Atlanta Braves Defeat the Washington Nationals 2-1, Manny Banuelos Impresses

The Atlanta Braves defeated the NL East divisional leaders, the Washington Nationals, 2-1 on Thursday night behind a great major league debut and a controversial call.  The Braves are now 38-41 and the Nationals are 43-36.

In January, the Braves traded relief pitchers David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve to the New York Yankees for Manny Banuelos.  Banuelos had to have Tommy John surgery in 2012 and has been slowly regaining his stock.  He was rated as a top-50 prospect before the 2011 and 2012 season, being rated as high as #13 by MLB.com before the 2012 season.  He was the Yankees top prospect for two years prior to the injury.

After a very successful start to the 2015 season with the Gwinnett Braves, the Atlanta Braves placed a call to the 24-year-old.

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On Thursday night, Banuelos made his major league debut against one of the best teams in baseball.

How’d this prospect do?

I’d say pretty well.  He pitched 5.2 innings, giving up two hits, zero runs, zero walks, two batters hit and had seven strikeouts.  Baneulos probably could have gone deeper in the game, but was forced out as he was suffering from cramping and dehydration.

“It was my left calf and my fingers.  It was both hands, but more in my left hand,” Baneulos told reports after the game.  “It was on the 3-2 changeup that I got a cramp and I hit that guy.  I couldn’t control the ball after that so that’s when I called the Fredi (Gonzalez).  I tried to finish the inning, but I felt it on the first hitter of that inning and it was getting worse and worse.”

Washington’s Denard Span and Danny Espinosa were both hit by pitches in the 6th inning with two outs by Baneulos.  Nick Masset replaced Baneulos after he called for some assistance.  It’s actually great news out of Braves camp that he didn’t suffer from an injury of any kind.  Speculations were flying when he was pulled from the game, but it’s wonderful to hear it was just cramps and dehydration.

“I drank a lot of fluids yesterday and today because that happened to me a few weeks ago when I was in Gwinnett,” Baneulos said.  “So I’ve been drinking a lot of water, but there is nothing you can do about it.”

“He was pitching really, really good,” Fredi Gonzalez said.  “He locked up against one of the best pitchers in the game and matched him pitch for pitch.  Just a shame he had to come out of the game with that cramp.  We knew that he was a sweater, the reports that we got from (Brian) Snitker says that this guy sweats a lot so we’ve got to make some adjustments.”

Jul 2, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves center fielder Cameron Maybin (25) (center with helmet) reacts with team mates after getting the game winning hit against the Washington Nationals during the ninth inning at Turner Field. The Braves defeated the Nationals 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports

With the Braves leading 1-0 in the top of the 7th inning, David Aardsma gave up a leadoff double to Bryce Harper.  Wilson Ramos then singled on a ground ball to right field scoring Harper.

The game stayed tied 1-1 until the bottom of the 9th inning.  Pedro Ciriaco singled on a slow roller to the shortstop.  Jace Peterson had a sacrifice bunt to move Ciriaco into scoring position.  The next batter was Cameron Mabyin.  Maybin hit a bouncy ball over the third base bag and into left field.

Washington and Max Scherzer tried to argue the call and say the ball was in foul territory , but the umps never reviewed it.  The call stood and the Braves won 2-1!

“It took me a while, I’ve been waiting on this moment for years,” Banuelos said.  “Thank God I made it.  I was very excited and feeling a lot of feelings.  I tried not to think to much and get nervous and just do my job.”

It’s been reported that the Braves will limit the amount of innings Banuelos pitches this year because he’s still fresh off the Tommy John surgery.  He’ll probably be limited to around 120-130 innings so a move to the bullpen once Williams Perez is healthy could be the direction the Braves make.

“We saw a little bit in Spring Training, but today during his major league debut, I was really impressed,” Gonzalez said about Banuelos.

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