Atlanta Braves: Bullpen falters in late innings as Braves fall short in Game 1 of NLDS

Shaky Times

The 3rd-5th innings proved to be a bit tougher on Keuchel as he had a lot traffic on the bases. Fortunately for Dallas, he was able to get the ball on the ground and was bailed out by two fantastic 5-3 double plays from Josh Donaldson.

The Cardinals scored their first run in the 5th inning similarly to how Atlanta did. Dexter Fowler grounded out to second base but the quick feet of Harrison Bader were able to help him score on the play.

However, Tommy Edman doubled off of Keuchel in the next at-bat and that was it for Dallas Keuchel.

Keuchel left the game after 4.2 innings allowing 1 earned run on 5 hits with 3 walks and 0 strikeouts. He was bailed out of the inning by Darren O’Day who induced a lineout off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt.

Atlanta broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning thanks to a hard-hit ball off the bat of Dansby Swanson that was booted by St. Louis third baseman Tommy Edman.  On the carom, shortstop Paul DeJong then made a bad throw attempting to get an out at second base.

This allowed Josh Donaldson and Nick Markakis to score with ease and put the Braves up 3-1.  Yeah – that was 2 runs scoring on a ball that never left the infield.

Unfortunately, the offense sort of fell flat after that point, though the bullpen did a decent job of holding the Cardinals at bay… for a while.  Shane Greene and Max Fried each pitched 1 inning and combined to allow just 1 hit and strikeout 2 batters.

Chris Martin entered the game in the 8th inning as it looked like Atlanta was going to cruise through the final two innings of the game. However, Martin would exit the game before throwing a single pitch as he felt tightness in his left oblique.