Pache homers, Anderson cruises, but Braves unravel in sixth, lose 6-3 to Orioles

Earlier today, a Braves split squad defeated the Houston Astros by a 3-0 margin. In the second inning of their nightcap against the Orioles, they jumped ahead by the same score, thanks to Cristian Pache’s three-run homer. However, that score wouldn’t hold, as Grant Dayton, Phil Pfeifer, and a throwing error by Riley Unroe pushed the deciding runs across.

The story for the Braves in this one was Pache’s longball and Ian Anderson cruising through the Baltimore lineup. TC commentariat member TjSnedden captured the second-inning three-run mash job on camera for all of us. Thanks, TJ!

The homer scored Austin Riley, who walked to lead off the frame, and Adeiny Hechavarria, who singled on a liner to right. That was pretty much it, offensively, for the Braves in this one. Keeping pace with Johan Camargo, who doubled in today’s afternoon game, Austin Riley added a double of his own. Beyond that, there was little hitting — the Braves finished with a 10/1 K/BB ratio and didn’t get a runner to second base after the fourth. But, in a split-squad game featuring Ryan Casteel (question mark?) as the team’s third-place hitter... insert that shrugging ascii text here. Forget it, Jake, it’s Sarasota.

The pitching was a mixed bag, but Ian Anderson cruised through three innings in his first start of this particular bout of Spring Training. While Anderson only collected two punchouts, he issued zero walks and elicited two pop-outs while going three-up, three-down three times.

Anderson was relieved by Shane Greene, who gave up a two-out homer to Anthony Santander and struck out a batter in his inning of work. Greene gave way to Grant Dayton, who basically did the same thing: collect the first two outs, and then give up a solo homer before ending the frame.

Dayton was left in for the sixth, and he has done multiple times already this Spring Training, became the ribs that flip over Fred Flinstone’s car. With one out in the sixth, Dayton yielded a single and then a game-tying double to Jose Iglesias. He then hit Santander, walked Chris Davis, and finally got pulled in favor of Philip Pfeifer. The man I like to think of as Triple P (the extra P is for Pitching) did his job in that he got a groundball, but Riley Unroe (in for Riley at third base) threw it away. Pfeifer then hit a batter with a pitch, driving in Baltimore’s fifth run, before eliciting another grounder that Unroe was able to turn into an actual around-the-horn double play. Pfeifer would allow another run in the seventh, as a leadoff walk to former Brave Rio Ruiz scored on a two-out triple.

Tucker Davidson finished the pitching ledger for the Braves with a perfect eighth. CJ Alexander struck out to end the game as a pinch-hitter.

The Braves visit the Twins tomorrow afternoon.