The Braves are Smylying after a big offensive night to beat the Brewers

The Atlanta Braves offense with a big night, combined with another good start from Drew Smyly leads to a win over the Brewers.

The Atlanta Braves offense has been showing signs of life as of late. It was only a matter of time before they put together a good offensive showing.

Drew Smyly also put together another good outing on the mound. Smyly went six innings, giving up four hits, one walk, one run, and striking out four.

While he only struck out four, he did induce twelve swings and misses in six innings. All in all, Smyly has looked pretty solid over his last two starts. As the fifth starter, the Braves do not need seven to eight scoreless innings every five days, just give the team five to six innings, and keep them in the ball game.

The offense came to play as they would grab the lead in the third inning thanks to a two-run single from Austin Riley. The Braves offense gave Brewers starter Adrian Houser fits early as he was chased after only three innings, surrendering two hits, five walks, and two runs.

While that is not a lot of damage, they really made Houser work as he threw sixty-five total pitches. The high pitch count, and the Braves being patient, chased him early.

The Braves would add on a massive home run from Marcell Ozuna that hit the scoreboard in center field. The Big Bear would upset some Brewers fans with a selfie while rounding third base.

While Brewers fans were still upset with Ozuna, Ozzie Albies would follow it up with a home run of his own. This would be the first time the Braves have went back-to-back this year which is somewhat shocking considering that the Braves actually lead the league in home runs.

I think we should appreciate the beautiful right-handed swing from Albies.

The Braves would make it 5-1 thanks to a safety squeeze from Dansby Swanson in the seventh inning.

The Braves would add their sixth and final run in the eighth inning after a leadoff triple from William Contreras and a lawn dart from Ender Inciarte. The Inciarte single came off the bat at 62.7 MPH and had an xBA of .010 so it was nice to see the Braves get some luck.

It was not an easy victory; however, the bullpen chose to make it a little interesting. Jacob Webb would allow two men on base in the seventh but would thankfully get bailed out by Sean Newcomb who got the final out of the inning.

Tyler Matzek had an interesting eight inning, as he allowed runners on first and third, in part, due to great baserunning from Lorenzo Cain.

Matzek would escape the inning and get us to the ninth where the excitement would begin.

Josh Tomlin would give up back-to-back home runs to Luis Urias and Manny Pina. Tomlin would get Daniel Vogelbach to pop up before Brian Snitker would bring in Will Smith to get the final two outs.

Notes

Drew Smyly’s last two starts have been solid. He has pitched twelve innings and only allowed one run. Hopefully, he is figuring it out and can become a reliable arm at the back of the rotation.

The Dansby Swanson sacrifice squeeze was interesting to me. I think it may say a lot about the confidence they have in the shortstop currently. It is odd to ask the five-hole hitter to lay down a bunt with runners at the corners with one out.

I know someone will scream “that’s just baseball” at me, but I would rather have one of my “top guys” swinging away most of the time in that scenario. However, it did bring home a run, so it was successful in this instance.

Take two

Time for the Braves to get a streak going. I think this team is really close to putting it all together and going on a run like we know they can.

We have said that before this season though, so it may be best to temper our expectations as the Braves have been really streaky to start the 2021 campaign.

Hopefully, they grab game two and put together a lengthy streak this time to inspire some confidence in a fan base that is getting restless.

The Braves will send out Ian Anderson to take on Brett Anderson. It is the battle of Anderson and hopefully the Braves come ready to battle!