Atlanta Braves Fall to Fish 8-2
The Atlanta Braves (6-2) took the field again Tuesday night for another soggy evening in Atlanta. They would face the Miami Marlins (2-6) for the fifth time this season, after winning the previous four contests. Of note, recent acquisition Trevor Cahill would make his Braves debut.
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That debut would get off to a shaky start. Dee Gordon led off the game with an infield single, quickly followed by an Ichiro walk. Giancarlo Stanton would whack the next pitch into leftfield for an RBI single giving the Fish a 1-0 lead.
Old friend Martin Prado then brought Ichiro home with a sacrifice fly, giving the Marlins a 2-0 lead. Oh, but Miami was not finished. Mike Morse crushed a double to deep centerfield to score Stanton, giving Miami a 3-0 edge at the end of the top of the 1st inning. Not exactly the best way to endear yourself to the new home fans. Certainly a rough start for Cahill.
As Cahill exits after issuing a bases-loaded walk, it seems like a good time to remind you the #Braves got Yunel Escobar with the 75th pick
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) April 14, 2015
His sinker was sitting 90 to 93 miles per hour, but he had trouble locating it. He had a tendency to either leave the ball over the middle of the plate or miss the strike zone completely. Not a recipe for success. Cahill would fail to settle down, ending his evening after 2 and 1/3 innings, allowing four runs (all earned) on five hits and three walks. He would also strikeout a pair, so there’s that. Roger McDowell has much work to do in the laboratory where he fixes broken pitchers.
Cahill’s failures would lead to the debut of recently promoted reliever Sugar Ray Marimon. Which is clearly a great moment in Atlanta Braves history for his name alone. Marimon would help preserve Atlanta’s bullpen by pitching 4 innings, giving up two runs and striking out three. He even got his first big league base hit on a dribbling infield single. See, there are bright spots even on the darkest of days.
Sugar Ray gets a nice ovation from sparse crowd as he leaves in the 7th inning. Nice debut for the Colombian pitcher.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) April 15, 2015
Facing a 5-0 deficit in the bottom of the 4th inning, Freddie Freeman and A.J. Pierzynski would finally get the Braves on the board with back to back solo homers. That was as close as the Braves would get, eventually falling 8-2.
Tom Koehler had a solid outing for Miami. Koehler would last 5 and 1/3 innings allowing only two runs.
The Braves did not have very much success with the bats, though they did collect eight hits over the course of the game. Nick Markakis would go 2-for-4 with a single and a double, Pierzynski was the only other Brave to record multiple hits, adding a single to go along with his solo homerun.
Dee Gordon was pesky for Miami. Gordon went 2-for-4 with two singles, scored two runs, and also swiped two bases. Giancarlo Stanton did Giancarlo Stanton things. The slugger reached base in all five plate appearances, collecting three hits, two runs scored, four RBI, and two walks.
The Braves had their chances. They left the bases loaded in the 6th inning and failed to capitalize whenever they had runners on base, going 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position. They were playing catch up as soon as Cahill exploded in the first inning and they were never able to wake up.
The rubber game of this series comes tomorrow afternoon with Eric Stults squaring off against Dan Haren.