The Braves used six pitchers on Friday night to snap their four-game losing skid and finally get a west coast win, taking down the San Francisco Giants, 3-1, at Oracle Park on a foggy night.
Reynaldo Lopez started the game and was shaky in the first, allowing San Francisco’s lone run to score. Despite decreased velocity and a lot of hard contact, Lopez was able to work through three innings in his first start in nearly two months. We’ll see if he gets another turn in the rotation next week.
Dylan Dodd covered an inning effectively and gave the ball to Hurston Waldrep, who was effectively wild — to be nice — over 2+ innings. Waldrep, who was called up to the majors on Friday after a couple of shaky rehab starts, had little command of the strike zone (55 pitches, 28 strikes) but was able to work through it with four strikeouts and a couple of weak-hit grounders. Similar to Lopez, we’ll see what next week brings for the talented righty.
Dylan Lee was masterful for the seventh in relief of Waldrep, stranding two runners and making quick work of San Francisco’s middle of the order. Lee then recorded two outs in the eighth before giving way to Didier Fuentes, who promptly struck out Matt Chapman on a perfectly located fastball to send it to the ninth. Raisel Iglesias worked a perfect 9th on just 10 pitches to close it out.
The Braves didn’t exactly put on a show with the bats, but they managed to squeeze out three runs. Dominic Smith singled home Austin Riley in the second, Ozzie Albies singled home Mauricio Dubon in the third, and Albies was able to hit a deep fly ball to score Dubon again in the fifth. In total, the Braves recorded just seven singles and a double.
Saturday’s pitching matchup will feature Bryce Elder against Logan Webb. It would be swell if Bryce could find himself again. First pitch is at 9:05 p.m. ET.
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