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NEW YORK -- The Blair Pitch Project started to show results for the Atlanta Braves.Using a revised windup developed during a brief trip to the minor leagues, Aaron Blair won for the first time in 13 major league starts and helped the Braves slow the New York Mets wild-card chase with a 7-3 victory Monday night.Acquired from Arizona along with Dansby Swanson and Ender Inciarte in Decembers trade that sent Shelby Miller to the Diamondbacks, Blair had been 0-6 with an 8.23 ERA in his first 12 big league starts, including 0-2 in three outings against the Mets.Its frustrating giving up runs and going out, not getting a win for your team, but tonight was good, Blair said.Freddie Freeman, getting little sleep after bringing his newborn son home from a hospital late Sunday, drove in three runs off a misfiring Noah Syndergaard. Freeman had four hits for the Braves, who have the worst record in the National League, and Swanson had three hits and three RBI.Blair, a 24-year-old right-hander selected 36th overall in the 2013 amateur draft, went on the disabled list after an Aug. 28 loss because of a strained left knee, then worked on his mechanics during two injury rehabilitation starts in the minors. Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell wanted him to cut down on the turn in his rotation, to reach out farther with his pitching arm and to stay more upright.Obviously, giving up a run per inning wasnt great, so I was up for any changes, Blair said.Activated to start against the Mets, Blair (1-6) did not allow a hit until the fourth, when Curtis Granderson singled and T.J. Rivera hit a two-run homer.Blair gave up six hits in six innings, struck out four and walked one, lowering his ERA to 7.71.All the hard work that hes put in and making changes and sticking to it, not reverting back in stressful situations, its nice to see him rewarded for it, Braves manager Brian Snitker said. He got a good downhill plane going, I thought, and obviously some of those changeups they were swinging over had some late action.Blair was given the ball from the final out and received more than 50 text messages of congratulations.I was able to make pitches when I needed to, and if they hit the ball, they just hit it right at guys, he said. So some of the line drives I was on the luckier side.Syndergaard (13-9) allowed five runs in 3 2/3 innings, and Atlanta fouled off 26 of his 99 pitches. He started to falter in a 35-pitch second that included consecutive walks and RBI singles by Swanson and Inciarte, the first on a 99.9 mph fastball and the second on a slider.Freeman led off the third with an opposite-field homer to left, extending his streaks for hits to 23 games and for reaching base to 39. Freeman then reached down to slice an opposite-field, two-run double in the fourth for a 5-0 lead.Freeman could barely keep his eyes open afterward.I got nothing left. I left it all out there, he said. I can hardly think right now.OH SO CLOSERio Ruiz, a 22-year-old Braves third base prospect, had been announced as a pinch hitter in the seventh inning Sunday in his major league debut when Washington changed pitchers, rain started to fall and the tarp was brought out. The game, which had been interrupted for 1 hour, 7 minutes in the sixth, was called after a 1:50 wait. His parents, who changed their flight to stay after the first rain delay, did not make the trip to New York and headed back to Los Angeles.Theres nothing frustrating about being here in the majors leagues, he said. Im still all smiling.ROTATIONRHP Ryan Weber will start for the Braves in Wednesdays series finale, his second start this season and the seventh of his big league career.GREAT GLOVEBraves LF Matt Kemp, a two-time Gold Glove winner, ran in for diving catches in the seventh on Michael Conforto and Alejandro De Aza.TRAINERS ROOMBraves: RHP Mike Foltynewicz, hit on the left calf by Marcell Ozunas liner on Sept. 12, is playing catch and walking on a treadmill. Snitker said he could return this season.UP NEXTJulio Teheran (5-10) is to start Tuesday for the Braves and RHP Robert Gsellman (2-1) for the Mets, Teheran is 1-0 with a 0.78 ERA against New York in three starts this year. . "It doesnt get any better than that," Giambi said. "Im speechless." The Indians are roaring toward October. Giambi belted a two-run, pinch-hit homer with two outs in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a shocking 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, keeping the Indians up with the lead pack in the AL wild-card race. . Its 1987 and a Brazilian playmaker, known as Mirandinha, is being paraded around St James Park to the passionate Newcastle fans. . The Browns coaching search remains incomplete. . Louis Blues. Shane Hnidy joins Brian Munz for the broadcast on TSN 1290 Radio at 7pm ct. . -- Playing time has been limited for Maxim Tissot this season, so the Montreal Impact defender made the most of his first scoring opportunity on Saturday. LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Torian Graham scored 22 points and Shannon Evans II had 21 to lift Arizona State to an 80-71 victory over Tulane in the losers bracket of the Tire Pros Invitational.Sam Cunliffe scored 10 for the Sun Devils who pulled away from Tulane in the final seven minutes to improve to 3-1. ASU lost its first game in the tournament by 19 points to Northern Iowa.We showed up ready to play today, ASU Coach Bobby Hurley said. I dont want to make excuses, but that game (Northern Iowa) wasnt our best effort. We were lethargic the whole time. I thought we were much more aggressive defensively and when a couple of shots fell, we settled down to play pretty good offensively.Tulane (1-3) got 22 points from Melvin Frazier Jr. and 17 from Cameron Reynolds, but the Green Wave offense fizzled in the final seven minutes when the game was still within reach.We had a nice run where we got defensive stops and were taking our time on offense, Reynolds said. But as soon as we started rushing things, we let them push it back at us and didnt defend like we should.ASU had an 11-point lead at halftime, but couldnt shake the Green Wave until late in the second half.Tulane found some room taking the ball to the basket against ASUs man-to-man defense and cut their deficit to just 61-58 when Von Julien scored on a driving layup with 7:02 left in the game.ASU center Ramon Villa woke up the Devils offeense with a follow-shot jam and Graham scored five straight points to push the lead back to a more comfortable 68-58 with just under five minutes left.ddddddddddddThe Green Wave never got closer than seven the rest of the game.BIG PICTUREArizona State: The Sun Devils were basically a no-show in its first game of the tournament, losing 82-63 to Northern Iowa, so the win over Tulane was a huge lift. The game against Northern Iowa didnt feel good at all, Graham said. We were much better at executing today. It feels good to come back and get a victory after the way we played.Tulane: Green Wave coach Mike Dunleavy was impressed with his teams effort as well. In that second half, we ran some nice sets, but they hit some shots at crucial times and that was the difference, Dunleavy said. Our guys played hard, but we missed some shots at the rim and they hit at the other end.THREE INSTEAD OF TWOTulane was six of 14 on 3-pointers in the first half, but only 2 of 9 from inside the arc. Cameron Reynolds, who missed his first five shots, hit three straight 3-pointers in a 2-minute stretch late in the half.UP NEXTArizona State will play Davidson Sunday in the fifth place game.Tulane, which has lost twice in the tournament, will play Missouri in the seventh place game Sunday. ' ' '
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