m-braves, hither and yon

It was a night for big home runs in Atlanta, Pearl and Danville, Va., a nice night for certain Mississippi Braves past, present and future. At Trustmark Park, where the M-Braves opened their final homestand on Friday battling for a second-half championship, third baseman Rio Ruiz smacked a three-run homer that propelled the home team to a 7-1 win over Biloxi. (Ruiz is legitimately hot, 16-for-40 with two homers and eight RBIs in his last 10 games. He is batting .237 for the year with four homers. Too bad the season is almost over.) At Turner Field, ex-M-Braves star Brian McCann returned to the ATL for the first time as a New York Yankee and, of course, launched a home run, his 23rd of the season, helping the Yanks crush the woeful Braves 15-4. (Former M-Braves star Freddie Freeman homered for the Braves, but so what? Atlanta is now 20 games under .500 and generally unwatchable.) And at Legion Field in Danville, where Atlanta’s rookie-level Appalachian League team holds forth, Austin Riley, the former DeSoto Central standout, went yard for the 11th time this season. The 18-year-old third baseman, Atlanta’s top pick in June, blew through the Gulf Coast League and is batting .340 with four homers in 26 games at Danville. (Riley, if he progresses normally, could be at the TeePee by 2018. Something to look forward to.)