Braves get bucked by Mariners, lose 7-5

First against Boston, now this. The Braves built a seemingly comfortable lead early, but then the roof caves in. It's getting monotonous already.

The Atlanta offense had little trouble handling Erasmo Ramirez. Jason Heyward roped a double to start the first and scored following singles by B.J. Upton and Freddie Freeman. Evan Gattis would later mash a first-pitch fastball for a three-run homer, giving Gavin Floyd a very welcome 4-0 lead after one inning.

Seattle cut the lead in half with help from a throwing error by Chris Johnson in the second inning. He threw away a ground ball off the bat of John Buck, who came around to score on Brad Miller's single to center. B.J. bobbled the ball, killing any opportunity to throw out Buck at the plate. After a sacrifice, Miller scored on a single by James Jones.

B.J. would get one of those runs back with a two-out homer to center in the home half of the second. Seattle would threaten in the third with runners at second and third and no outs, but would come up empty. Kyle Seager, the team's leading RBI man, hit a comebacker to Floyd, and he caught Michael Saunders straying too far off third. Floyd recovered and escaped the inning untouched, but the worst was yet to come.

In the fourth, following Buck's single and a walk to Miller, Ramirez was taken down for pinch-hitter Stefen Romero. One might question the logic of pinch-hitting a pitcher with two on and nobody out, but nobody can argue against a pinch-hit three-run homer to tie the score at five.

Buck and Miller continued to give Floyd trouble with back-to-back singles to start the sixth, forcing him from the game. Luis Avilan would load the bases with a one-out walk, but put out the fire with a strikeout of Saunders and a getting Robinson Cano to ground out.

Alex Wood came on in the seventh, and on this particular night, who else but John Buck should kick the Braves in the seat of the pants yet again. After Dustin Ackley reached on a softly-hit infield single with two outs, Buck hit a tiebreaking two-run homer.

Four Seattle relievers shut out the Braves for six innings with nine strikeouts.

Win Expectancy