Red-Hot Tribe Spoils Joel De La Cruz’s Atlanta Braves Debut
By Colby Wilson
Braves Stiffed As Smokin’ Tribe Roll By
All in all, you couldn’t ask for much more from Joel De La Cruz.
For a late-blooming 27-year old making his first major league appearance, six innings of seven-hit, three-run ball against the hottest team in the majors is both refreshing and surprising. Five days ago he was punching out Charlotte’s Brett Hayes in front 5,538 people in Gwinnett—he acquitted himself nicely.
But that’s more than you can say for Atlanta’s offense, which was able to get men aboard but struggled to bring them around to score in a dispiriting 3-0 loss in the series finale against the scorching-hot Cleveland Indians.
In addition to being swept for the ninth time in 2016—but just the first since June 5!—Atlanta was the victim in Cleveland’s 12th straight victory, the longest in MLB this season.
Everything started so promisingly too. In the first, a lead-off Rajai Davis was negated by a slick double play, then Jace Peterson led off the home half with a double and advanced to third on a Danny Salazar balk.
With nobody down and a man on third, aggressive base-running was uncalled for, but Peterson broke for the plate on a slow roller from Ender Inciarte that three-hopped into the glove of a drawn-in Jose Ramirez anyway. Ramirez nailed him easily at the plate, and Atlanta failed to capitalize again later in the inning after Inciarte advanced on a wild pitch—neither Freddie Freeman (line out) nor Nick Markakis (strikeout) could bring him around.
This would become a running theme for the Braves, who finished 0-for-11 on the evening—2-for-20 during the series—with runners in scoring position. It continues a season-long struggle with ducks on the pond, as Atlanta totes a .242 mark in 2016 with RISP.
De La Cruz danced out of trouble in the fourth after walking Mike Napoli and surrendering a two-out double to Ramirez, inducing a Lonnie Chisenhall flyout to end the threat. But the Braves couldn’t capitalize on a one-out double from Markakis during their half to keep it scoreless.
The Indians broke through in the fifth. Salazar tried (and failed) to move Tyler Naquin to second, but Davis’ ground-rule double put runners on second and third with two out. Jason Kipnis snuck a single past a diving Adonis Garcia and into left field, scoring both Salazar and Davis.
Chisenhall would crush a deep homer to right, his season’s fifth, to pad the Tribe advantage in the sixth. Atlanta’s “answer” was to get another lead-off double from Peterson (“Hotter than a Dancing Bobcat” Alert!) but see two-through-four go down in order, including back-to-back strike outs by Freeman and Markakis to end the frame.
That would do it for De La Cruz, who struck out one and walked one in his big league debut. He also rapped a single in his first career at-bat.
In the eighth, Atlanta would again get a man into scoring position, and again come away with nothing to show for it. Peterson (can’t stop that man recently) got a two-out rally started with a walk, and Inciarte followed with a single, but Freeman fanned on a full count, exacerbating a exasperating (0-for-4, three strikeouts) night by spiking his bat and shattering it in frustration.
Markakis led off the ninth with a single, but you’ve connected the dots by now—nothing came of it, and solid two-hit efforts from both he and Peterson (who extended his hitting streak to 10 games and is hitting .348 since his return from Gwinnett) went for naught.
The best play of the night was either Inciarte’s acrobatic grab of a Napoli liner in the eighth inning or this guy:
Next: Who should represent the Braves at the ASG?
Good news, if you can find some—for one, the Indians are outta here. For another, Folty’s back tomorrow! He’ll take on the struggling Wei-Yin Chen (5.00 ERA/4.63 FIP/4.27 xFIP) and the are-they-for-real Marlins, 7:10 p.m. (ET) at the Ted.