A wild night at Petco Park was capped off by a walk-off single by way of Manny Machado as the Braves fell to the Padres, 7-6, in 10 innings.
This is a bad baseball team at the moment.
The second inning was a doozy for both sides. The Braves loaded the bases and cashed in on a Rowdy Tellez two-run single up the middle to take an early 2-0 lead. Michael Harris then doubled off the wall to make it 3-0, and Matt Olson drew a bases loaded walk to extend the lead to four.
Unfortunately, the lead evaporated in a hurry. JR Ritchie walked the first two batters of the inning — a continuing problem for the rookie — and two duck fart singles found their way through the left side of the infield to make it 4-2. Fernando Tatis Jr. then doubled in a run and Samad Taylor drove in two more to give San Diego the 5-4 lead. In total, the second inning took nearly an hour.
Despite the disastrous second inning, Ritchie settled in nicely and kept things under control over the next three frames. He ended the night with back-t0-back strikeouts, something to build from perhaps. But until he’s able to throw more strikes, the struggles are going to continue.
The Braves tied it in the fourth by way of an Ozzie Albies RBI double. They took a 6-5 lead by way of a no-doubt blast from Mauricio Dubon in the fifth.
In the 7th inning, Walt Weiss inexplicably left Carlos Carrasco out there for a second inning. As literally everyone scratched their heads, Carrasco promptly surrendered a solo homer to Fernando Tatis Jr. to tie things at 6-6. Dylan Lee, Robert Suarez and Raisel Iglesias were all fresh and ready to go. I have no earthly idea what Walt was thinking.
The Braves and Padres will conclude their series on Wednesday evening with Martin Perez and JP Sears set to take the mound. First pitch is an hour earlier at 8:40 p.m. ET.
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