Atlanta Braves Beat the Bucs as Alex Wood Stops the Rot

Jun 28, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Atlanta Braves catcher A.J. Pierzynski (15) and relief pitcher Jason Grilli (39) celebrate after defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park. The Braves won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

The Braves Bullpen

Gorkys Hernandez came on to pinch hit leading off in the eighth, but was called out when his bunt bounced up hit him in fair territory. The Pirates sent Neil Walked up to pinch hit for Worley. On a 2-2 pitch, Walker golfed an ankle high pitch into the left field corner for a double. That brought Fredi Gonzalez out of the dugout and Jim Johnson in from the bullpen.

Johnson ended the Pirate threat by striking out Harrison and extracting a lazy fly ball off the bat of Alavarez.

The Braves went quietly in the ninth and Jason Grilli entered to try to seal the deal.  Grilli hasn’t had a 1-2-3 inning since he faced the Phillies on April 25th and on Friday night, this part of the Bucs lineup wasn’t kind to him; McCutchen homered and Jordy Mercer double in the game winning run.

Today, Grilli threw three sliders to McCutchen finally getting him to hit a lazy fly to Maybin in center. Marten put up a fight that ended with a slow dribbler back to Grilli for the second out.  It looked like Grilli would spare us the grey hair today, but after getting the count to 3-2, he walked Cervelli.

It was the Braves nemesis, Mercer, who had fans hearts in their mouths as he hit a towering fly to left center that everyone thought was gone. The ball came up short however and Maybin was arriving to make the catch short of the wall. The problem was Eury Perez who came is a defensive replacement for Jonny Gomes  was arriving as well.

The taller Maybin had the ball at the top of his glove when the collision happened. Perez went down hard but Maybin managed to get the ball in and hold Mercer to a double.  Perez was down for a long time, but eventually left the field under his own steam although I’m not sure he knew what day it was.  You can see that event by clicking here.

Joey Terdoslavich took Perez’ place on defense, but fortunately we never had to see how that would have worked out as Grilli struck out Gregory Polanco to end the game.

Braves win 2-1!!

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