Offense can’t overcome shaky pitching in 4-3 loss

The Braves sent Max Fried to the mound looking to sweep the Giants in a bullpen game for San Francisco with their lineup weakened by minor injuries to Michael Harris and Ozzie Albies.

Fried ran into some early trouble, escaping a bases loaded jam in the first, with the baserunners coming from two singles and a walk. After the Braves’ offense could only manage an Austin Riley single in the home first, Fried allowed a leadoff homer to Luis Matos. The Braves struck back in the bottom of the frame, however, as Sean Murphy got lucky to reach on an error on a chopper and Orlando Arcia yanked a homer to give Atlanta a 2-1 lead.

The Giants took the lead back in the third, somewhat reminiscent of Saturday’s game, with a leadoff double from Estrada and a homer from Flores as Max Fried appeared to have some finger discomfort. Fried allowed two more singles but stranded both runners to hold the score at 3-2 exiting the top third. The next two innings held a few scattered baserunners for each team, but no major threat. Max Fried exited in the sixth inning with a runner on first having pitched 5.2 innings of 3 run ball with 6 Ks and 1 BB. That’s not a trademark Maximum Fried outing, but it is a solid one that gets the job done. Tonkin took over for Max and struck out Conforto to end the inning.

Braves legend Luke Jackson pitched the seventh for San Francisco and got three groundouts on his way to a 1-2-3 inning. The Braves finally presented a real threat in the home eighth as Ronald Acuna and Eddie Rosario worked back to back one out walks behind a Vaughn Grissom strikeout. Austin struck out so Ronald decided to force the issue and tried to steal third. Bailey committed a throwing error as he attempted to throw Ronald out, though it appeared that Ronald had beaten the throw anyway, and Ronald scored the tying run on the error. The Giants intentionally walked Olson, but Ozuna struck out, so that run from Ronald proved crucial.

Kirby Yates came in, however, and immediately loaded the bases with a walk and two hit batsmen with no outs. He battled back to strike out the next two batters but walked home a run on four pitches. The Braves offense went down quietly in the ninth, as Kirby Yates’ mini-meltdown turned out decisive.

Join us again tomorrow at 7:20 PM ET as the Braves face the Mets.