High octane offense gets Braves past White Sox

Both teams got started early this evening with the offensive production.

Chicago was first to scratch after Dallas Keuchel ran into some trouble. Yoan Moncada singled home Leury Garcia for the 1-0 lead.

Thankfully the Braves responded in the same inning in a big way. First it was Dansby Swanson who doubled home Ozzie Albies to tie the game at 1. Then, Tyler Flowers and Rafael Ortega hit back-to-back RBI singles that brought the score to 3-1.

Finally, Atlanta capped off their big first inning with an RBI double from Billy Hamilton followed by a two run single from the Keuchel to help himself to a 6-1 lead.

In the next inning the Braves tacked on a seventh run via a Matt Joyce single to score Freddie Freeman. Keuchel then did his best to make that stand up over the next few innings.

Keuchel allowed another single run in the top of the third inning on a Wellington Castillo RBI single to cut the lead to 7-2, but from there on it was smooth sailing. The Braves pitcher rolled through the next three innings with relative ease and finished his night in the sixth inning after going over 100 pitches.

The problem was that Atlanta didn’t continue to add onto their lead, and that made things a little too interesting down the stretch. Chris Martin was tasked with the seventh inning and had a really tough outing as he allowed three runs (two earned) on an Eloy Jimenez single, Sanchez double and capped with an E9 by Joyce in right field.

After the top of the seventh inning the White Sox had narrowed the lead to just 7-5. Atlanta got right back on the beam though as they usually do in the bottom of the inning.

The Braves were able to get the bases loaded and brought Ronald Acuna Jr. off the bench to get the scoring started with a sacrifice fly to stretch the lead back to 8-5. Then Dansby Swanson walked with the bases loaded to score another run and the Braves capped off the seventh inning by getting the advantage back to five runs when Billy Hamilton scored on a wild pitch to make it 10-5.

From there it was Atlanta’s game. Donaldson added a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth for good measure and Josh Tomlin got three outs in the ninth for the win.

The Braves have now won 9 of their last 10 games and are looking to sweep the White Sox tomorrow. Stay tuned.