cheers

There was a whole lot of cheering going on at Atlanta’s Turner Field on Friday night, and not just because the Braves won another game. Surely you watched. Most of the noise was for the great Chipper Jones, whose No. 10 was formally retired. There was also applause, a lot of it at times, for Martin Prado, the ex-Mississippi Braves star who was making his return to the ATL for the first time since the trade to Arizona. Then there was that moment in the seventh inning when Tony Sipp took the mound for the Diamondbacks. The Pascagoula native, who played at Moss Point High and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, had some family and friends in town. He reportedly left 58 tickets at will call, and it appeared they all showed up. The TV cameras found the group as Sipp was working his third of an inning. He gave up a hit but no runs. The left-hander, acquired by Arizona from Cleveland in the off-season, has a 3-1 record (with two blown saves) and a 3.63 ERA in 33 appearances for the first-place D'backs. The more significant pitching work of the night was done by Braves starter Julio Teheran, the former M-Braves ace. He threw six shutout innings, allowing four hits and one walk with 10 strikeouts, out-pitching his former Mississippi teammate Randall Delgado, who allowed eight hits, three walks and two runs in his six innings for Arizona. Teheran is now 6-4 with a 3.12 ERA in 2013. Atlanta’s top-rated prospect for two years running, he’s living up to his billing. When Friday’s 3-0 victory was finished, Teheran should have gotten a curtain call.