Atlanta Braves Post a Curly ‘L’ on Washington: 8-4
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I don’t know what kind of mystique Turner Field has on the Washington Nationals. They just don’t play very well in Atlanta. Such was the case again tonight as a relentless Atlanta offense combined with a very strong start from Eric Stults to create opportunities all over, leading to a 8-4 win.
Story lines were all over the place: the return of Dan Uggla, who entered to boos from the spartan Atlanta faithful (officially 16,658… nah) – more on the circumstances about that in a minute. Eric Stults throwing 4 hit ball into the 7th inning. The Washington defense – thought perhaps to have been improved when Ryan Zimmerman stopped playing third base – was just as porous as ever: 4 errors, which continued to put pressure on starter Doug Fister all night.
The Stupid Stuff
Mind you, for all the good stuff, it was far from perfect from the Braves perspective:
- Inning 2: Jace Peterson is standing on second… or should have been… with Nick Markakis up. Got himself picked off to end the inning.
- Inning 4: On a routine fly ball to deep-ish CF by Jace Peterson, Alberto Callaspo scored from third, but for some reason Kelly Johnson thought he could catch Denard Span napping and take second base… it wasn’t very close.
- Inning 5: Freddie Freeman was heading to first after a full-count check swing. However, on appeal, Doug Hirschbeck at third base rang him up… and when Freddie continued to stare out at him, Hirschbeck opted to mark his territory and threw him out of the game (the call was probably wrong, but I’ve seen a lot worse).
- Inning 8: Peterson fires the relay throw from a Dan Uggla gapper triple to third… where there was no play. Callaspo fumbles the ball and it trickles away, allowing Uggla to trot home with visitors’ run #4. He had 3 total wild throws over the last 2 innings, two tagged for errors.
- Inning 9: a routine grounder to second turned into an errant throw and a lead-off batter reaching for Washington… extending the bullpen’s warmups.
All that might have mattered in a closer game, but the action was pushed all night from the Braves dugout. And that made the difference.
Busting It Open
Doug Fister had trouble throwing to first base. On two occasions, he got the ball under first baseman Zimmerman and down the right field line. One the latter of these, Jace Peterson easily got to third base… later to score thanks to a perfectly executed suicide squeeze with Eric Young.
Apr 27, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Washington Nationals third baseman Yunel Escobar (5) has his wrist examined. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
It was that other overthrow, though, that may have set the tone for the season. Andrelton Simmons should not have tried to get to third on the play, and should have been out by 5 feet. So a late, airborne slide seemed to be aimed directly at Yunel Escobar‘s glove. Glove and ball were kicked into the vicinity of the dugout. Simmons was safe. Escobar was then forced to leave the game with an unknown hand injury.
That sequence led the Nats to insert Dan Uggla. Uggla got his own demons exorcised as already mentioned above, though he also struck out looking in two plate appearances.
Kelly Johnson did redeem his base-runner blunder with a 2-run jack in the 6th to give the Braves some breathing room. That was before the suicide squeeze gave Atlanta a 3-run inning.
The Braves posted 2 more in the 7th and 1 in the 8th for a total of six tallies in 3 innings.
Everybody contributed: the only starter not to get a hit was Eric Young – and he had the sacrifice RBI. Kelly Johnson went 3-4 with 3 RBI and the homer. A.J. Pierzynski extended his hit streak to 10, driving in 2. Three sacrifice flies helped a lot, fueled by consistent 1st-to-3rd running.
The Braves totalled thirteen hits plus 3 walks, helped along by 4 errors (making 3 runs unearned). 8 runs is a good number, too.
Eric Stults
Got to 1 out in the 7th until his control started to go. Was charged with 2 runs (one allowed by Cody Martin, but that was a damage control situation). 96 pitches, 59 strikes, just 4 hits despite a… “fluid”… strike zone from umpire Bill Welke. 3 walks and 3 strikeouts finished off an excellent outing.
Jim Johnson and Luis Avilan finished it up nicely.
Stuff to Watch for the Rest of the Series
These teams do not like each other. Even a casual glance lets you in on that open secret.
- Simmons’ late slide (Kung Fu Simba?) into Yunel Esobar’s glove, dislodging it and the ball… and forcing Escobar to leave.
- Rafael Martin throwing behind Simmons on the first pitch of his next AB. He did it correctly – going for his posterior – but the Braves’ dugout was acting as if there wasn’t any need for retaliation.
- Ian Desmond steered a slide at second base toward Jace Peterson to successfully break up a double play attempt in the 8th. Again, not dirty, but “edgy”. Might have also planted a seed leading to a later error.
So we’ve still got two more games in this series and another 18 for the year. Add that to the fact that the 7-13 Nats are getting really frustrated. Buckle up.