The Braves’ offense was largely absent, Wright uneven in 4-2 loss to Twins

The Braves’ offense was largely absent on Monday and Kyle Wright had a pair of rocky innings in Atlanta’s 4-2 spring loss to the Twins.

While Cristian Pache recorded the first hit of the game in the top of the second with a single, it was the Twins that struck first in the runs column. After Wright gave up a double and a walk, a wild pitch put two runners in scoring position with one out and old friend Andrelton Simmons drove in the game’s first run with a groundout. Wright would then walk the next batter before an RBI single from Ryan Jeffers made it a 2-0 Twins lead. Fortunately, Cristian Pache has a cannon and gunned the runner out at third on the same play to end the inning.

Things did not get better for Wright in the third inning. After an error from Jake Lamp put a runner on, Nelson Cruz got revenge for an earlier strikeout by launching a ball out to left center to extend the Twins lead to 4-0. After a clean fifth inning, Wright’s day was done with a final line of 5 IP, 3 H, 4 R (3 ER), 3 BB, and 5 K. It honestly felt worse than that, but Wright did bounce back well in the last two innings of the start.

Nate Jones would come on in relief in the sixth and while the contact was a little loud, he got a 1-2-3 inning. Grant Dayton would then get a clean inning himself before giving way to Touki Toussaint for the eighth inning. Touki was excellent yet again as he had yet another clean inning with a pair of strikeouts.

The Braves offense finally did SOMETHING in the top of the ninth. After Guillermo Heredia led the inning off with a single, catcher Jonathan Morales drove him home with a double. A couple batters later, Trey Harris would bring Morales in with an RBI groundout to make it a 4-2 game. Unfortunately, that is where the rally ended as Phillip Ervin struck out to end the game.