Atlanta Braves comeback in the 8th, beats Pirates 5-3
By John Le
Dansby Swanson led off the 8th with a homer for the Atlanta Braves, then the rest of offense kicked in for four total runs for the comeback
The Atlanta Braves have recently been in a skid losing their last three games while dropping their lead over the Phillies in the NL East to just two games. That changed, however, on Saturday as the Braves managed to get a comeback in the 8th inning to get their 75th win of the season.
Both starters were dealing up until the 5th inning, Colin Moran had a 1-out single followed by an error from Charlie Culberson to get Kevin Newman on. With 2 men now on base, Kevin Gausman allowed a 2-out, 2-run double to Starling Marte. That scored both Pirate runners.
In the 6th inning, Gausman gave up a lead-off home run to Gregory Polanco to give the Pirates a 3-0 lead. The Braves were stuck on the wrong end of a no-hitter until the 6th when Dansby Swanson knocked one off 3rd baseman Moran that trickled into short left field for a hustling double off Chris Archer.
After pinch-hitter Michael Reed struck out, Ronald Acuña Jr. took the first pitch he saw to right center to drive home Swanson for the Braves’ first run.
Finishing Strong; Bringing It Home
Coming into the 8th, the Braves still trailed 3-1 and coming out of the Pirate’s dreaded bullpen (2nd in NL bullpen ERA) was Keone Kela, who came in with a 2.66 ERA.
Moreover, he hadn’t allowed a run in 8 straight appearances and had not surrendered more than a single run since way back on May 1st when he was still a member of the Rangers.
That all changed last night.
Swanson jumped on a fastball and sent it to left for a lead-off homer. After Swanson’s shot, Lucas Duda hit a pinch-hit double for his first hit with the Braves.
Lane Adams replaced Duda as runner and moved to third off Acuña’s deep fly to right. Next up was some wild baseball, as Ender Inciarte reached safely after striking out off a wild pitch which in turn allowed Adams to come home to score, tying the game.
That sequence was a bit bizarre, for Ender appeared to have checked his swing, which should not have been called for the strikeout. Still, he ended up on first via a whole lot of action for an un-batted ball.
Freddie Freeman then powered out of his slump with a RBI double to score Inciarte and give the Braves a lead at 4-3. Freeman advanced to third via Nick Markakis‘s single, and then barely got past a tag safely to score an insurance run on a sacrifice fly from Johan Camargo [the Braves actually survived a replay challenge on that one].
A.J. Minter come in for the 9th and shut down the Pirates with the help of nifty play at third on a couple of sharp grounders for his 12th save of the season as the Braves rallied late for the 5-3 win.
With the Phillies losing to the Cubs, the Braves increased the division lead to three games.
Gausman got the no-decision while Jonny Venters got the win after throwing 0.2 innings in the 8th. Sam Freeman and Shane Carle also made relief appearances for Atlanta and did a good job.
This was a very important win for the Braves as it snapped their losing streak in the midst of a fight for the NL East while also pushing the gap with the Phillies’ lost.
The Braves and Pirates will face off in a rubber match Sunday as Julio Teheran (9-7, 4.18) will go against Nick Kingham (5-6, 4.92), who is replacing Ivan Nova (“personal issue“) . See if the Braves can take the series when the game comes to you at the unusual time of 5:05 PM ET.