Jared Shuster impresses as Braves beat Mariners

Jared Shuster turned in the best start of his young career to help lead the Atlanta Braves to a 3-2 win over the Seattle Mariners.

Shuster worked a scoreless first inning and then the Braves got started quickly against George Kirby to get him a run. Ronald Acuña Jr. singled to lead off the game and then came all the way around to score on a double by Matt Olson.

The Mariners answered back quickly against Shuster in the second as Jarred Kelenic jumped on 0-1 change up and drove it out to right to tie the game. However, he came right back and retired the next three in order, including strikeouts of Eugenio Suarez and AJ Pollock.

Shuster hit Jose Caballero with one out in the third, but came back and retired J.P. Crawford and Ty France to leave him stranded at third. The Braves retook the lead in the home half of the inning. Matt Olson walked with one out and then advanced all the way to third on a two-out single by Travis d’Arnaud. Eddie Rosario then poked a single to center that scored Olson to give Atlanta a 2-1 lead.

Shuster mowed through the Astros in the fourth including back-to-back strikeouts of Kelenic and Suarez. He continued to cook in the fifth striking out Teoscar Hernandez to set a new career-high with six punch outs. He then retired Pollock and Tom Murphy on ground outs to end the inning.

Shuster walked Caballero to start the sixth. Caballero picked up his third stolen base of the game with a swipe of second, before Shuster got Crawford to fly out for the first out. Caballero moved to third on a fly out by France, but Shuster came back and struck out Julio Rodriguez to escape the inning.

The Braves increased their lead to two in the sixth as d’Arnaud took Kirby deep for a solo home run to make it 3-1.

Collin McHugh would take over in the seventh. It was a heck of an outing by Shuster who showed a lot more poise than what we saw back in April. He allowed one hit, one walk and one run to go along with a career-best seven strikeouts in six innings. He threw 85 pitches with 52 going for strikes.

McHugh struck out Kelenic and then got Suarez to fly out to start the seventh. Hernandez followed with a solid single to left, but McHugh got Pollock to ground out harmlessly to Riley at third to end the inning.

Nick Anderson struck out pinch-hitter Cal Raleigh to start the eighth, but then served up a solo home run to Caballero to cut the lead to 3-2. Anderson came back and got Crawford to fly out before striking out France to send the game to the ninth where Raisel Iglesias retired the side in order to end the game.

The Braves win the series and improve to 29-17 on the season. They will continue their homestand Monday when they face the Los Angeles Dodgers for the first time this season.