3 takeaways as Atlanta Braves win series against Diamondbacks
The Atlanta Braves defeated the Diamondbacks 5-3 on Sunday afternoon, which was their third straight win over Arizona and gave them a 6-4 road trip.
After the doom and despair that was the Atlanta Braves trip to Los Angeles, they rebounded quite well, taking three of four from Arizona.
The Braves are back above .500, sitting at 21-20 and three games behind the Phillies in the NL East.
Max Fried was not great Sunday afternoon (compared to the rest of his season), but he went six innings and allowed 3 earned runs, while striking out seven and earned the victory.
He is now 5-2 on the season.
The bullpen had its shaky moments, most notably in the seventh inning, when the Diamondbacks had the bases loaded with one out off Sean Newcomb.
However, Newcomb struck out Christian Walker for the second out, and then Dan Winkler got Wilmer Flores to line out to end the seventh.
After allowing David Peralta’s game-tying home run on Thursday, Luke Jackson has rebounded nicely.
He pitched well Friday and again was solid Sunday, getting Arizona in order in the ninth, including two strikeouts.
The trio of Johan Camargo, Charlie Culberson, and Tyler Flowers did most of the damage offensively, combining to go 7-for-12 with four RBI.
The Dodgers series left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth and the opening game of the series against Arizona did nothing to change that.
But much like last year, when the Atlanta Braves seemed to answer losing streaks and poor play with a hot streak, they again made amends for the Hollywood disaster by cooling off an Arizona team that had won seven of nine prior to Friday’s game.
On to the three takeaways:
Johan is getting hot
Prior to Saturday’s game, Johan Camargo had gotten off to a slow start to the season, batting only .217 and getting on base at a .277 clip.
He also had just six extra-base hits in 79 at-bats.
But the towering pinch-hit solo home run in the ninth inning Saturday night, which was a valuable insurance run for the Braves, might have lit a spark under the super utility-man.
He followed that up with Sunday’s game, where he went 2-for-4, with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored.
His average went up 24 points in two days.
Stay hot, Johan.
Ender, oh, Ender
There is a story coming out soon on the website about Austin Riley and the way he is demolishing baseballs at Triple-A.
I do not want to steal any of that story’s thunder, so I will keep it simple with my analysis of the current lineup and players in it.
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Ender Inciarte, who is notorious for being a slow starter, is at it again.
He is hitting .217 for the season and over his last 18 games is hitting .189 with two extra-base hits and two walks.
While it’s still very early in the season, even his defensive WAR is down from recent seasons, sitting at 0.1.
Inciarte turned it around last year to hit .265 and the year before that he hit .304 and made the All-Star team.
BUT, combine what Riley is doing, and the fact he’s playing the outfield, with Inciarte’s struggles and Inciarte better get hot, fast.
These games of 1-for-4 are not going to cut it, no matter the defensive reputation that he carries.
Yeah, this is the lineup
I appreciate Brian Snitker trying to placate to the veteran Josh Donaldson and bat him second, but that obviously did two significant things to the lineup and neither were good.
First, Donaldson was getting no opportunities to drive in runs, which he is very good at doing.
Second, Ronald Acuna Jr. never seemed comfortable batting cleanup. Plus, we all saw what he could do batting leadoff last year.
The way Snit has changed the lineup around to now having Acuna-Swanson-Freeman-Donaldson-Markakis-Albies-McFlow-Inciarte (**Riley) be the night-in, night-out lineup makes this offense very dangerous.
After an off-day Monday, the Cardinals come to SunTrust Park Tuesday.