Six-run deficit ends up being too much for Braves to overcome in 8-5 loss to Yankees

The Braves fell into too deep of a hole that they mostly dug for themselves and while the offense did its best to bring things back, they were unable to keep pace with New York’s offense and ended up losing 8-5.

If you missed the start of last night’s game, then you were in luck tonight because we ended up basically getting a repeat of what happened during the first inning of Monday night’s game. Domingo German held the Braves to a scoreless inning while the Yankees produced some magic with two outs to get on the board early. This time, it was Aaron Hicks who floated one over that wall in right field to make it 2-0 Yankees in the first inning.

That was the beginning of what ended up being a rough evening for Sean Newcomb. The second inning was marked with Kyle Higashioka earning his second career hit — which was simultaneously his second career home run as well.

The third inning only got worse for Newcomb as the Demon of Walks possessed his arm. Newcomb didn’t give up another hit for the rest of his short outing on the mound but he “made up” for it by handing out four walks in the third inning alone. The last walk made it 4-0 New York and that was the end of the night for Newcomb.

That meant that the night was just beginning for Luke Jackson and things got off to a rough start for him as well. He promptly walked the first batter he faced to make it 5-0 Yankees and then added a wild pitch later on in the inning to bring in New York’s sixth run of the night. It has to be said that Jackson did recover from this and eventually settled down to hold the Yankees at bay for the rest of his time on the mound.

And so began Atlanta’s journey to claw out of a six-run hole for the second half of the game and to the Braves’ credit, they did not just roll over and fall away. In fact, the bats woke up in the very next frame as they hit Domingo German hard enough to run him from the game. Ender Inciarte and Ozzie Albies went back-to-back with a couple of dingers to cut the deficit in half and actually had the go-ahead run at the plate after they loaded the bases. Unfortunately, Tyler Flowers (who had a bad night at the plate) ended up swinging-and-missing at some junk from A.J. Cole and that’s how the scoring threat ended in that frame for the Braves.

Our boys weren’t done scoring, though. In the seventh inning with a runner on and one out, Nick Markakis hit a liner to the short porch out in right field that somehow made it over the fence and into the crowd for a two-run dinger. The Braves were now down by just one run and the light at the end of the tunnel was in sight.

That precious light was snuffed out in the eighth inning when the Yankees once again took advantage of the short porch that the Braves had just recently benefited from, themselves. According to Statcast, Giancarlo Stanton hit a 353-foot home run to right field to make it 8-5 New York. Anybody who watched it could probably eyeball it as being a 315-foot pop fly that just barely made it over the fence in order to expand New York’s lead and cast a shadow on poor ol’ Evan Phillips in his major league debut. Either way, a home run is a home run and the Yankees will take them just like we’ll take them whenever it helps the Braves.

Stanton’s homer basically put the Yankees out of reach as Aroldis Chapman entered the game, reached triple-digits on the radar gun and easily blew fire past the bats of the Braves in order to tie the series at one game apiece.

We’ve gotten two entertaining and highly-competitive games out of these two teams and it only feels right that tomorrow’s rubber match on the holiday will decide who will come out of Yankee Stadium with the series victory.