Atlanta Braves Are Defeated “We Have To Start Hitting The Ball And Scoring Runs”

A chance to tie the series, the Atlanta Braves failed on Thursday.  The Miami Marlins walked away with three out of the four game AT Turner Field.  Miami now moves up to third in the NL East with a 48-53 record.

“All three losses were close,” Fredi Gonzalez said.  “One was extra innings, but we just didn’t keep the lineup moving.  Yesterday we won the game because the lineup was moving and we scored a bunch of runs.”

Chris Johnson hit a two-run homer in the 2nd inning which was his eighth homer of the season but the Braves put up goose eggs on the scoreboard after that.

“Not hitting the baseball,” Fredi Gonzalez said after the game.  “We had a two-run homer by CJ and Justin Upton got three hits but we didn’t get the line moving.”

The Braves had six hits on Thursday with Justin having three and B.J. Upton, Johnson and Ramiro Pena each having one hit.

Aaron Harang pitched strong through five innings but then allowed two earned runs in the 5th inning.  Harang went seven innings with five strikeouts and gave up seven hits.  He pitched well enough to win this ball game but the offense just wasn’t there again for the Braves.

“It was a tough way to lose the game tonight,” Fredi commented on.  “Harang had a great performance, we pitched remarkably.  We had that freak ball that went off of Gattis’ shine guard and goes away and then the wild pitch and the bloop single…then you lose the game with the best closer in the game on the mound.”

Craig Kimbrel came into the game in the 9th inning but allowed a run from the bat of Jarrod Saltalamacchia.   Kimbrel got Garrett Jones to strikeout for the first out in the 9th inning.  Then Marcell Ozuna stuck out but the pitch got away from Evan Gattis and Ozuna made his way safely to first.

“I tried to throw a strikeout pitch that just got away from me a little bit and unfortunately the ball skipped away just a little bit and he got on first,” Craig said after the game.”

Then Kimbrel threw a pass ball while facing Saltalamacchia when he threw it over Gattis’ glove.  Ozuna went to second base.

“It’s part of baseball, not everything goes perfectly every time you go out there,” Kimbrel elaborated.  “You just have to find a way to get through it but unfortunately we didn’t do that tonight.”

Jarrod S then singled to center field and Ozuna scored the winning run.

“I felt pretty good until I hung that curveball and he shot it into center field.  Other than that, I felt good and ready to go tomorrow night.”

The Braves now take on the San Diego Padres, one of the worst offenses in the MLB, Friday through Monday.

“We have the San Diego Padres coming in…we have to start hitting the ball and scoring runs.  We do that and we’ll be fine,” said Gonzalez.

Well….yeah Fredi!!