Atlanta Braves Fight Back In 8th To Take The W Away From The Snakes
By Jeff Schafer
Braves Leapfrog Snakes Late, 7-4
In a pretty exciting game, the Atlanta Braves fought back in the 8th and 9th inning to steal the victory away from the Arizona Diamondbacks. The DBacks had a 4-3 lead heading into the top of the 8th inning when Matt Kemp doubled with the bases loaded to drive in all runners. Braves improve to 46-80 on the 2016 season while the DBacks fall to 52-74.
Tuesday night’s game started off very well for the Braves as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning. Nick Markakis singled to left to score Adonis Garcia and next Tyler Flowers doubled to score Freddie Freeman.
A nice lead for Braves 22-year-old starting pitcher Rob Whalen. He sat the DBacks hitters out 1-2-3 in the 1st inning and allowed only a walk in the 2nd inning. Then in the 3rd inning, the wheels came off. He wasn’t able to get out of this inning as with two outs, he gave up three straight walks, then a single, a hit by pitch and a ground-rule double. That ended his night. Braves down 4-2.
Garcia led off the top of the 4th inning with a double to center. He went 3-5 at the plate on Tuesday with two runs scored. After Freeman moved Garcia to third on a ground out, Kemp hit a sac fly to center to score him.
How Bout’ That Pen?
The Braves bullpen actually pitched an extremely good ball game last night. Especially for how many innings they had to cover. Ryan Weber replaced Whalen in the 3rd and went 2.1 innings, gave up no hits and no walks. Chaz Roe replaced Weber in the 6th inning and gave up no hits and no walks.
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Braves relief pitcher Jose Ramirez pitched the 7th inning and wow did he ever. An impressive/strange outing from the 26-year-old. He definitely has the velocity on his fastball, but his control is the issue. To lead off the inning, Chris Owings tripled to center. Then Ramirez struck out Phil Gosselin on great pitches. Then, he hit Jean Segura in the back with a 96 mph fastball. Then he calmed down to strike out the next two hitters and didn’t allow Owings to score.
Mauricio Cabrera pitched the 8th inning giving up a two out double to Jake Lamb, but strikeout out all other three hitters he faced.
Jim Johnson came into the game in a save situation (we’ll get back to that) and got two quick outs, but then gave up a single to Segura. Next he was able to get Michael Bourn to ground out softly to Freeman for the final out of the game.
Fightin’ Up The Mountain
The 8th inning is where the magic happened and if you stayed up like the few of us, you saw some exciting baseball out of the Braves. Best part, they came back from this deficit with two outs.
Dansby Swanson lead off the inning with a single up the middle…of course he did, he’s the golden child! Pinch hitting, Jeff Francoeur struck out swinging, one out Swanson still on first base.
Ender Inciarte singles to right field, Swanson to third. Garcia strikes out swinging, two outs Swanson on third Inciarte on first.
Freeman walks to load the bases! Big-boy Matt Kemp walks to the plate and on a 1-1 pitch, he ropes a line drive to right field that scores Swanson, Inciarte and Freeman! Braves up 6-4.
In the 9th inning, Swanson (yup, yup) hit a sac fly to score Jace Peterson. Braves take a 7-4 lead!
Freeman loves hitting at Chase Field in Arizona and has brought his friends with him for this series. The Braves offense totaled 12 hits and seven runs on Tuesday night.
Next: Tracking Braves Dustin Peterson's Power vs. Yankees Aaron Judge
Hope the Braves can keep it going on Wednesday as Julio Teheran faces off against Zack Greinke. He holds a 11-4 record with a 4.21 ERA.