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ATLANTA - With a runner on second and first base open, the Cubs played it by the book and walked Justin Upton. Even before leaving the batters box, Upton flashed a grin to Freddie Freeman, who also grinned as he waited on-deck. They seemed to know what was coming. Freemans single up the middle drove in Jason Heyward from second base in the 10th inning and the Atlanta Braves recovered from Craig Kimbrels blown save to beat the Chicago Cubs 3-2 Friday night. Freeman said he savored the opportunity when the Cubs walked Upton. "It puts a smile on my face," Freeman said. "I dont know if you saw on TV, but after the second, third and fourth pitches Justin and I were kind of just laughing at each other. It kind of fires you up, if youre not fired up already. "When they walk someone intentionally to get to you, it definitely lights a fire under your butt." Chris Johnson, whose two-run single in the third inning gave Atlanta a 2-1 lead, said facing Freeman with the game on the line is a dangerous strategy. Freeman, who had three hits, is hitting .321. "I think Freddie is the best hitter in the National League," said Johnson, who had three hits. Kimbrel couldnt hold the 2-1 lead in the ninth after Julio Teheran allowed only one hit — Mike Olts homer — in eight innings. Wesley Wright (0-1) walked Heyward to lead off the 10th. Heyward stole second base, setting up Wrights intentional walk to Upton. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he knows Cubs manager Rick Renteria faced a tough decision. "Youve got to pick your poison," Gonzalez said. Freeman ended the game with his single. Heyward slid home with the winning run as Ryan Kalishs throw from centre field was off target. Luis Valbuena led off the 10th with a single to right field off Alex Wood (3-5), who then recorded three straight outs in his first relief appearance of the season. The Braves announced before the game Wood was moving to the bullpen for one week. The Braves earned only their second win in their last 10 games. The Cubs, last in the NL Central, have lost five of six but took some solace in the ninth-inning comeback off Kimbrel. "All in all, I take away we fought a pretty good battle, but we just fell a little short," Renteria said. Olt led off the third inning with his seventh homer to give Chicago a 1-0 lead. Teheran retired 17 consecutive batters after the homer. Chris Coghlan led off the ninth with a single off Kimbrel. Coghlan moved to second on Emilio Bonifacios groundout and scored on a single to left by Kalish, who advanced to second on Justin Uptons fielding error. Kalish moved to third on Anthony Rizzos grounder to first. Kimbrel walked Starlin Castro before ending the inning on another grounder by Nate Schierholtz. "Theres definitely a lot of fight in this team," Olt said. "As long as we keep fighting were going to find a way to come up with some wins." Teheran began the night fifth in the majors with a 1.80 ERA and he lowered the mark to 1.71. He had a season-high nine strikeouts with two walks. Kimbrel suffered his second blown save in 11 chances. Chicagos Jason Hammel allowed two runs on seven hits and one walk in seven innings. The Braves only runs against Hammel came on a string of three straight two-out hits in the third. Freeman and Evan Gattis singled, Gattis moved to second on a wild pitch and Johnson drove both runners in with a single to left field. NOTES: The start of the game was delayed 18 minutes by rain. ... Johnson capped his big night with an eighth-inning single before stealing second — his first stolen base since 2012 and only the 11th of his career. ... Wood had been scheduled to start Sunday against the Cubs. Instead, RHP Aaron Harang will make Sundays start. Gonzalez said Wood will be back in the rotation on May 17 against St. Louis. ... The series continues on Saturday night when Braves RHP Ervin Santana faces Cubs RHP Jeff Samardzija. Cheap Nike Air Max Shoes Wholesale . Now Arizonas new manager is hoping Yasmany Tomas can have the same effect on the Diamondbacks. Air Max Sale Australia . Dillon Brooks scored 26 points on 9-17 shooting for Canada while pulling down six rebounds and picking up six steals. Teammate Chris Egi had 20 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks. http://www.cheapaustraliaairmax.com/ .com) - Jeff Teague had 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists as the Atlanta Hawks defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 90-85 on Saturday night. Buy Nike Air Max Australia . New York secured second place in the Metropolitan Division when the Philadelphia Flyers lost at Tampa Bay later Thursday. The Rangers will face either the Flyers or Columbus in the opening round of the post-season. The Rangers struggled throughout against the lowly Sabres and goalie Matt Hackett, who played in just his seventh NHL game of the season. Cheap Nike Air Max Shoes Australia . Linemates Ryan Johansen and Boone Jenner each had a goal and an assist in the first period, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 36 saves to lead the Blue Jackets past the Florida Panthers 4-1 on Saturday night.The Toronto Maple Leafs are in a state of flux right now. On one hand, we know what this team is – a collection of average or subpar possession players who need to rely on either incredibly hot shooting, incredibly hot goaltending, or a collection of both to win hockey games. On the other hand, I would still consider this a team in the abyss between contender and pretender. They banked a ton of points early in the season, and the bottom of the Eastern Conference doesn’t exactly offer much of a threat. To Toronto’s credit, they have – this time around, anyway – recognized the team’s fatal flaw. They are consistently and emphatically out-shot on most nights. The organization’s efforts to target a couple of possession drivers this off-season (see Mike Santorelli and Daniel Winnik) have improved the team, marginally, at five-on-five. But, it’s not enough. Not yet, anyway. While it’s nice to have an improved bottom-six or a couple of decent third-pairing defensemen, most observers of the sport recognize that the team’s most frequently deployed players are going to be the ones creating the wins and losses long-term. Ice time is in direct correlation with game impact, and that’s why your first-liners and first-pairing defensemen are paid the most money. This is Toronto’s problem. The first-line is routinely caved in, and when the goals dry up, they certainly look the part of one of the worst top trios in the National Hockey League. To illustrate this, I graphed out the performance of each team’s first-line to start the year using RelativeCorsi% (team difference in Corsi% when a player is on the ice versus off) and RelativeGoal% (team difference in Goal% when a player is on the ice versus off). For Toronto, that’s the Bozak line (though I do note that the coaching staff has really started to give bigger minutes recently to the Kadri group). Let’s take a look at all thirty teams: It makes intuitive sense that first-line talent should out-perform second, third, and fourth-line talent on the same team. Look at the horizontal axis divide (“RelativeCorsi%”) and note how basically every team is better off with the first line on the ice than off. Only Florida, Buffalo, Arizona, and Toronto have first-lines generating unfavorable possession relative to their teammates. Of course, Buffalo and Florida’s first-lines are at least generating favorable goal differentials relative to the team average, and Arizona’s within the realm of break-even. Toronto’s top-line has been territoriallly bludgeoned all season long and, sometimes, it’s hard to explain why.dddddddddddd Phil Kessel is generally regarded as one of the league’s elite wingers, and it’s not as if James van Riemsdyk – who scored 30-goals one season ago – grades low on talent. This year, primarily due to an improvement in Toronto’s depth forwards, the front-line has been relatively more exposed – when the first-line comes off, Toronto’s possession significantly improves. And when the first line gets back on, possession significantly declines. The problem, as you might guess, comes on the defensive side of the game. It was the problem when Bozak and Kessel were united back in 2009-2010, and it’s progressively worsened even with the addition of van Riemsdyk on the wing. To show the line’s defensive woes, we can look at how teams have been able to generate shot-attempts against this trio over the years. For record, the average forward is on ice for about 55 shot-attempts against per 60 – we’ll use this as break-even in the graph below. I have long recognized that Kessel, Bozak, and van Riemsdyk likely possess slightly above-average shooting skill relative to the league norm, but I don’t think it’s nearly enough to offset how dreadful they are from a territorial aspect. Even if you subscribe to the theory that Randy Carlyle’s responsible for a collective possession drag, it’s not really a justification for how awful this group is defensively – for five years (and counting), their less-talented teammates have managed to perform significantly better in limiting shot-attempts against. I’m not sure what the coaching staff or front office does in the short-term – this is the roster that has been assembled, and aside from re-assembling the top-six to more prominently feature Nazem Kadri (which has been tried in the past), there’s not a whole lot you really can do other than hope and pray for another percentage-fueled run. But, I do think the data on this group is clear. There’s something of a hard cap on the shooting talent this group possesses, and because of that, it’ll never be enough long-term to offset just how appalling they are defensively. Further, based on the team’s logical and obvious commitment to star winger Phil Kessel, you can rest assured that the primary objective over the next year or two will be to hope for one of their young centre prospects to continue pushing into a top-six role, or send a collection of assets to another team to get that coveted first-line centre. 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