Long, strange night ends in a most appropriately disappointing fashion for the Braves.
This was always going to get weird. It was Star Wars Night, for heaven’s sake, how could it not?
Julio Teheran’s second pitch of the game landing just confirmed we were in for a bit of ride.
Back and forth went the Braves and Marlins, with Atlanta ultimately falling 7-5 to the Fish in 12 innings.
Derek Dietrich offered a rude welcome to Teheran, slamming a 1-0 pitch deep to right-center for an early Marlins salvo—estimated distance: 428 feet—that could’ve legitimately included a brief layover in Charlotte on its way toward Philadelphia. Dietrich may have watched his leadoff homer a little bit too long—he was welcomed to the plate his next time up with a first-pitch fastball right off his leg.
Things didn’t get better three batters later when Marcell Ozuna cranked one deep to left field, scoring Christian Yelich and putting the Braves down three runs before they ever came to the plate. For a team that stood 5-17 when trailing after an inning, things didn’t look that great to start.
Then we started getting weird.
In the Braves second inning, four straight singles from Nick Markakis, Jeff Francoeur, Tyler Flowers and Erick Aybar pushed a run across, while Teheran’s bases-loaded double-play ball still brought Francoeur around to score.
The Braves luck in the challenge department finally turned in the fifth. The Marlins thought they’d turned a double play on an Ender Inciarte grounder, but replay deemed that Inciarte beat it out at first.
That became huge when the next batter, the well-traveled Chase d’Arnaud clubbed his first big-league home run to put the Braves in front. True to custom, d’Arnaud got the silent treatment from the dugout upon his return:
(Small bit of bad news from that sequence—Inciarte, who had stolen second right before d’Arnaud’s big fly, appeared to bang his knee into the bag and would exit the game at the beginning of the next frame. Fortunately, it sounds like he’s day-to-day.)
In the seventh, Miami mounted a two-out rally that gave the Fish another lead. Former Brave Martin Prado collected his third hit of the night, and was doubled home by Yelich to tie the game.
That was the 11th hit of the night surrendered by Teheran in one of his most subpar outings of 2016—he was replaced by Chris Withrow after striking out six and surrendering five earned over 6.2 innings. The final run was attributed to Teheran after Withrow surrendered a single to Ozuna—part of a four-hit night for the Miami centerfielder—that drove in Yelich and put the Fish back in front.
Fast-forwarding to the eighth inning, new Marlin Fernando Rodney made his Miami debut and was greeted by Freddie Freeman, Adonis Garcia and Markakis. Pretty easy to say why Miami made that move after he dispatched the heart of the Atlanta order with ease—strikeout, first-pitch groundout and a Brandon Snyder groundout after Markakis walked.
Then we got weird again.
Tyler Flowers launched a total rocket to lead off the ninth inning, at least 15 rows deep into the left field stands, to tie it up. Aybar (we’ve been talking about Aybar in positive tones a lot lately) singled, advanced to second on a perfect Emilio Bonifacio bunt and moved to third when an imploding A.J. Ramos spun one in the dirt that got away from J.T. Realmuto. The winning run was 90 feet away.
After Jace Peterson struck out on a pitch in the dirt, d’Arnaud had a chance to be the hero and made solid contact on Ramos’ 0-1 offering but lined it right to Yelich. More #FREEBASEBALL was on.
The Braves loaded the bases after a lead-off two-base error, but the first inning of extras yielded nothing for either side. When Casey Kelly marched out of the bullpen to start the 11th, it meant that you—yes, YOU—could be Atlanta’s Saturday starter.
Things got weirder.
After Kelly put two aboard in the 12th thanks to a Miguel Rojas single and a Realmuto walk, the Marlins got to the pitcher’s spot in the order and realized they were out of pinch-hitters.
No problem. Star hurler Jose Fernandez wandered out of the dugout and slapped a two-run double into the left-center gap, putting the visitors ahead for good and driving a stake into Atlanta’s collective heart.
It was just one of those typical nights when tomorrow's likely starter gets the loss and accounts for the final out at the plate.
— Mark Bowman (@mlbbowman) July 2, 2016
Next: Soldier at Fort Bragg ready for Sunday
Fernandez will be back to torture Atlanta Saturday, this time in his regular role as No. 1 starter. Lucas Harrell will allegedly be Atlanta’s vict…erm… starter. First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. (ET) if that’s your thing.