Things didn’t look good after the top of the first but the Atlanta Braves offense was more than capable of coming back, which they did.
The Atlanta Braves defeated the Philadelphia Phillies 12-6 and moved them back to third place.
Let’s take a look at the three biggest takeaways for the Independence Day win.
3. We may have watched Mike Soroka’s best outing
At first glance, you’re probably thinking, “huh?” But a mark of a great pitcher to me is when they can battle and still give the team a chance to win even when they don’t have good stuff.
That was exactly the case for Mike Soroka on Thursday.
The Phillies lit him up in the first inning for 4 runs, and at one point it was questionable if Soroka was even going to finish up 1 inning.
After that first inning, however, Soroka settled down a bit and allowed the offense to storm back and give him a 9-4 lead before a little more trouble took Soroka out of the game with only 1 out left to get in the fifth where he would have qualified for his 10th win.
The All-Star pitcher certainly wasn’t on his game Thursday evening but he found a way to keep his team in it and limit the damage to the 4 first inning runs.
All Braves pitchers know that the offense is more than capable of completing comebacks and can put a ton of runs up on the board.
That is why I think this may have been Soroka’s best start yet in a weird way. He not only made it through that first inning, but he almost made it through 5.
He kept the bullpen mostly in good standing entering this weekend series with the Marlins.
Bottom line is, even on nights when he doesn’t have his typical stuff, Mike Soroka impresses.