schafer scored just ahead of Bernadina's throw for the win.

On June 4 against the Pirates, Andrelton Simmons hit a walk off triple in the 10th inning off of Mark Melancon for the 5-4 win.

On June 17 Dillon Gee took a shutout into the 9th inning. Looking for his first career complete game shutout, Freddie Freeman ruined the shutout bid with a walk off two-run homerun with one out to win the game 2-1.

On July 29 the Braves beat the Rockies 9-8 in an epic game. The Rockies beat up Brandon Beachy who was making his first start since July 2012 due to Tommy John surgery. Down 5-0 in the bottom of the 3rd, the Braves struck for 6 runs to take a 6-5 lead. The Rockies scored two more in the fourth to retake the lead. In the Bottom of the 5th the Braves retook the lead at 8-7 on a Dan Uggla RBI double and a Joey Terdoslavich RBI single. In the top of the 9th the Rockies rallied to tie the game when Carlos González hit an RBI single off of Jordan Walden to score Dexter Fowler. With the bases loaded newly acquired reliever Scott Downs threw one pitch to Todd Helton. He hit a line-drive right back to Downs who speared it to end the inning. In the bottom of the 10th, Andrelton Simmons hit a triple scoring Dan Uggla for a 10-9 Braves win.

On August 16 Justin Upton hit a walk off homerun in the bottom of the 10th off of current Brave Ian Krol to win the game 3-2. It was his 23rd homerun.

On August 28 against the Indians with the game tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the 9th inning Schafer stood at 2nd and Freeman at 1st with Chris Johnson at the plate. He hit the walk off single on a 2-2 conut to score Schafer and win the game 3-2.

On August 31 Melvin Upton Jr. went 4 for 6 with the walk off single in the bottom of the 11th to win the game 5-4. He struck out in his first two at-bats before getting hits in the next four.

On September 14 Craig Kimbrel broke his personal single-season saves record of 46 with his 47th in a 2-1 win over the Padres.

On September 22 the Braves clinched the NL East with the Nationals loss to the Marlins. The Braves beat the Cubs that day 5-2.

On September 24 Andrelton Simmons hit the walk off single with two outs in the bottom of 9th over Carlos Gómez to score Justin Upton and win the game 3-2.

The Braves lead the league with 24 wins in their last at-bat. They led the National League with 44 come-from-behind wins.

With the Braves opening day win they shared a tie with the Nationals for first place. The Braves shared at least a tie of first place every day from April 7 on and with their win over the Nationals on April 13 had sole possession of first place in the NL East for the rest of the season. On top of that, the Braves overall record was never at or under .500 at any point in the season.

The Braves lead the majors in team ERA at 3.18. Their bullpen lead the majors in bullpen ERA at 2.46 while their starters were at 3.51.

The Atlanta Braves won their 10th straight game with a 6–3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on April 16, their longest winning streak since the club won 15 straight between April 15 – May 2, 2000. With a 12–1 record up to that point, the Braves were off to their best start since they began the 1982 season 13–1. They also outhomered opponents 25–7 and outscored opponents 68–25 for the best run differential in the majors. After the Braves and Royals had a day off on April 15, players, managers and coaches for both teams wore No. 42 on their jerseys to honor Jackie Robinson on April 16. Like many teams, the Braves also held a moment of silence before the game for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings (April 15).

With Wade Davis pitching 7 scoreless innings, the Royals beat the Braves 1–0 on April 17 to end Atlanta's 10-game winning streak. Atlanta's 10-game winning streak, was one of only five such stretches within the first 13 games of a season since 1900. (2013 Braves 10 / 1982 Braves 13 / 1962 Pirates 10 / 1955 Dodgers 10 / 1938 Giants 11)

On April 26, against the Detroit Tigers, Tiger pitcher Aníbal Sánchez struck out seventeen Atlanta Braves' batters, setting a franchise record previously set by Tigers' left-hander Mickey Lolich in 1972.

On April 30, Braves pitcher Tim Hudson became the 113th major league pitcher and to reach 200 wins. Hudson also went two for three in the game, hitting a home run and a double as the Braves beat the Washington Nationals 8–1.

On June 5, Julio Teherán pitched into the eighth inning with two outs without giving up a hit to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Teherán gave up the first (and only) hit of the game to Pirates pinch hitter Brandon Inge.

On July 24, Tim Hudson was pitching a 4-hit shutout against the New York Mets when Eric Young, Jr. accidentally stepped on Hudson's ankle, resulting in a right ankle fracture that ended Hudson's 2013 season.

From July 26 – August 9 the Braves won 14 straight games (including four consecutive series sweeps) and were one game away from tying the franchise record of 15 set in 2000; the winning streak was snapped after a 0–1 loss to the Miami Marlins on August 10.

Awards

All-Stars

NL Player of the Month

NL Rookie of the Month

NL Player of the Week

Opening day lineup

Game 1, October 3

8:07 p.m. (EDT) at Turner Field in Atlanta

Braves ace Kris Medlen struck out the side in the first inning, getting Carl Crawford looking and Mark Ellis and Hanley Ramírez swinging, throwing Turner Field into a frenzy. That would be the highlight of the night for the Braves as Medlen fell apart after the first and Clayton Kershaw dominated the strikeout-prone Braves racking up 12 while allowing only one run and hurling a complete-game. The Braves went down in order in the first. Kershaw struck out Jason Heyward and their leading offensive power Freddie Freeman to end the first. In the second inning the Dodgers got going. After an Adrian Gonzalez line out controversial, rookie phenom Yasiel Puig singled followed by a single from Juan Uribe putting runners at 3rd and 1st. Skip Schumaker then hit a sac-fly to Jason Heyward scoring Puig and Uribe tagging to 2nd base with two outs. Next, Catcher A.J. Ellis smashed a double, scoring Uribe. Kershaw grounded out to first to end the top half of the second inning. Evan Gattis (the Braves feel-good story of 2013) led-off the bottom half of the 2nd with a single. Unfortunately, after a Brian McCann fly-out, surprise slugger Chris Johnson, who finished second in the National League Batting Race, flew out to Puig. This time Gattis came too far off first base and he was thrown out for an inning-ending double play. The situation only got worse in the third inning for the Braves. Crawford hit an infield single and advanced to second. It looked like the Braves might escape unscathed after getting Ellis and Ramírez to pop out. However, on the first pitch of his at-bat, Adrian Gonzalez hammered a two-run homerun, extending the Dodgers lead to 4-0 and basically ending the game. Kershaw kept the Braves quiet in the third inning, while Mark Ellis drove in A.J. Ellis who hit his second double, making the score 5-0. Finally, the Braves broke through against Kershaw in the bottom of the fourth inning. After Justin Upton grounded out to Kershaw for the second time, Freeman singled and Gattis walked. McCann filed out, but Chris Johnson, who finished third in the league in batting average with runners in scoring position and two-outs, singled scoring Freeman for their only run of the game. Andrelton Simmons struck out next to end the inning. After a Gonzalez lead-off single and Puig hit-by-pitch, Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez pulled Medlen for break out, lefty Luis Avilán. After a sacrifice bunt by Uribe and intentional walk of Schumaker, Avilan struck out A.J. Ellis and Clayton Kershaw to end the threat. However, Kershaw struck out the side in the bottom half of the fifth inning. Getting Elliot Johnson and B.J. Upton (pinch-hitting for Avilan) looking and Jason Heyward swinging. Jordan Walden relieved Avilan in the sixth inning. Crawford grounded out to lead-off the inning, but Mark Ellis singled and Hanley Ramírez doubled to score Ellis, to close the scoring at 6-1. Kershaw shut down Atlanta over the next three innings. With the win the Dodgers took a 1-0 series lead.

Game 2, October 4

6:07 p.m. (EDT) at Turner Field in Atlanta

Game 3, October 6

8:07 p.m. (EDT) at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles

Game 4, October 7

9:37 p.m. (EDT) at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles

Player statistics

Statistics updated after game on September 4, 2013.
† denotes player is on 15-day disabled list.
‡ denotes player is on 60-day disabled list.
* denotes player is active, but on the inactive roster.
x denotes player was traded mid-season and is no longer in the organization.