Atlanta Braves: Takeaways from Tuesday’s Tough Loss to the Royals
By Steven Teal
The Atlanta Braves fell short of a comeback against the struggling Kansas City Royals on Tuesday evening at SunTrust Park.
After battling out a tough series with the Washington Nationals, the Atlanta Braves looked to take advantage of a struggling Kansas City ball club.
The Royals feature a few standout players but for the most part, they aren’t anything special to talk about.
However, as many of you may realize, those are the teams that you should be the most concerned about. The Braves were one of those teams not so long ago.
This game featured two incredible pitching performances on both sides. Dallas Keuchel and Danny Duffy combined for 23 strikeouts across 6 innings of work apiece. This game was unfortunately left to be decided by the bullpens.
Keuchel exited the game with a 2-1 deficit but was pulled off the hook thanks to Freddie Freeman. Freeman tied the game up after driving in Ronald Acuna Jr. from third base on a single to center field.
That RBI single was the first time the Atlanta Braves offense found success with a runner in scoring position during Tuesday nights game.
After the Braves were able to tie the game, the bullpen came in and struggled mightily.
Anthony Swarzak, who has been such an incredible pick up for Atlanta, failed to retire a batter in the 8th inning – his first truly poor outing as a Brave. He allowed a leadoff homer to Lucas Duda and then a walk and a single which would end his night prematurely.
The wheels fell off once Wes Parsons was called into the game. He is known for his ability to get the ball on the ground and the Braves badly needed a ground ball.
Unfortunately, Parsons would walk the first two batters faced to extend Kansas City’s lead to 2 runs. With the bases still loaded, he would also hit a batter in the inning to allow a third run to score.
Josh Tomlin came into the game and finally stopped the bleeding. The Braves did their best to rally back in the bottom of the 9th inning but it was too little, too late as the Royals took Game 1 by a score of 5-3.
Let’s discuss a few highlights from Tuesday’s loss.