Atlanta Braves sweep doubleheader with Marlins as youth shines
Looking to keep hold of the first place spot in the National League East, the Braves looked to take advantage of a rebuilding Marlins team Monday.
The Atlanta Braves started a four-game set with the Miami Marlins Monday with a day-night doubleheader. This entire schedule with its compressed sequence of games always provides the opportunity for pitching disasters that could feed on the team for multiple days in a row, so truly nothing can be taken for granted along the way.
Nothing like that happened on Monday.
Game 1 – The Newest of the New
Touki Toussaint made his big league debut in the early game and overcame an early run allowed – with help from a red-hot offense – to pick up his first win in a 9-1 route of the fish.
Speaking of early runs, Ronald Acuña homered in his third consecutive game in the early contest with a leadoff blast to put the Braves up 1-0.
After a scoreless first, Toussaint gave up a run in the second inning when an Isaac Galloway double drove in Derek Dietrich. That would be all the scoring the Marlins would manage in the game.
Johan Camargo drove in Nick Markakis in the fourth to give Atlanta a 2-1 lead, followed by a Freddie Freeman sac fly in the fifth that brought home Acuna to put the Braves up 3-1.
Toussaint would be pinch hit for in the bottom of the sixth, after allowing only one run on two hits, walking two and striking out four batters.
Braves batters solidified Toussaint’s chances of his first big league win in the sixth, picking up five more runs off the bats of Charlie Culberson, Acuña and Ozzie Albies to go up 8-1.
For good measure, Ozzie Albies picked up another RBI in the eighth inning to put his team up 9-1, which would be the final.
Acuña finished game one having gone 2-for-3 with three runs and three RBI, also drawing a pair of walks. Albies and Camargo also had multi-hit games with two each.
It was an @MLB debut to remember for @Braves No. 7 prospect Touki Toussaint, who allowed just 1 run on 2 hits over 6 frames: https://t.co/Xynqgk2NQy pic.twitter.com/ziH6NgdiTX
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 13, 2018
From the pen, Jesse Biddle went a scoreless inning, despite losing the Riddle/Biddle matchup (JT Riddle drew a walk).
Rookie reliever Chad Sobotka not only threw two scoreless inning of his own, but recorded his first major league hit in the game (note that he’s only had 4 professional plate appearances!).