Freeman’s cycle leads Braves to wild win against Cincinnati

This was not Atlanta’s best game, but it was certainly the most interesting.

Baseball can be a monotonous monolith, dragging on for 162 games, trying the patience of the casual viewer even when things are going well. Sometimes you have to mine for the good moments, appreciate the little things that go with the journey. Sometimes the team you follow religiously is historically bad, making that slightly more difficult to accomplish.

And sometimes Freddie Freeman does something historic in the wildest game of the year.

Freeman hit for the cycle Wednesday night—the first by a Brave since 2008, the first in the bigs in 2016 and just the third for the franchise since 1911—and (hopefully) silenced some of the idiots wondering why Freeman just hadn’t been very productive in 2016 despite the fact that he hadn’t seen a pitch to square up on since April and his lineup protection consists of Adonis Garcia and wishes.

To top it off, the Braves won a wacky game that looked like it could go either way for the better part of eight innings, finally getting a walk-off hit in the 13^th that set off pandemonium for the die-hards who hung around the Ted for the celebration.

The Braves actually opened the scoring for a change. Ender Inciarte drove in Mallex Smith with a double in the home half of the first, easily scoring Smith, who was running with the pitch.

The Braves could have had more after Inciarte stole third and tried to score on a Garcia grounder to short, but that was an ill-advised attempt that saw him be thrown out by 10 feet—unnecessarily, if you ask me, and unfortunate when Nick Markakis roped a single into left one pitch later that would’ve scored Inciarte with ease.

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Atlanta loaded the bases in the third inning with one out, but Anthony DeSclafani might’ve gotten out of it unscathed if Joey Votto was better with fundamentals. The Reds slugger cleanly fielded Jace Peterson’s grounder but threw to the plate off the wrong foot, pulling Ramon Cabrera off the dish and allowing Freddie Freeman to score.

Two batters later, Erick Aybar (!!!) doubled home Garcia and Markakis, which would contribute to the end of DeSclafani’s evening (as did his walk to Bud Norris to re-load the bases) and give Atlanta a 4-0 cushion.

Norris was cruising through the first three, but gave up a three-spot in the fourth inning. After a lead-off walk to Votto and a single by Brandon Phillips, Jay Bruce (again) doubled home Votto, followed by an Adam Duvall sac fly that scored Phillips and an Ivan De Jesus groundout that brought in Bruce to make it a 4-3 game.

The Braves would tack on another in the bottom of the fifth of this interminably long (time of game: 5:20) game. Peterson would walk, then steal second off Josh Smith, who came in for an injured A.J. Morris. Aybar (!!!!!) would drive in his third run of the game on a single—he had seven RBI TOTAL in his first 46 appearances as a Brave.

But as often happens when Atlanta goes to its bullpen, everything went from pudding to poop once Norris exited after five innings. Casey Kelly came on to start the sixth and couldn’t get an out before relinquishing the lead, thanks partly to an Adonis great play/bad play sequence—he made a diving stab of a Phillips grounder but his throw was so wild it wound up in the seats and Phillips wound up on second.

Bruce singled him home, then advanced to third on a Duvall double. Both would score on a De Jesus single, but Atlanta was able to stymie the rally after Inciarte snared a low liner off the bat of Tyler Holt, then doubled off De Jesus, who was running on the pitch.

Freeman found the equalizer with an opposite field shot in the bottom half of the sixth, having doubled in the third and tripled in the fourth to get all the hard parts out of the way early.

(Also with a bizarrely acceptable game—Aybar! And on the same day I made up a drinking game based partly on how bad he is. I may have turned his whole career around.)

After Aybar turned a 6-3 double play to get the Braves into bottom of the ninth tied, but Atlanta went quietly and those of us still conscious throughout this marathon got some #freebaseball out of the deal.

The teams traded terrible outs for an inning-and-a-half before Freeman sewed up the cycle with a single to lead off the 11^th. Tony Cingrani balked him to second, then Garcia reached on an error (not a great series for Cincinnati defensively) before loading the bases up with no outs after Markakis’ walk.

And then Atlanta shot itself in the foot. Peterson’s roller was picked up by Tucker Barnhart, who won a footrace to the plate with Freeman for the first out. Tyler Flowers popped out to shallow left and Aybar grounded out to waste a perfect opportunity.

The 12^th passed without incident (other than Freeman nearly beating out a slow roller for an infield hit that would’ve made the home half interesting) but then Atlanta looked like it was going to give up the lead for good in the 13^th. After Duvall walked and De Jesus reached via error, it looked like Alexi Ogando might emerge unscathed after getting Holt out on a bunt attempt and fanning Eugenio Suarez. But a walk to load the bases led to a bases loaded walk to one-time Braves top prospect Jose Peraza.

Votto brought home an insurance run with a single but Chase d’Arnaud threw a dart from left field to get Barnhart at the plate. That would become important.

Refusing to die, the Braves fought back in the home half against Alfredo Simon, who won’t forget this one for a long time. Garcia and Markakis led off with singles, followed by a Peterson double that brought home Adonis. Flowers singled home Markakis, then Simon walked Aybar to try his luck with d’Arnaud.

That didn’t work out well for the embattled Reds hurler, who saw his 1-1 fastball smoked to center, over Holt’s head for his first career game-winning hit.

As if all of that wasn’t enough… some lucky fan even won the Home Run Jackpot over on Braves’ radio… for something north of $3500!  It was a whacky night, indeed.

Next: The 2016 Atlanta Braves Drinking Game

The Braves seek the equalizer in Thursday’s finale, beginning 12:10 p.m. (ET) at the Theodore. Matt Wisler and Dan Straily are set to do business on the bump. I’m gonna go to bed now.