Atlanta Braves Crumble Late In Ball Game, Lose 9-7

Braves Keep It Interesting, But Lose Late

Give me a game like we saw on Tuesday night and I’ll watch it every night.  A Atlanta Braves against the Washington Nationals game hasn’t been that entertaining to watch in the past two year, but this team is starting to click.

Yes, Williams Perez was awful in that third inning.  Hell, we’re lucky it wasn’t uglier in the 2nd inning after a leadoff hit-by-pitch.  Braves starter, Perez gave up six runs in the first three innings after giving up eight hits including two homers.  He was gone from the game with one out in the 3rd.

The Braves bullpen actually pitched very well against the Nats lineup….well, until Jose Ramirez.  Joel De La Cruz, Shae Simmons, Ian Krol were in relief for the Braves on Tuesday and combined went four innings giving up three hits, no walks and had five strikeouts.

Okay, let’s skip to the Ramirez inning.  I’m a huge fan of Ramirez so it pains me to type this.  BUT he didn’t have that bad of an outing though the box score will tell you differently.  Yes, he did walk the first two batters he saw in the 8th inning.  But then, Tyler Flowers threw a bunt into left field that plated one, a broken bat single that scored two, an intentional walk to Daniel Murphy TO GET TO Bryce Harper.

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Ramirez will take the loss for the Braves after the 8th inning.  The 26-year-old has pitched well for the Braves in 2016. In the past 15 games, he holds a 1.69 ERA with 18 strikeouts, 11 hits and seven walks.

Braves Offense

So we saw an in-the-park home run, the first two Braves batters in the game get hits, a pitcher get a hit and an extremely long no-hit span.

In the top of the 2nd inning, Dansby Swanson hit a ball right off the top of the center field wall that bounced backwards towards second base.  Swanson, on his high horse right out of the batters box, made it all the way home for an incredible play.  It may not have gone over the wall, but it’s in the books as Dansby’s first career MLB homer.

Think you’ve heard this story before?  Well, you may have heard about Swanson hitting a few inside the parks this season.  Surprisingly this is his THIRD this season!

“What’s funny is I’ve never hit an inside the park home run in my life and I’ve already hit three this year,” Swanson told reporters following the game.  “When I hit it, I knew I hit it good, but when I saw it ricochet off the wall and hearing the crowd reactions I thought I could make it.  I was just going til Bo stopped me””

THIRD!  One in Carolina, one in Mississippi and now one in Atlanta

The Braves somehow totaled 11 hits on Tuesday, but all of them either game early or too late.  De La Cruz continued the rally in the 4th inning as he singled to left which scored Gordon Beckham.  This tied the game, but it was the last Braves hit until the 9th inning.

Swanson again came up huge in the 9th.  After Tyler Flowers doubled to the corner in right field, Swanson drove a cutter from Nats closer Mark Melancon right where it was pitched…outside.  Dansby drove it right past the second baseman and it scored Flowers.

Ender Inciarte led off the game with a single and went 2-4 on the night.  He continues his hit streak as he’s now at 17 games.  Inciarte is hitting .371 after the 2016 All-Star Break.

Don’t look now, but Freddie Freeman also has a hit streak going.  He’s now at 13 games.

Next: Ozzie Albies: Southern League Batting/OBP Champ

Both offenses were able to get to their opponents bullpens early.  Braves got to Nats’ in the 4th inning and Nats got to the Braves’ bullpen in the 3rd.

Oh, and on the post game…it sounds more and more likely that the Braves will sign Tim Tebow.  Nothing official, but reports are saying we’re getting close.