The Atlanta Braves hoped to complete the sweep of the Cubs but fell short due to continued pitching woes.
Thursday wasn’t as fun of a game for the Atlanta Braves as the Cubs came out swinging to avoid being swept in a 4-game series.
Chicago played spoiler and left Atlanta with a chip on their shoulder as they won the series finale 9-3.
Pitching wasn’t ideal from the Braves early on and it didn’t really get much better throughout the course of the game.
Bryse Wilson got the start on just 3-days rest and it showed. Wilson wasn’t as sharp as he could have been.
He was only able to complete 3 innings of work allowing 4-runs on 7 hits with 2 walks and 1 strikeout.
It didn’t get much better from that point on either, unfortunately.
The Atlanta bullpen combined to allow 5 runs, 9 hits, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts.
Josh Tomlin and Nate Jones each allowed 2 runs, Jesse Biddle allowed 1 run, Grant Dayton had the cleanest inning of them all with no runs allowed.
Nate Jones had the roughest outing as he struggled with command the entire time he was on the mound. He walked two batters that would score the two runs he allowed.
In his last seven appearances, Jones has allowed 3 earned runs and walked 6 batters with a 4.50 ERA. His numbers aren’t all that bad when you look into them but the walks are a bit of an issue.
It’s no secret that the bullpen is an issue right now and I hope they can turn things around soon.
The selfie celebration is SO good
— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) April 30, 2021
Baseball is the best! https://t.co/2V342pqjj9
There were a few bright spots during the game as the Braves offense continues to trend in the right direction.
Marcel Ozuna launched a no-doubt 479 foot homer, Acuña drove in a run on a single to right field, and Austin Riley and Ozzie Albies continued their recent success at the plate.
Riley has been trending in the right direction for a couple of weeks now and has quietly gotten his average up to .301 and that is incredibly encouraging.
He went 2 for 3 on Thursday with a walk and RBI single to start the Braves scoring.
Riley has hit safely in four straight, with seven hits in his last 14 at bats.
— Kevin McAlpin (@KevinMcAlpin) April 30, 2021
Over his last ten games, Riley is hitting .464 (13x28) with six walks, seven strikeouts, five extra base hits and six RBI.#Braves @680TheFan https://t.co/GtMH2KAfhR
This is what a lot of Braves fans had hoped to see from Riley this season and I hope this continues to be a trend for him.
I hope the Atlanta front office does something to address the concerns that we’ve had with the bullpen recently. The Braves staff allowed 16 hits on Thursday and that cannot be a trend that continues well into the season.
The offense is slowly starting to come around to what we expected it to be and I’m very glad to see that.
The Braves also expect to get back Max Fried and Sean Newcomb soon and that should help the team out a bit.
Atlanta will face Toronto next and I have hope that it will be an exciting series.
Both teams feature incredible young talent so it should be a fun atmosphere.