Game 1 Recap: Atlanta Braves Fall in Opener to Nats 4-3

Braves Had Opportunities, Failed to Finish, Lose in extras on Opening Day

The recipe seemed to be working well, but the cake fell somewhere late in the cooking process.

The Atlanta Braves matched Washington with successful counterpunches for seven innings.  Starter Julio Teheran was excellent for 6 innings, scattering 5 hits and 3 walks, though two of those hits left the yard.  Not to be outdone, Atlanta’s hitters – namely Freddie Freeman and Adonis Garcia also mustered homers against Max Scherzer, who only allowed one other hit through 7 innings of his own (7K, 2BB).

I don’t want to lose this notable bright spot:  Daniel Winkler was the first to relieve Teheran, and relieve he did:  three batters, three strikeouts.  Granted, it was the 8-9-1 hitters, including Michael Taylor who replaced Ben Revere early on, but still… his stuff looked electric – even for the low 90’s.  Arodys Vizcaino was pretty stout as well in the 8th.

In the 7th inning, the Braves started off with a leadoff walk to Nick Markakis, but then baseball’s new slide rule at second base reared its ugly head.  Hector Olivera bounced a ball to third and beat the double play relay from second by a comfortable margin.  However, that didn’t matter as Markakis, sliding late, ended up four feet past the second base bag.  That invoked the new rule and Olivera was declared out at first base.

Once Scherzer exited the game, Atlanta finally got something going against flame-thrower Felipe Rivero in the 8th inning.  Fredi Gonzalez started playing ‘match game’ with his new roster… with mixed results.  Gordon Beckham had a deer-in-the-headlights AB, but Jeff Francoeur demonstrated that he could catch up to the fastball, and Rivero ultimately walked him.  Ender Inciarte worked him until dumping a single into left field.  Freddie Freeman was hit near the left elbow on what would have been ball four to load the bases.  Enter Shawn Kelley, who walked in the go-ahead run.

That made it 3-2 Atlanta going to the 9th.  Unfortunately, Jason Grilli had one of his outings where hair is pulled out.  Jayson Werth walked.  Wilson Ramos singled.  A series of poor bunt sacrifice attempts turned into a bunt hit instead.  After a strikeout, Michael Taylor lofted a fly to shallow center field.  Ender Inciarte made the catch and throw well, but the bounce could not be handled by catcher A.J. Pierzynski.  If he gets it, the game is over.  But alas… 3-3.

A double play quickly erased hope in the bottom of the ninth.  Free baseball ensued.

In the 10th, Eric O’Flaherty was able to get Bryce Harper out and then induced a grounder from Ryan Zimmerman.  However, Gordon Beckham threw the ball away, putting him on second base.  Daniel Murphy then showed up long enough to be the hero, doubling him home.  Jim Johnson mopped up, but the damage was done.

Atlanta went quietly in the 10th at the hands of Jonathan Papelbon.  4-3 was the final.

Next: See How We Did in Guessing the Roster

It will be a day off for the Braves tomorrow – we’ll resume on Wednesday evening (7:10 ET start) with Bud Norris and Stephen Strasburg.