Sloppiness and bad luck costs Braves in 6-3 loss

Coming off of a tough loss Friday night, the Braves were hoping to level the series against the Astros behind Kyle Wright on Saturday night. Framber Valdez and the Astros lineup is a formidable opponent though.

The Braves offense didn’t produce anything other than a single and two stolen bases from Ronald Acuna in the first three innings. Framber Valdez wasn’t allowing any contact to be elevated and was striking out a number of Braves. Kyle Wright wasn’t his sharpest early on, but managed to match Valdez, keeping the game scoreless through the top of the fourth.

After a strikeout and flyout from Matt Olson and Austin Riley in the bottom of the fourth, Sean Murphy came through big again and launched a ball to deep center for a solo home run with two outs.

Albies and Grissom managed hard-hit singles after the homer, but a hard-hit ball from Pillar failed to find some space and ended the inning. Kyle Wright followed this breakthrough by preserving the lead in a 1-2-3 inning. After Ozuna grounded out, Eli White and Ronald Acuna each hit a ball at over 105 MPH, White with a line drive and Acuna with a fly ball, but Astris; gloves found them both.

A soft hit grounder from Bregman bounced off the mound and evaded Ozzie’s glove to lead off the sixth. This really hurt, as Kyle gave up a towering homer to Yordan Alvarez flipping the game from a 1-0 Braves’ lead to a 2-1 Astros’ lead. Abreu hit a hard grounder to shortstop next, but Vaughn Grissom botched it for his second rough error of the game. This again really hurt Atlanta, as Kyle Tucker homered just inches past a leaping Eli White’s glove at the wall. Pena had a soft bloop fall in for a single, still with no outs in the sixth, marking the end of the night for Kyle Wright. Michael Tonkin got the call in relief and got a flyout and two groundouts to end the inning with no further damage. The Braves now had to dig out of a 4-1 deficit one night after blowing a 4-1 lead of their own.

Matt Olson led off the bottom of the inning with a ground ball single. Austin scalded a line drive with a .630 xBA, but had it caught and Sean Murphy struck out, as it appeared that the Braves wouldn’t get any runs immediately back. Right handed Ozzie Albies had other plans, however, as he launched a homer off of Valdez bringing the Braves within one run.

Vaughn followed with a single of his own, but Pillar struck out to end the inning. After another shutdown inning from Tonkin, who has really done good work for Atlanta this year, Ronald Acuna got on base with a two out single and stole second. Unfortunately, Valdez, who was still in the game in the seventh, struck out Olson to end that threat.

Kirby Yates came in for the eighth and nearly allowed a one out homer to Kyle Tucker, but the ball died a few feet short of the wall. Jeremy Pena showed bunt and Yates missed by about a foot up and in, which Pena defensively bunted into fair territory, turning into a single. After Pena stole second, Corey Julks lined a single to Pillar to score a run, extending the lead to 5-3. After another 1-2-3 inning from the Braves’ offense, The Astros threatened once again, with a soft single and an Albies error. Abreu cashed in on this threat with a soft single of his own, tacking on another insurance run for Houston against Joe Jimenez. Vaughn Grissom, Eddie Rosario, and Sam Hilliard went down with a whimper in the ninth, as the Braves lost the series.

Join us as the Braves attempt to salvage a win out of the series at 1:35 PM ET.