Sunday Game Recap: Braves Finally Come All the Way Back

Brian Snitker seemed to figure that nothing else was working against Washington this year, so he threw all caution to the wind and mixed things up… but Jace Peterson came up big both early and late.

Ender Inciarte got the day off.  Freddie Freeman got the day off.  That right there removed about 2/3rds of the Braves offense on this warm Sunday afternoon.

Think that’s an exaggeration?  Consider that over the past month, Freeman’s fWAR is 1.9 and Inciarte’s is 1.0.  Next up is Erick Aybar (0.5), who isn’t even on the team anymore.  Nick Markakis (0.5) and Adonis Garcia (0.2) are the only teammates above 0.0 in that time frame.

So Snitker tied up Freeman in the clubhouse and told Ender that he was being placed in ‘time out’ for reasons unspecified… and then shuffled things up amongst the rest of the crew.

Ah – that explains a couple of things (including why Freeman wasn’t used in a key lefty-righty situation late in the game).

So Dansby Swanson got his first major league lead-off assignment, Nick Markakis was brought in to the infield to replace Freeman, Jace Peterson was sent to face plant the outfield wall, Frenchy got to go to RF, and Gordon Beckham – he of the .110 batting average since the second half – played second.

With Joel De La Cruz on the bump (0-6, 4.47), what could possibly go wrong?

One regrettable pitch, then we start chipping away

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Well, Gio Gonzalez wasn’t in top form himself today and the usually reliable Nationals defense also took the day off, so the Braves did have themselves a chance.

It was the third inning that became the “big one” for Washington today:  a single from Gio, a walk to Trea Turner, and Danny Espinosa was hit by a pitch.  All too quickly, the bases were jammed with nobody out.

Daniel Murphy hit a grounder that plated one, but then Bryce Harper pounded one deep into the right field seats to make it 4-0.

What made this worse was that Atlanta had loaded the bases themselves just a half-inning before only to see Beckham and De La Cruz strike out to end that threat.

The Braves did come right back and scored three of their own the next opportunity.  Swanson walked, and Adonis Garcia singled him to third.  Nick Markakis double in both of them, then proceeded to third on an Espinosa ERROR.  Matt Kemp plate him on a sacrifice fly, except that is wasn’t a sac fly in the books thanks to a bad throw – and ERROR – by Trea Turner.  Regardless, that made it was a one-run game at 4-3.

Did I neglect to mention that Dansby reached first to open the game when SS Espinosa bobbled the ball for an ERROR?  Mmmm – my mistake.

The 6th is the Enemy… Sometimes

The bullpen situation being what it is, De La Cruz was asked to go perhaps one inning too far: the dreaded sixth.  a walk to Ryan Zimmerman preceded a Chris Heisey homer.  Enter the bullpen, lead by Ian Krol, who got the last out.

It’s really, too bad, for De La Cruz seemed to pitch well overall:  7 hits and 5 runs look bad (it is), but he did have very good movement on his pitches… just not consistently so.  He did manage 3 clean innings: the first, fourth, and fifth.

However, the Braves had another answer after a double by Anthony Recker and more some help by the Nationals.  Peterson was credited with an infield single, but Murphy’s throwing ERROR allowed Recker to come around and score, making it 6-4.

On to the 7th

Mauricio Cabrera was on fire today.  Espinosa flied out to RF and Murphy walked, but he then over-matched Bryce Harper (really) and Wilson Ramos – striking out both.

Curious that Dansby Swanson has now skied three mile-high infield pop-ups in his brief major league career.  Something to watch going forward.  Otherwise, the Braves didn’t get anything else going there.

Ditto in the 8th for the Nationals with Chaz Roe getting another 1-2-3 inning against the visitors.

The Big Comeback

Yusmeiro Petit relieved Gonzalez late in the sixth inning, and after that nice 7th frame, it didn’t take him long to fill up all of the pitching line columns.

Matt Kemp – right after being called out by his GM for being out of shape – launched a hanger from Petit into the second row of the left field seats to get the Braves within a run at 6-5.

But the Braves were just getting started:  Jeff Francoeur tried to pull an outside pitch that he probably shouldn’t have ever swung at, but the Washington infield was positioned wide enough to allow that ball to ease into center field for a single.

With raindrops beginning, Anthony Recker attempted a sacrifice bunt, but after a pick-up bobble by Petit, he threw wildly to first for an ERROR.  If you’re counting, we’re up to five of them now for Washington.  Track this:

• One error on Thursday
• 2 on Friday
• 1 more on Saturday
• Now a five-spot… 9 for the series.

This was a team leading all of baseball with the fewest errors… until today.  They had 47 upon arrival in Georgia.  56 now.  Bizarre.

That fifth misplay put runners at second and third… with the umpires ruling that Francoeur had not rounded second base when the ball was thrown into the stands (not sure about that, myself).

Jace Peterson was intentionally walked in a downpour, and when Dusty Baker came out to get Petit out of the game, umpire Tom Hallion called for the tarp… with the bases loaded and nobody out.

After a 60 minute delay… with a catfish pond forming in short left and right fields, the game resumed as the Nationals brought in Blake Treinen (1.94, 4-1) to try and rescue the division leaders.

Gordon Beckham immediately hit into an easy 6-4-3 double play.  Not great, but that still tied the game and moved Recker to third, though now with 2 outs.

Ender Inciarte was brought in … to be intentionally walked, which left the game’s outcome to perhaps be decided by the rookie.

The plan worked… for the Nationals.  After Inciarte swiped second without a play, Swanson grounded a 2-0 pitch to short…sending us to the ninth.

Nonetheless, friends of the Nats weren’t entirely optimistic at this development:

To the Ninth… and Beyond!

Jim Johnson got Rendon to fly out, then got Turner on a “Strike four called” as Chip Carey rightly put it.  Espinosa reached on a strikeout/passed ball whiff.  Johnson then calmly continued to pound the zone and got Murphy on a swinging strikeout.

Treinen followed that up with strikeouts of Garcia and Kemp sandwiched around a Markakis groundout.  On to free baseball.

10th inning:  Jose Ramirez gave up a single to Harper, but stranded him at second.  Shawn Kelley was the next Nats hurler, getting Frenchy to foul out the first pitch, Recker to ground out to short, and Peterson….

Peterson yanked a 7th pitch into the right field seats to walk it off!  7-6 your final. He started the day by face-planting into the CF wall on a great catch… then ends the afternoon with a great AB.

When this game started, I think Kemp was still a Padre.

This was a series not to the liking of the pitching staff, giving up 8, 7, 11, and now 6 runs… but they did salvage one.  Hopefully there will be something left of the bullpen as they leave town.

Next: Gant is Back!

That wraps it:  Atlanta will now make their way out West to face Arizona and San Francisco for their last long flights of the year.  The Diamondbacks’ series begins tomorrow evening at 9:40 ET.