3 takeaways as Atlanta Braves wait it out, walk it off on Friday
It was a Red Friday at the ballpark with extra – natural – fireworks included. It the end it was worth the wait for the Atlanta Braves.
You’ve got to give credit to the Miami Marlins. In nearly all of their games against the Atlanta Braves, they’ve pushed the division leaders to the brink.
A 3 hour game was lengthened by a long weather delay punctuated by at least 1 “veryclose” lightning strike that got the attention of everyone at the game.
Once the game resumed in the top of the 8th – with a 0-0 score – the Braves pitching picked up where it had left off.
The Braves are 9-1 against Miami so far in 2019, but saying that alone does a great disservice to the Marlins’ effort in those 10 games… and that’s Takeaway #3 from Friday’s game.
3. Marlin Pride
The margins of victory for Atlanta in these games have been 4, -2, 1, 5, 7, 2 (in 10 innings), 6, 1, 1 (in 12 innings), and 1.
That’s it: 1 loss, 2 extra inning games, and only 2 blowouts with all of the last 3 games decided by a single run. Total run differential? 26 runs.
That’s close… and you could certainly argue that a few bounces in the wrong direction could have made the Braves’ 6.5 game lead in the NL East look a lot more tenuous.
The Marlins, for their part, are certainly becoming a much more dangerous team as of late.
After May 15th, they were sitting on a 10-31 record. After June 29th (beating the Phillies), their record stood at 32-49… a run of 22-18.
Sure: in recent days, they’ve slipped back, losing 5 in a row to Philadelphia, Washington, and now Atlanta. Part of that, I’m sure, is because the NL East is not treating that club lightly – they can’t.
The Marlins are now 3-5 vs. the Mets, and 7-6 vs. Philadelphia. They are also 5-4 against the American League, 2-2 against Colorado, 3-4 vs. St. Louis and 2-1 vs. Milwaukee.
After this weekend, the Braves will have completed 12 of their 19 games against the Fish. Washington has 13 of their 19 done already.
Unfortunately, like the Braves, Washington has had their number, too: they have won 10 of those 13 contests. Few of those have been blowouts, either.
I imagine that both clubs will be happy to avoid Miami as much as possible down the stretch. There’s little that smells as bad as spoiled fish, but these Fish are certainly trying to play the spoiler role.