Freddie Freeman and Matt Kemp homer, but Braves still lose to Marlins

Despite Freddie Freeman and Matt Kemp continuing to keep their power stroke going, the Marlins were able to dink-and-dunk their way to seven runs (with six of those coming off of Matt Wisler), and that was enough for Miami to pick up a 7-5 victory on the evening.

The game got off to a good start for the Braves, as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to Freddie Freeman hitting his 30th home run of the season. He’s kept his career year going, and is showing no signs of slowing down as we enter the final stretch of the season.

The lead would only last until the top of the third inning, which is when the Marlins struck against Matt Wisler for the first time. Ichiro ended up having a nice night at the plate for Miami, and he started it off with an RBI single that brought home pitcher Jake Esch to put Miami on the board. After Martin Prado fouled out, Christian Yelich delivered a whopper of a double to bring in both Ichiro and Dee Gordon to put the Marlins in the lead at that point.

Jake Esch didn’t make it past the fourth inning in this game, and a solo home run from Matt Kemp to lead off that inning helped hasten his exit. Esch ended up leaving the game with the bases loaded. It was up to Ender Inciarte to make Miami pay for loading up the bases, but Justin Nicolino was able to induce a ground ball that ended the inning.

Matt Wisler and the Braves ended up ruing the fact that they were unable to put more runs on the board in the fourth inning, because the Marlins had no problem cashing in their baserunners in the fifth inning. Ichiro led off the inning with a triple, and he scored the run that put the Marlins back in front after Marcell Ozuna hit a one-out single. Notorious Braves killer Justin Bour added a single of his own to make it 5-3 Marlins, and that signaled the end of the night for Matt Wisler. After J.T. Realmuto brought in Ozuna via ground out to make it 6-3, Wisler’s line officially ended up being 4.1 innings pitched, 10 hits allowed, two walks, and six earned runs. This was definitely a far cry from what we saw from Wisler in his past two appearances.

The Braves mounted a comeback in the seventh inning, which is when Brandon Snyder and Ender Inciarte managed to make it to second and third base with just one out. Freddie Freeman made it 6-4 with a sacrifice fly, and then Nick Markakis hit a single to right field to bring the Braves within one run of Miami. A Tyler Flowers walk loaded up the bases with two outs, and it was up to Jace Peterson to succeed where Ender Inciarte failed when it came to hitting with the bases loaded. Unfortunately, Jace hit a grounder to second, and the Marlins took the out at second base to once again escape a bases-loaded jam.

Once again, the Braves ended up immediately paying for not cashing in with the bases loaded. Justin Bour walked to lead off the inning, and Yefri Perez came on as a pinch-runner and immediately stole second base. He made it to third base after a sacrifice bunt from Adeiny Hechavarria, and then managed to take home on a heads-up play after Chris Withrow threw a wild pitch. Tyler Flowers was unable to tag Perez, and the Marlins ended up going up 7-5.

The two run lead held up for Miami, and that’s how the game ended. According to Baseball Prospectus, the Marlins only had a 1% chance of making the playoffs heading into tonight’s game, but they kept that tiny window alive with a victory tonight. Comparatively, our Braves have been on a 0% chance for a very, very long time and this was just another loss in what’s been a long season.