Bullpen falters as bad luck and bad pitching leads to a 9-7 loss to Miami

With a chance to return to .500, Ian Anderson took the mound after a strong start in San Diego. Things did not start off well for Ian, however, as Jazz Chisholm took the first pitch deep and he then allowed two of the next three batters on with singles. He did escape the jam with a double-play, to keep the deficit very manageable for the offense with a sub-par pitcher on the mound for the Marlins. Ozzie matched Chisholm’s bomb with a bomb of his own on the first pitch from Miami’s Hernandez. Matt Olson absolutely scalded a low line drive to the left side at 111.1 MPH, but the shortstop made a nice play to snag it and throw him out at first. Ozuna was hit by a pitch and not happy about it with two outs, but nothing came of it. Neither team managed a baserunner in the second.

Dansby led off the bottom third with a much needed triple for him after a shutdown inning from Anderson. Ozzie brought Dansby home with a deep sac fly to center. Matt Olson continues to be very good as he smoked a double down the first base line. Austin Riley moved him over to third with a groundout, but Ozuna was unable to bring him home, so the inning ended with a 2-1 Atlanta lead. Austin Riley committed an error to let on the leadoff batter in the top of the fourth. Jesus Sanchez blooped a 63.6 MPH double down the third baseline to set up a really scary situation with men on second and third, with nobody out. Avisail Garcia grounded out to score the run from third, but left the other runner on second. Anderson escaped the jam only giving up the one run, although he did issue two walks to load the bases.

D’Arnaud led off the bottom fourth with a true pinball “hit”, which bounced off of Hernandez’ glove, off of second base, and off of Chisholm’s hand for an infield single. One of Alex Dickerson’s hard hit balls finally paid off for a 2-run homer, snapping the streak of 16 straight solo homers for the Braves, although ironically this one was only hit at 91.8 MPH with a .090 xBA. A leadoff double from Jazz Chisholm eventually came around to bite, cutting the Braves’ lead to one. Austin Riley mashed a two out solo homer in the fifth to expand the lead back to two. Collin McHugh came in to pitch the sixth and gave up a soft leadoff single before walking on the second batter. A groundout and a single later and the game was tied. McHugh gave up another single to put men on first and third and Snitker had seen enough, bringing in AJ Minter to try and escape the jam. Old friend Jorge Soler took the first pitch against Minter and blooped it in for a hit to take the lead for Miami. AJ did battle back to stop the bleeding there and keep the deficit at 1.

D’Arnaud did his part and doubled to lead off the bottom of the frame. Duvall struck out, but Dickerson walked to add to the threat with one out and Dansby coming up. A wild pitch advanced the runners, putting them both in scoring position and taking away the double play. Dansby got to a 3-0 count and then swung through two middle-middle fastballs before pulling a hanging slider into shallow left-center for a 2 RBI single that gave Atlanta back the lead. Ozzie got hit in the foot to take first, but Olson just got under a hanging slider and Austin struck out to end the inning at 7-6 Atlanta.

Flamethrowing Spencer Strider came in to pitch the eighth for the Braves and dotted 101 on the outside of the plate for his first pitch lol. He also hit 102 in the first at-bat, on his way to a walk (although he was squeezed a bit on a pitch or two). Joey Wendle roped a single to left field to make this a very dangerous situation for the Strider. A wild pitch moved the runners over to make the situation critical and Strider walked another batter to load the bases. A soft single from Garrett Cooper gave the lead back to Miami and Will Smith came in to replace Strider. Smith got a grounder up the middle from Chisholm, but Dansby somewhat weirdly decided to take it to second himself and only got the one out as Chisholm just barely beat out the throw. Aguilar hit a deep sac fly to extend the lead to two that was almost a disastrous homer. Smith struck out the final batter to mercifully end the inning and keep the lead within deficit within striking distance.

Ozuna hit a ball hard and high and far for an out, Rosario struck out, and Berti made a ridiculous play to throw d’Arnaud out for a 1-2-3 bottom seventh. The recently acquired Jesse Chavez came in for the eighth and struck three Marlins out after conceding a single that was absolutely vaporized at 116.8 MPH. Another 1-2-3 inning from the Atlanta offense and it was the ninth inning. Chavez came back out and again worked around a single in a scoreless inning. On to the bottom of the ninth and Ozzie softly flew out, Olson scalded a line drive right into the glove of the left fielder, and Austin struck out in a big “oof” of a 9-7 loss.

Join us tomorrow at 1:35 PM ET for the rubbermatch against Miami.