Atlanta Braves Suffer Heart Breaking Loss To Giants
By Steven Teal
Playing on the West Coast hasn’t always been kind to the Atlanta Braves. Game 1 was a nice win as the Braves slugged their way to a victory. They were on their way to another win but fell short in the bottom of the 9th inning.
Fans were treated to a great pitching match up as Atlanta Braves veteran Julio Teheran and Giants rookie Shaun Anderson went toe-to-toe on Tuesday night.
Each pitcher would surrender a 1-run double early on but they’d settle down and give each of their teams an opportunity to win.
Julio Teheran has pitched much better for the Atlanta Braves recently. Tuesday’s start was no different as he went 5-2/3 innings allowing just 1 earned run on 3 hits with 6 strikeouts.
https://twitter.com/Braves/status/1131054206922764288
He wasn’t perfect as he had some command issues and walked 3 batters in the game. However, he did a fairly good job at mixing his pitches and getting out of jams when he needed to the most. This start just added to the rotation’s great work over the past week.
Coming into Tuesday night’s game, the Braves starting staff carried a 1.18 ERA across 38 innings pitched allowing just 3 home runs during a 6 game stretch… not to mention that in the last 10 games played, the starting rotation has a combined ERA of 2.72.
Those numbers are extremely encouraging and should give the team more opportunities to win.
The offense has been keeping pace with the starting pitching as they have some great numbers in that stretch as well. They’ve tallied 5.2 runs per game and averaged .353 with runners in scoring position.
With that kind of success on the base paths, Tuesday night should have been an easy win for the Atlanta Braves.
Good Start
The offense got things started early as Nick Markakis doubled home Dansby Swanson in the first inning to give Julio the lead. Just in case you were wondering, that RBI double came with 2 outs in the inning. It seems like the Braves always have a knack for that lately.
The Giants immediately tied the game up in the bottom half of the 1st inning but Julio settled down after that and took care of business until being taken out in the sixth inning for Jerry Blevins to face Brandon Crawford and get the final out of the inning.
The Atlanta Braves offense tacked on two more runs in the 6th and 7th innings thanks to a sacrifice fly from Brian McCann and a 1 out single from Freddie Freeman.
End Game
Things looked good as the bullpen held the lead until the bottom of the 9th inning. Luke Jackson came in looking to earn his 7th save of the season. He has become the de-facto closer for the Atlanta Braves since he has had so much success recently.
Jackson’s slider has been absolutely devastating against opposing teams. After his horrific first outing against the Phillies, opponents are hitting just .221 against Luke and he’s cut down on the walks drastically.
It makes sense that manager Brian Snitker would want to use him in that role. Unfortunately, with the closer role, you are going to suffer some blown saves. That would be the fate for Luke Jackson on Tuesday night.
Jackson had two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning with Brandon Crawford on base, but then allow 3 straight singles as the Giants walked off the Braves 4-3.
Now, I will say that Luke Jackson didn’t just leave the ball over the plate. The pitches that were hit were down in the zone and pretty good pitches with 2 strikes. In fact, he had both Panblo Sandoval and Joe Panik at 0-2 counts before they reached.
It’s still alarming that Braves relievers struggle to have clean innings.
Jackson’s breaking ball wasn’t the best I’ve seen from him but was still in good spots, as Brian Snitker pointed out post game. The Giants just put the ball in play in the right where they needed to.
Had the Braves not had the shift on for Pablo Sandoval during his at bat, the Braves would have won the game with a groundout to Dansby Swanson.
That’s just how the game goes from time-to-time. All the Atlanta Braves can do is shake it off and come out tomorrow ready to grind out a win.
These are the kinds of games you just have to forget. It would have been nice to pick up a game on the Phillies who lost to the Cubs on Tuesday night but it wasn’t meant to be.
The Atlanta Braves will look to bounce back tomorrow night with Max Fried (6-2, 2.86 ERA) taking the mound against Jeff Samardzija (2-2, 3.69 ERA). Game time is at 9:45 PM EST and can be seen on Fox Sports Southeast.