Two win streaks entered, and one had to snap. And thankfully, your Atlanta Braves took the series opener versus the Miami Marlins to win six games straight, matching a season-high mark from April. The Marlins’ fledgling streak ends at three as the Braves hang on to win 4-2 amid some late inning tomfoolery.
That win-streak tension carried over into a pitching duel between starters Grant Holmes and Ryan Gusto.
Gusto had previously given up twelve (12) earned runs in 9.1 innings pitched against the Braves in his career. One year later, he turned in a quality start and best performance of the season by going six strong. With their five hits against him, the Braves had opportunities to do more damage, but went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position.
But Ozzie Albies did the damage that mattered for the majority of the game.
Ozzie sent the first pitch he saw 100.1 mph / 397 feet to the Chop House to make it 1-0 Braves. We love him.
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Grant Holmes had not gotten past five innings since June 3 and heard all your slander. While he also gave up five hits, like Gusto, a different pitch mix (more sinker/curveball, less fastball) and the good variety of Braves defense helped him spin six scoreless innings. His efficiency allowed him to come back out in the seventh inning, but the leash was short: a leadoff single to Heriberto Hernández prompted Walt Weiss to make the change. Dylan Dodd quickly induced a lineout and a double play to keep Holmes’ line intact: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, and all on 72 pitches. More of that, Grant, and we’ll tone down the bullpen talk (maybe).
Other changes in the seventh: the lefty John King came in to relieve Gusto. Instead of Mike Yastrzemski, Mauricio Dubón came in and flew out to left to lead things off and remained in left field for the rest of the game.
Lane Thomas, making his Braves debut, came in as a pinch-hitter in place of the DH Dom Smith. And what a way to do it – he swung at the first pitch for what looked like a routine grounder, but a throwing error by shortstop Otto Lopez allowed him to reach. Lane’s hustle immediately paid off when Austin Riley (!) sent a ball flying into the seats in left center to make it 3-0 Braves. Welcome to the A, Mr. Thomas!
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Dylan Dodd gave way to Dylan Lee, who allowed a single but nothing else in the top of the eighth.
Ronald Acuña Jr. had been hitting the ball well all night, and finally had one find some grass with a leadoff single off old friend Victor Vodnik in the bottom of the eighth. Vodnik loaded the bases after a low slider grazed Matt Olson and a Michael Harris II walk. Ozzie struck out, but Ronald would come home to score on a wild pitch. Vodnik settled in to get Dubón to ground out and Thomas to fly out to right to end the inning.
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There was double-barrel action in the Braves bullpen in the bottom of the eighth – both Raisel Iglesias and Tyler Kinley were throwing. History shows that if they’d gotten more than one run out of the bases-loaded eighth, we probably would’ve seen Kinley. But since the Braves only tacked on one additional run to make it 4-0, it was the closer Iglesias who came out to get the final three outs.
“Iggy, I know it’s not a save situation but can we do this normal, please?” I implored.
“Girl, you wish,” Iggy seemingly said. “I live for the drama.”
And drama we had. All Otto Lopez does is hit, so his leadoff ground-rule double wasn’t a complete surprise. Iggy got Owen Caissie to fly out on the first pitch, so… maybe it would be normal after all. Loud incorrect buzzer.
A walk by Heriberto Hernández and a single by Jakob Marsee put a Marlin on every base. After fouling a ball off his foot worse than Ozzie did earlier, Leo Jiménez one-upped Ozzie again by not striking out after the injury delay. He instead singled to left, ending the shutout and making it 4-2. Agustín Ramírez, who entered in the top of the eighth as a pinch-hitter for catcher Joe Mack, flew out to left for a big second out. Nine-hole hitter Javier Sanoja strolled to the plate representing the go-ahead run. He stared at two strikes, futilely challenging the second. But the third pitch of the at-bat was outside, and Drake Baldwin fired it to Austin Riley to catch Jakob Marsee stealing and end the game. One failed Marlins challenge later, that’s a Braves win. We had it all the way.
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Needed that one to fully put yesterday behind us. The Braves improve to 68-45 and are back at the same time tomorrow to hopefully win the series behind Bryce Elder.
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