The Atlanta Braves and Smylying through a painful loss

The Atlanta Braves did not have a lot of fun on Friday night as Drew Smyly struggled, causing the Braves to lose big to the Blue Jays.

It was not a fun night for the Atlanta Braves. In fact, we probably will not spend a lot of time on this review.

Drew Smyly pitched four innings, gave up seven hits, four walks, five earned runs, and only struck out three. That is not what the Braves want from a guy who they paid eleven million this offseason.

He has had issues with the long ball this season, already giving up nine home runs.

Robbie Ray was impressive, going six and two thirds for the home team, only allowing five hits, no walks, two earned runs, and five strikeouts.

It was a long night for the Bravos, we are just power through this and recap some of the scoring.

Scoring

• Bo Bichette hit a massive two run home run to center field in the third inning, after George Springer had reached on a catcher’s interference. It was a middle-middle cookie and Bichette is too good to miss those.
• In the fourth inning, Alejandro Kirk homered to left-center field scoring Lourdes Guirrel Jr as well. Kirk would not be finished.
• The fifth inning would see more of the same from the Toronto offense. Randal Grichuk homered to left field. Later in the inning, Kirk would hit another home run to centerfield, bringing home Marcus Semien as well.
• In the sixth inning, when it seemed like it could not get any worse, Teoscar Hernández would hit a three-run blast to center field. Bo Bichette and Vlad Guerrero Jr would also score.
• In the seventh inning, Marcell Ozuna would double before being brought home with a blast to center from Ozzie Albies. It made the score 10-2, but Ozuna has looked like he may be heating up. Albies continues to be impressive at the plate after the slow start. The expected stats on Albies looked like they were right about a breakout coming.
• The Blue Jays would respond in the seventh inning, scoring two runs. One came off a Sean Newcomb wild pitch, and the other from a Vlad Jr. RBI single.
• The Braves offense would score three runs in the eight, thanks to RBI singles from Freddie Freeman and Marcell Ozuna.
• The Blue Jays would add the final run of the night in the eighth inning thanks to another home run, this one from Guirrel Jr.

Atlanta Braves Notes

The Braves pitching staff gave up six home runs on Friday night. That is not going to win a lot of games.

Newcomb returned from the IL tonight. It was a rough outing for the big left-hander, but maybe that can be attributed to some rust. Newk can been solid for the Braves out of the bullpen early this year, hopefully he can figure it out again.

The Braves offense is still showing more signs of life after the slow start. I know a 13-5 loss stings, but at least there were some positives from the offense.

Even though the Braves fell to 12-14 on the year, they are still only one game out of first in the NL East. Grab another win this weekend and they are guaranteed to finish with a winning week. Thankfully, this only counts as one loss.

That’s all!

It was a tough night, but thankfully it is over. Time to move on and win the next one!

It looks like the Blue Jays may be going with a bullpen game in game two of the series. The Braves will be running out Charlie Morton who has been solid this season for the Braves.

I know it was a bad night, but if they find a way to win the last two games of the series, they will be back to .500 and it is only May. It is early and I think the rest of the division may regret not putting more distance between them and the Braves.