Atlanta Braves fight back, defeat Giants 12-11 in wild game
By Jeff Schafer
Braves win on Thursday night in a roller coaster type game
What a wild, crazy, roller coaster-type game on Thursday night. The Atlanta Braves were up, were down, crawled back, took the lead, then almost gave it up late. As the Braves completed their 27 out of the ball game around 12:30am, both teams had a combined 23 runs and 31 hits.
The Braves won the season series against the Giants winning four of the seven games they played. This is the first time the Braves have won the season series against San Francisco since 2011.
Jaime Garcia started on the mound for the Braves, but didn’t have his best stuff. Actually, his last two performances haven’t been great. The past two outings could be hurting his trading value.
Garcia’s given up seven hits and six earned runs in both of his past two starts. These two games have been against the Marlins and the Giants…not great offenses. Should we start to be concerned with this veteran pitcher? Hopefully the 30-year-old can find his stuff from his first 12 starts with the Braves soon.
So Garcia wasn’t able to get out of the top 5th inning on Thursday. This was actually criticized a lot on twitter by our Braves Fam. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Garcia already struggled on the mound, Jaime had a bat in his hands with runners on second and third with one out. Yes, taking Garcia out of the ball game here would have been a very short night for him and one he may not be too happy with. Maybe that’s why Braves manager Brian Snitker didn’t make a move.
“Jaime just wasn’t on today,” Snitker told the media. “The ball wasn’t sinking and he was getting the ball up. But it happens, he’s been pitching really good.”
See what Snitker had to say about the move and Garcia’s night…
It’s wild…for the first time in a very long time, I felt like the Braves were never out of this game.
The Braves were down 5-2 at one point in this game and clawed their way to back into it. In years past, you’d probably turn the game off if you saw the Braves down 5-2, but not this team.
Atlanta scored a run in the 4th inning, another Matt Adams solo homer in the 4th inning and then that 5th inning everyone is talking about.
During this series, we saw some explosive innings and last night it was the 5th for the Braves.
The Braves batted around in the lineup during the 5th, which you usually don’t see in the MLB.
Brandon Phillips started the inning with a smash to deep left field. Then came five straight singles by the Braves hitters — Nick Markakis, Matt Kemp, Matt Adams, Kurt Suzuki, Dansby Swanson.
The merry-go-round ended when Johan Camargo lined out down the left field line…Austin Slater made a hell of a catch here. If he didn’t make this diving catch, Camargo probably would have had an inside the park homer.
After Camargo’s out, Lane Adams destroyed a ball way deep to left. This ball was crushed. It was Adams first career MLB homer.
In all, the Braves scored eight runs in the 5th off nine hits. The Braves left this inning up 12-6
INJURIES: Both Brandon Phillips and Matt Kemp left the game in the 5th inning with injuries. Kemp was his hamstring and Phillips was his groin.
“It was more precautionary,” Snit said after the game. “They felt a little grab and they came to him and told me. Both guys tested out pretty good. They’re both day-to-day and could probably play.”
The game wasn’t over just yet though
Here come the Giants for one last push. In the 8th inning, San Francisco scored three runs off three hits. Ian Krol allowed two runs and Arodys Vizcaino allowed another one. They probably shouldn’t have scored as many runs, but Adams misplayed a ball in left field, which dropped.
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Up, 12-9 heading into the 9th inning…the Braves sent closer Jim Johnson to the mound. Gonig into the inning, I was like okay let’s shut them down here. As we got into it, I was like holy crap I’m sweating.
Johnson was able to get a quick out after Brandon Crawford lined out to Swanson. Then Nick Hundley singled on a bloop hit to right. Denard Span hit another blooper to left. First and second now with one out. A homer freakin’ ties this game…and freakin’ Brandon Belt was at the plate.
Our closer walks Belt in a seven-pitch at-bat. Oh man, bases are loaded now still one out.
Kelby Tomlinson hit a dribbler to second base (which is now being played by Danny Santana – came in after the Phillips injury) and Santana misplays the crap out of it. He tries to run the runner back to first base and then makes a weird throw late to first. Chip Caray’s call was great…”Santana played that as poorly as he could.”
Following the game, Snitker commented on this play…”I don’t know what he was doing, honestly. He just waited too long.”
It wouldn’t surprise me if Santana didn’t play second base for a little while.
The Giants did score two runs off of Johnson in this inning, but he was able to get the final out in the 9th.
Braves WIN 12-11
Next: Freeman to 3B: I am Starting to Accept This
SIDE NOTE: Jason Hursh got his first career MLB win. Pretty cool for the 25-year-old as he pitched 2/3’s of an inning in the 5th and allowed one hit and one walk, but didn’t allow a run. Hursh hadn’t pitched since June 17 so it was good to see him back on the mound.
SIDE NOTE 2: Remember that guy named Freddie Freeman? Yep, our new third baseman…we’ll he’s already missed 35 games. Without him, the Braves are 18-17 and have scored 4.9 runs per game without him. Pretty insane. Can’t wait until he returns!