Braves rally comes up just short in 8-7 loss to Yankees

The Atlanta Braves pulled off a late rally but came up just short in an 8-7 loss to the New York Yankees.

The Yankees struck first when Jacoby Ellsbury homered to right off of Braves starter Jaime Garcia in the first inning. Garcia was able to limit the damage from that point and allowed two hits and a walk over two innings of work.

Matt Wisler’s spring got off to a tough start as New York struck again in the third. Wisler struggled to locate and surrendered an RBI single to Starlin Castro, a run-scoring double to Matt Holiday and a sacrifice fly to Chase Headley to increase the Yankees’ lead to 4-0. Wisler did settle down in the fourth when he retired the Yankees in order.

The hole got deeper for the Braves in the sixth as Sean Newcomb made his first spring appearance and struggled allowing six hits and four runs in just an inning of work to increase the Yankees lead to 8-0.

The Braves bats finally got going in the seventh. The Braves scored their first run on a throwing error by the Yankees’ Donovan Solano. Johan Camargo followed with a three-run bomb to center to make the score 8-4. Micah Johnson followed with a solo shot and Atlanta was suddenly back within striking distance at 8-5.

Luke Jackson held New York in check in the home half of the seventh and the Braves drew closer again in the eighth. Dylan Moore singled to lead off the inning and Adam Walker followed with an opposite field home run to cut the lead to 8-7.

Lane Adams nearly tied things up for the Braves with two outs in the ninth when he hit a rocket off the wall in left field that ended up going as a long single. Colin Walsh walked to move Adams into scoring position before Moore flied to left to end the threat.