Atlanta Braves Hold a Fire Sale – Take out the White Sox
On Windy Friday Night in the Windy City, baseballs were flying far for both Braves and White Sox hitters. But with such a whacky contest, the outcome was still in doubt late.
Where to start?
For the second time in a week, the Atlanta Braves’ offense tore into an opponent’s Ace pitcher. For the first time since May 21st, 2015, the Braves scored into the double digits, and the most runs since 2015’s second game of the year.
Nick Markakis hit his 3rd homer in Chicago within 24 hours. He has 2 elsewhere. Freddie Freeman hit a homer. He also grounded into a triple play (scarily enough, he actually came up later in the game in situations where there was a chances to do that twice more).
There were fielding errors. There were throwing errors. There were mental errors. There were mental errors that seemed to effect large areas of the field simultaneously.
And the Braves won. Despite themselves, it seems.
More from Tomahawk Take
- Atlanta Braves 2012 Prospect Review: Joey Terdoslavich
- Braves News: Braves sign Fuentes, Andruw’s HOF candidacy, more
- The Weakest Braves Homers Since 2015
- Atlanta Braves Sign Joshua Fuentes to Minor League Deal
- Braves News: New Year’s Eve comes with several questions about the 2023 Braves
Chicago starter Chris Sale entered the game with a 14-2 record, but he hasn’t exactly been himself lately. Since May 24th, he’s given up 6, 2, 4, 5, 3, 1, 2, and 4 earned runs. But tonight’s 8 earned was his worst outing since a 9 run outburst (8 earned) on April 30, 2015.
It was as if Sale’s former catcher had given the Braves every one of his secrets… and perhaps Tyler Flowers did. If so, those lessons were well executed.
Atlanta hit Sale early and often: 10 hits with 3 doubles, 3 home runs and 2 walks. He did have 5 K’s, but two of those were shouldered by Erick Aybar – the designated non-hitter of the night (Oh for 5 with a Golden Sombrero of 4 strikeouts). In games like this, there’s always somebody who takes the collar.
Otherwise, the regular DH – Jeff Francoeur knocked in 3 runs with a double and a sacrifice fly, Tyler Flowers added three more. Adonis Garcia went 4 for 5 and Gordon Beckham – another ex-teammate of Sale’s – went 3 for 5. The home runs came from Freeman, Markakis, and Flowers.
Matt Wisler also got hammered as well… getting through five innings, but only barely. Six runs were yielded, and all of them were marked as “earned”… though perhaps that shouldn’t have been the case given the lapses occurring behind him.
The lowlight of it all was a pop fly into short right-center field in the second inning that saw four Atlanta fielders converge …. and watch it find grass.
Immediately after that disaster, the top of the third inning featured Freeman hitting into a triple play.
At that point, the Braves were down 4-3 and it was starting to look like an ugly loss was in the offing.
Instead, the bats shook off that setback and continued to pound on any pitcher named ‘Chris’ that wore a black jersey (Chris Sale, Chris Beck), scoring 8 times in the next three frames.
Chicago rallied a bit in the 7th, but a third Chris (Chris Withrow – he plays for us) put out that fire.
The 9th inning got interesting again as Mauricio Cabrera gave up two quick singles to create a save situation. With Jim Johnson warming in the pen, Cabrera coaxed a double play to stifle the Sox’ momentum. From there, a harmless single and an almost not harmless long flyout ended this… game…
Final. 8. 128. 11. 17
We’re told that the final tally was 11-8. I think players have stopped rounding the bases.
Atlanta has gotten to the 30 win plateau – the last team to get there.
Next: To Deal Or Not to Deal??
Saturday’s game comes at 2:20pm ET… the return of Julio Teheran. Let’s see if the offense can get to Jose Quintana as they did to Sale.