Atlanta Braves getting on a new roll, sweep Pirates

In games surrounding the All-Star break, these Pittsburgh Pirates won 11 straight games, making this look like a tough series for Atlanta.  However…

The game scores read almost like soccer match results:  1-0, 6-1, 2-1.  The bats aren’t really producing right now for the Atlanta Braves, but nearly every other aspect of their effort is showing up – pitching and defense.  That’s how this club has just finished off the Bucs – for the year – with a sweep of this 3-game series.

Truly, Atlanta didn’t have much on offense tonight again:  another lead-off homer by Ronald Acuna and a bases-loaded sacrifice fly from Freddie Freeman… that was it tonight, though Julio Teheran was on a roll for 7 solid innings.

Teheran gave up only 1 walk and 2 hits while striking out 5 on the night.  The Pirate run – tying the game at the time – came in the 5th inning after 4 perfect frames.

Brad Brach got through the 8th in good shape – only 1 walk.  Johnny Venters gave up a scary hit – barely missing a home run high off the Clemente wall in right field – but nonetheless finished off the Pirates afterwards.

A.J. Minter is getting some time off to heal up a bit.  Tonight’s work by this trio was good enough so that the Braves didn’t miss him.

So yeah, I have to post this.  Enjoy:

That was #20 on the year, putting Acuña in rare company.

Nice.

Future Scoping

The Marlins are next on the slate… 4 more games.  Happily, I would expect these teams to stick to baseball since Jose Urena is not-so-coincidentally taking his suspension.  Good work, Marlins – we’ll speak favorably of you in the future.

After that, the schedule and a rain-out makeup game produces the odd situation of having the braves face 4 different teams over 5 consecutive games (6 days):

• Marlins (Aug 26)
• Rays (Aug 28-29)
• Cubs (30th)
• Pirates (31st+)

This road trip wraps after the Miami series.

Scoreboard Watching

• PHILLIES BLEW IT on a umpire-reviewed walk-off home run by Ryan Zimmerman.  They are now 3 games behind the Braves and will face Max Scherzer tomorrow.  The Phils are currently the fouth team in the Wild Card race… that’s a bad position to be in.
• CARDINALS are still on the West Coast against the Dodgers.  They would host a Wild Card game if the playoffs began today (lead Milwaukee by 1 percentage point).
• BREWERS beat Cincy today.  They lead Philly by a 1/2 game.
• The ROCKIES are leading the Padres 5-1 in the 6th inning (in Denver).  They are now a 1/2 game ahead of Philly, pending the outcome of their game.
• The DODGERS have lost 7 of their last 10 coming into tonight and trail the Cardinals by 3 games.

Scheduled starters on Thursday in Miami are Sean Newcomb and Elieser Hernandez.