The Atlanta Braves could not mount a ninth inning rally again on Tuesday and were defeated by the Washington Nationals by a final score of 8-5.
With the loss, it obviously means that the Wednesday contest between the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals will be the rubber match of the first series of the year.
It was much of the same problems it has been all year for the Atlanta Braves as it was quite frankly, terrible pitching and no timely hits. Much like Monday night, the Atlanta Braves left eleven men on base and only went 3-13 with runners in scoring position.
The Atlanta Braves were able to equate 14 hits in the ballgame, but that does not much help when your pitchers give up 17, and issues 4 free passes during the game. Those numbers will not work against hardly any team at this level.
Atlanta Braves starter Josh Tomlin went four innings tonight, and did not have his best stuff but still left the game with the Atlanta Braves holding a 5-2 lead after Freddie Freeman hit a 2 run home run in the bottom of the fourth.
It was the fifth inning where Atlanta pitchers let the wheels come off. Really, one of the first times so far in 2020 you can say it was the bullpen that let us down and not the starting staff.
It was Tyler Matzek on this night who just did not have the crisp stuff to allow him to continue his nice come back story so far in 2020. He only was able to get 1 out but was tagged for four runs and 6 hits. With the outing his ERA for the year now sits right under 5.
The Atlanta Braves defense did no favors for the club either as they committed 3 errors, including one by Marcell Ozuna, who at this point should only be playing the field in a big emergency.
The turning point in this game was certainly in the bottom of the fifth though when Victor Robles robbed Austin Riley of a two run home run on a magnificent play. It certainly seemed to zap the Atlanta Braves of any energy then and there.
So the Atlanta Braves were not able to pull out a victory on the night Cristian Pache was called up. He did not enter the game, but I would be surprised if he was not in the lineup for Wednesday night’s game.
Speaking of the Wednesday night game, the same two teams will do battle tomorrow as they both will go for the series win.
Hopefully the results are closer to Monday night than tonight.