The Atlanta Braves Escape with an 8-7 Win Against Chicago Cubs

The Atlanta Braves manage to score 8 runs in a strong showing by the offense, but still show that there are still cracks in the pitching “foundation” in win over the Chicago Cubs. 

Well… that sure was an ugly looking win, but a win is a win after all. The Atlanta Braves managed to get their bats back in Monday night’s win over the Chicago Cubs, scoring 8 runs.

Both Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson had homeruns (a three-run homerun and a solo homerun respectively). In my eyes, Freeman was due for a homerun, but seeing Swanson get a hold of one has me hoping he’s seeing the ball a little bit better and will be on his way to turning things around.

Unfortunately, Swanson is not the only Brave that needs to turn things around at the plate, i.e. Austin Riley, Travis d’Arnaud, Marcell Ozuna, and Ozzie Albies. I will note that it is a good sign that all four players managed to get hits in Monday night’s game with d’Arnaud tallying 2 on the night.

Regardless of anyone’s struggles, the Braves as a team tallied 8 runs on the night and that is a good sign after not putting up more than one hit in Sunday’s doubleheader.

Charlie Morton pitched 5.1 innings, giving up 4 hits, 5 ER, 3 BB, with 6 SO. Morton did manage to run into trouble a few times, but pitched somewhat well when it came to getting around that trouble… that was until Kris Bryant‘s grand slam.

To me, I did not think it was necessarily a bad pitch as much as it was a great at bat by Bryant. The problem lies in how things led up to that grand slam. Morton gave up a hit to the opposing pitcher, Zach Davies, then a single to Nico Hoerner, then eventually walked Anthony Rizzo to load the bases for Bryant, whose grand slam would tie the game at 4.

Morton would then run into trouble in the 5th walking the lead off batter then giving up a double that would lead to a sacrifice fly to tie the game at 5 all.

Overall, I didn’t feel like Morton was awful. He just got into a couple jams and was bested by Bryant in the absolute worst case scenario.

The glaring problem still lies with the bullpen.

Will Smith was pretty great tonight. In fact, AJ Minter was as well. But Tyler Matzek and Nate Jones still don’t have it in my opinion.

Matzek allowed a two-run homer in the 7th, causing the lead to dwindle to one run at 8-7, leading to Jones being called upon. Now yes, Jones didn’t give up a run or a hit, but he was being hit hard. Both Bryant and David Bote seemed to piece up that ball.

It’s still a struggle for me to watch Jones pitch. I become a nervous wreck.

Regardless, the Braves still got the win, but this bullpen still needs tightening up.

P.S. Chris Martin, please hurry back!