Austin Riley, Adam Duvall both homer but Gwinnett drops game 1

Wednesday night was Game 1 of the International League semifinals — Atlanta Braves affiliate, Gwinnett, took on the Columbus Redbirds. Let’s look at what happened.

The Atlanta Braves Triple-A club, the Gwinnett Stripers, dropped their series-opener versus the Columbus Redbirds on Wednesday night, 5-4, though the Stipers’ first postseason game didn’t lack in excitement.

The recap

Bryse Wilson was originally slated to start the game, but was recalled to the majors on Tuesday, so Gwinnett manager Damon Berryhill went with the team’s ERA leader, lefty Tucker Davidson. However, on a scorching September night, Davidson struggled.

The lefty needed 84 pitches to get through 3.2 innings, as he labored through his taxing outing.

Columbus pushed across 3 runs in the opening inning and Davidson needed over 30 pitches to complete the frame.

Despite the early deficit, Gwinnett did manage a spectacular play on defense in the 1st inning, when outfielder Adam Duvall caught a flyball at the base of the left field wall and relayed a throw to Andres Blanco at second base, in which he proceeded to gun down a Columbus base runner attempting to tag up and score.

It was a great effort by Blanco, as well as a nice tag by catcher JR Murphy. But still, the Stripers were down 3-0.

Gwinnett immediately answered back in their half of the 1st, as Austin Riley and Adam Duvall hit back-to-back home runs. Riley’s homer came with a runner on base, trimming the deficit to just one, and Duvall’s dinger tied the game at three apiece.

Unfortunately, after Davidson settled down in the 2nd inning, he ran into more trouble in the third, allowing two more runs. And after getting the first two outs in the 4th, his day was done. Overall, his line wasn’t ideal: 3.2 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 3 BB. 3 K.

The Stripers managed to push across one more run in the 6th inning, an RBI single off the bat of JR Murphy; but Gwinnett ended up going away quietly as Columbus’ bullpen pieced together the final 3.2 innings, allowing just one hit while striking out six.

A few takeaways

Good and bad defense: Gwinnett had several outstanding plays on defense, including the 7-4-2 double-play I mentioned above, plus a couple of excellent infield plays by shortstop Jack Lopez and second baseman Andres Blanco. Pedro Florimon also made an all-out diving catch on a bunt attempt.

However, the attempted pick-off at third base was a costly defensive blunder by Lopez, and a play that should’ve resulted in an out.

Gwinnett wasn’t alone, though; Columbus committed 2 errors themselves (both by their first baseman), one which came during Gwinnett’s three-run 1st inning.

Riley and Duvall must keep it up: Yeah, Riley and Duvall played well, but Gwinnett still lost; though, it will be very critical that those two keep up the good work if Gwinnett has any chance in this series.

The Redbirds had three players in their lineup hit over 20 home runs during the 2019 season (another finished with 19), so this team likes to score runs. Davidson’s early struggles put Gwinnett in a bind on Wednesday, but that shouldn’t happen in every game of this series.

Riley and Duvall must keep the run-production going, and hopefully the starting pitching will fall in line as well.

Domination from the bullpen: I touched on Columbus’ bullpen above, but Gwinnett’s relievers were also outstanding on Wednesday. The Stripers ‘pen worked 5.1 innings and allowed just 3 hits combined while striking out two and walking one.

Ben Rowen, Philip Pfeifer, and Grant Dayton pieced together a game that easily could’ve gotten out of hand with Davidson leaving in the middle of the 4th inning.

No Pache? If you hadn’t noticed, there wasn’t any talk of Cristian Pache above. Pache wasn’t in the Stripers’ starting lineup, though he did pinch-run for Murphy in the 9th.

I’m not sure why Pache wasn’t in the lineup. I haven’t seen any details regarding his absence, but hopefully he’ll be there for Game 2.

Other news

On Tuesday, Gwinnett announced winners of three prestigious end-of-the-year awards, plus the IL Player of the Week from Week 22.

Duvall took home the 2019 International League MVP award, as he slashed .266/.364/.602 and slugged 32 home runs in 101 games with the Stripers.

Wilson won 2019’s Most Outstanding Pitcher honors. Wilson was added to the Atlanta Braves roster this week after going 10-7 and pitching to a 3.42 ERA in 21 starts for Gwinnett.

Also, infielder and minor league veteran, Sean Kazmar Jr., won the 2019 Fan Favorite Award. Kazmar slashed .270/.333/.430 with 12 home runs in 108 games.

Up next

Gwinnett and Columbus will continue their series on Thursday, with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. EST. Columbus will deploy lefty Logan Allen.

Allen spent some time in the majors in 2019 (6.18 ERA) and was 5-4 with a 5.85 ERA with the Redbirds during the regular season.

The Atlanta Braves optioned Wilson to Gwinnett on Wednesday just in time for him to oppose Allen, as the Stripers look to even the series. Righty Kyle Wright is slated to start Game 3 on Friday.