Atlanta Braves earn ice cream machine after recent Mets series

You scream, we scream, everybody screams for …

Ice cream is a delight for a lot of, and Thursday night time, it was ice cream, plus a win, that introduced a collective gleam to the Atlanta Braves.

Winning skilled ballgames is the goal for any squad on a nightly foundation, and although Atlanta has change into particularly astute at doing in order of late, some further motivation to proceed producing is all the time a fruitful allurement.

Flavorful inducements are simply what Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos had in thoughts forward of the workforce’s essential series towards the division-leading Mets. Atlanta turned synonymous with the dessert final season when phrase started spreading that the workforce had geared up its house clubhouse with a soft-serve ice cream machine.

The machine disappeared at first of the 2022 season, however throughout Atlanta’s recent street journey to Miami, catcher Travis d’Arnaud approached Anthopoulos with a particular request: Reinstate the ice cream machine as quickly as potential.

Antopoulos’ response: “If you guys win three out of 4 towards the Mets, the ice cream machine is again.”

“Obviously there was a variety of speak final yr about how we had the ice cream machine within the clubhouse,” Anthopoulos mentioned Thursday in an interview on “The Steakhouse,” a neighborhood radio present broadcast on Audacy’s 92.9 The Game. “When I used to be in Miami, Travis d’Arnaud got here as much as me, and he mentioned, ‘Can we get another soft serve ice cream machine in the clubhouse?’ So these guys had been so fired up after they gained the primary two … “

Thursday’s matchup was a pitchers’ duel between two of baseball’s greatest starters — Max Fried and Jacob deGrom — who, regardless of surrendering two runs apiece, had a few of their greatest stuff working as they despatched batters packing in succession.

The former’s curveball was his go-to extinguisher, whereas the latter’s fastball teemed with life because it stayed round 100 mph all night time. It was deGrom’s sharp heater that carried him into the seventh inning, however after retiring 12 straight hitters, Braves teen Vaughn Grissom willed his means on base following a dribbler he slapped to 3rd. 

DeGrom was pulled after Grissom reached, however relinquished an earned run anyway after Michael Harris II’s squeaker into middle discipline plated Grissom from first. The Braves’ protection held steadfast into the ninth, and nearer Kenley Jansen closed the curtain with a runner on a second to seal Atlanta’s win.

Jansen’s heroics capped the Braves’ critical enterprise endeavor for the night time, and with the win taken care of, the workforce’s consideration turned to a different necessary matter. 

Thus started the celebration. 

As fireworks blasted, Harris II pointed to the sky, Jansen whirled his fist in a soft-serving movement — ice cream was on the way in which.