Jun 28, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Alex Wood (40) delivers a pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
The last time Alex Wood faced the Pirates he pitched out of the stretch the whole game and fought to keep his team in it. Today, Wood was as good as he’s been all year ending the Braves five game skid as the Braves beat the Pirates 2-1.
How the Braves Beat the Bucs?
Wood started the game by getting Josh Harrison to fly out to center, but then promptly plunked Jung Ho Kang in the billfold. He corrected the ship quickly however by getting Andrew McCutchen to fly out to center and striking out Starling Marte. From that point on, Wood was in charge.
The Bucs managed only two hits over the next five innings as Wood cruised through the Pirate infested waters like a Battleship guns blazing, sinking seven Bucs with strikeouts along the way.
Jeff Locke had been in and out of trouble all day and the Braves finally snatched a run off him in the fourth when Cameron Maybin singled, went to second on a passed ball and scored on a Nick Markakis double. Deolis Guerra replaced Locke in the sixth and had a quiet inning.
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Vance Worley came on for the Bucs in the seventh and Jace Peterson greeted him with a solo homer on a 1-1 pitch count to put the Braves up 2-0.
Wood was back out for the seventh and instantly in trouble as McCutchen and Marte singled on the first two pitches of the inning. Francisco Cervelli bunted them over and the Braves got David Aardsma up in the bullpen.
He wasn’t needed however as Wood struck out the pesky Jordy Mercer and induced Sean Rodriguez to popup to Peterson to end the inning.
Next: The Bullpen Does Its Job
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!!
Next: High Spots
Jun 28, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Atlanta Braves starting pitcher Alex Wood (40) delivers a pitch against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the first inning at PNC Park. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports
High Spots
Player of the game was undoubtedly Alex Wood. This was his 50th big league start. In those starts he put up a 2.96 ERA and 3.18 FIP. On Sunday, Wood went 7 1/3 innings striking out eight, hitting one batter, but didn’t allow a walk. He threw 94 pitches – 64 for strikes and was in charge all the way.
The Bullpen did it’s job as well. While the official scorer gave Mercer a double on the collision play, the game would have ended at that point had the players not met unexpected in front of the Braves bullpen.
Chris Johnson went 2-4 and Maybin was 1-4 with a run scored. Jace Peterson seems to have broken out of his slump. After coming through last night with the bases loaded, he went 1-5 today with the aforementioned home run in the seventh.
That’s A Wrap
The losing streak is over, the Braves return to Atlanta to take on the Nationals with Shelby Miller be on the bump for us on Tuesday.
In other Braves news recently acquire Touki Toussaint made his debut for the Rome Braves today. Maybe it was nerves by Toussaint, but he was very wild. He hit Johneshwy Fargas twice and walked five others in his 4 1/3 innings. On the bright side he gave up just one run on two hits and struck out five.
Reports are that he used every pitch in his arsenal on the day; a 91-92mph fastball, 86-87mph cutter, 83-84mph slurve, 84-85mph change and a 74mph curve.