Atlanta Braves Morning Chop: Draft Grades

Improbably and Implausible, but done.  Atlanta outlasts the Marlins’ best pitcher with late-inning heroics from Peterson.

The spell that the Atlanta Braves seem to be continually casting over the Miami Marlins is still working.

Last night this spell lulled manager Don Mattingly into an apparent sense of confidence about his team’s chances.  After seven innings of 1 hit ball from Jose Fernandez, Mattingly decided that 7 was quite enough after 99 pitches.  Thus David Phelps was inserted.

Now Phelps wasn’t a horrible choice on Mattingly’s part.  Even after last night, he’s sporting a 2.48 ERA.  But then the most unlikely hero came to the plate.

Emilio Bonifacio, finally back in the majors, singled up the middle.  After a strikeout, Jace Peterson came up and whacked a chest-high fastball off the facade above the Marlins bullpen to tie the game at 2-2.

It could have been worse for Miami then – Ender Inciarte followed with a liner to center for another hit.  It was only a great play by Christian Yelich in LF that kept a Freddie Freeman bloop from making it at least 2 on with 1 out.  But alas, his catch turned into an easy double play.

Then the Atlanta bullpen – already in the process of shutting down the Marlins – took over.  Between Dario Alvarez, Alexi Ogando, Hunter Cervenka, Chris Withrow, and Arodys Vizcaino, only a single hit was recorded by the Fish after Bud Norris departed in the 6th.

I should give an honorable mention to Norris.  Though he did allow 2 runs, it was still an outing that kept Atlanta in the game.  The bullpen’s role merely underlined that, and though the “main” part of the offense couldn’t capitalize as they have been lately, Jace Peterson was there to clean up.

That ‘clean up’ was started in the 8th, but finished in the 10th.  A walk to Chase d’Arnaud, bunt sacrifice and wild pitch got the runner to third with two outs.  But Peterson again had the big hit – a sharp single into left field to plate d’Arnaud with the go ahead – and winning – run.

Vizzy had a bit of a struggle to start, but then struck out Yelich, Stanton, and Chris Johnson in succession to finish out this heist.

Braves win – it’s their sixth in a row, and suddenly they are actually within sight of the Phillies for 4th place.  Atlanta is 5 games behind them, but roughly a week ago that margin was 11.

Can we possibly hope for another sweep of the Marlins?  Game 2 is a getaway-day game today a 12:10 EDT.

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