Too little, too late for the Braves in second straight loss to the Orioles

As hard as last night’s game was the action in the first inning today was not much better. The Orioles first three batters reached on two walks and a double which loaded the bases in front of Mark Trumbo who proceeded to punch a ball over the center field wall for a grand slam to put the Orioles up 4-0 before ever even posting an out.

Teheran snaked his way through the bottom of the Orioles lineup to get the Braves up in the bottom of the inning with no further damage. Things looked promising for the Braves after consecutive singles from Ender Inciarte and Ozzie Albies but were only able to score one run thanks to a Freddie Freeman strikeout, Nick Markakis RBI single and Kurt Suzuki double play ball.

With the score at 4-1 the next couple of innings flew by without further action until the fifth inning where Julio Teheran began to collapse again. The first three batters of the inning, Dylan Bundy, Colby Rasmus and Adam Jones, all reached on singles to load the bases once again with nobody out. It looked for a second as though Teheran was going to wiggle his way out of it thanks to a strikeout and a lineout to keep the bases loaded with two outs but it was not to be as Chris Davis unloaded on a pitch to right field which hit off the top of the wall scoring 3 more. Down 7-1 things were looking bleak and Luke Jackson entered to eat some innings.

With the blowout in full swing the Braves attempted to tack on some runs in their half of the 5th inning. After a single by Ryan Flaherty and walk by Dansby Swanson the Braves were about to blow yet another prime opportunity thanks to a strikeout and flyout by the next two batters but thankfully Ozzie Albies came through with a single to plate Flaherty. Freddie Freeman had a real chance to do some damage but struck out on a high fastball which seemed to be the theme of the day as the Braves took their one run and went into the sixth down 7-2.

The story of the day are the men left on base by the Braves. 24 runners were stranded by Atlanta and most of those guys were on the basepaths with 1 or no outs to begin each inning.

Then in the seventh inning the rains came and caused around a 30 minute delay. After the rain finished the Braves got to work chipping away like they always do late as Ender Inciarte and Ozzie Albies hit back to back singles that were followed by a Freddie Freeman walk and Nick Markakis double which plated two more runs forcing the Orioles to go to Mychal Givens out of the pen. With the score at 7-4 Kurt Suzuki hit a tapper back to the mound which could not advance anyone. Next up Johan Camargo was able to draw a walk in front of Ryan Flaherty to re-load the bases but Flaherty was unable to take advantage and the Braves took only the two runs.

After a quick half inning in the top of the eighth the Braves got to work once again just chipping away. Charlie Culberson got things started when he combed a single through the right side and then stole second base with Ender Inciarte batting. Ozzie Albies reached on his fourth single of the day to put runners on the corners for Freddie Freeman. A throwing error by the pitcher trying to pick off Albies at first allowed another run to score and advanced Ozzie to second. With the base open the Orioles walked Freddie Freeman to bring up Nick Markakis who could not do further damage. The Braves went into the ninth down 7-5 in need of another late comeback to avoid the series loss.

After a scoreless top of the ninth inning pitched by Peter Moylan it was up to the bottom of the Braves lineup to turn things around. The Orioles called upon Zach Britton to nail down the save and unlike last night he made sure that the Braves would have no chance tonight. He began by striking out Kurt Suzuki, walked Johan Camargo but then induced a ground ball out of pinch hitter Peter Bourjos and Dansby grounded out to end the game.

The Orioles have already won the series and the Braves will attempt to prevent further shame tomorrow by avoiding a sweep.