The Atlanta Braves opened a week-long set of games vs. NL West foes with a Red-out Friday night at home. The jerseys still look great, but the results were less than ideal.
The Colorado Rockies started hitting as if they were back home in Denver… scoring more in this Atlanta Braves game than they did in the 2 games these squads played earlier in the month.
The final score was 8-4 in the favor of the visitors, though there were all kinds of ways that the Braves could have made things a lot closer.
Here’s 3 Tomahawk Takeaways from this… the team’s 3rd loss in the last 4 games.
3. It’s still a game of inches
Entering the 4th inning, Max Fried seemed to be cruising… 1 hit allowed, no runs allowed and a 1-0 lead. Two pitches later and the score was 2-1 Colorado.
The first pitch was a changeup thrown to Trevor Story. It’s an interesting question as to why Tyler Flowers requested this pitch: Fried’s fastball had been serving him well to that point.
But Story hit the pitch like he was expecting it… but he was nearly out on a spectacular catch attempt by Ronald Acuna Jr.
Unfortunately, Acuna was positioned very slightly askew of ideal and the ball failed to find the pocket of his glove… bouncing off leather and into the visitor’s bullpen.
Nolan Arenado then crushed something called a curve ball a couple of feet further into the same bullpen.
In the 7th inning, Josh Donaldson drilled a pitch to deep center field. Without intervention, it probably would have hit the top of the CF wall and perhaps be a home run.
Alas, Ian Desmond was able to do what Acuna could not:Â he caught the ball.
The combination of balls caught or not caught in that trade? 3 runs.
There were multiple other things:
- Josh Donaldson missing out on the handle for a couple of plays (extra runners that were involved in scoring plays later).
- Pitchers hit with balls ripped up the middle (a Rockies’ reliever made the play; the Braves’ reliever did not).
If all of these things had flipped to the Braves, then the outcome tonight would certainly have been in doubt… particularly with the finish Atlanta gave the fans in the 9th inning (homer, then 2 on with 2 outs before it ended).