Braves’ Nine Game Winning Streak Snapped After 5-1 Loss to Yankees

The Atlanta Braves unfortunately had their nine game winning streak snapped following a 5-1 loss to the New York Yankees. 

All good things may come to an end…

The Atlanta Braves ran into the New York Yankees, who also shared a nine game winning streak, which happened to be the first time two teams have been on this much of a hot streak since 1901.

Going into this game, the Braves certainly looked like every aspect of the team was clicking, which made this series a must watch!

Pitching

Huascar Ynoa would make his second start since his return from the injured list tonight. His first start, which was last week against the Marlins ended with him posting a line of 5.1 IP, allowing 3 hits, 0 runs, and 1 BB while collecting 4 strikeouts.

Tonight, he was not facing a struggling Marlins lineup. Instead, he would face a strong, hot-hitting Yankees lineup.

The total line for Ynoa was not too bad as he posted 6.0 IP, allowing 4 hits, 3 runs, and 1 walk, while tallying 9 strikeouts. Unfortunately, a few mistakes to a man named Giancarlo Stanton cost Ynoa a clean sheet, as all three runs he allowed came off of Stanton’s bat with a solo homerun in the 2nd inning and a two-run double in the 6th.

AJ Minter would enter in the 7th and pitch a clean inning, tallying 2 strikeouts. Minter would continue his recent streak of clean appearances, which continues to look promising.

Edgar Santana would enter in the 8th and after securing the second out of the inning, things took a turn for the worst. Santana would load the bases and then get pulled. Santana would finish with a line 0.2 IP, 1 hit, 2 runs, 2 walks.

Jesse Chavez would enter the game to get the final out of the inning and he’d do so, but not before allowing a two-run single to Gary Sanchez, making it 5-1 Yanks. Chavez would go back out in the 9th and pitch a clean inning, finishing his line with 1.1 IP, 1 hit, 1 walk, and 2 strikeouts.

Overall, the pitching staff performed how I expected them to perform. For the most part, they were solid, but you’re not going to luck out of little mistakes against good teams. The Yankees are a good team and they take advantage of every single thing they can offensively, tonight proving just that.

Offense

This would be a tough night for the Braves offense, which has had its fair share of absolute dominance during this hot streak.

Within this nine game winning streak, the Braves have hit 20 homeruns, while posting a +33 run differential.

Tonight… the story was a bit different.

Dansby Swanson got the Braves on the board relatively early as his homerun in the 2nd tied the game at 1. This would be Swanson’s 25th homerun of the season, which continues to be more and more impressive.

Yes, I was one that thought Swanson needed more than a few games off to rediscover what had gone wrong… I can admit my faulty thinking.

Other than Swanson’s solo homer in the 2nd, the Braves offense really struggled to get anything going. There would only be four other hits, spread out on the night: Ozzie Albies, Adam Duvall, Jorge Soler singles, and an Austin Riley double.

Five hits isn’t bad for one game… the bad part is not piecing them together. Very unfortunate.

The Braves would strikeout a total of eight times tonight, which isn’t tremendously awful, but when no one can get anything going at the plate or string multiple hits together, those strikeouts stand out a whole lot more than if the offense managed to put up four or five runs as well.

Reflection

Yes, the Braves winning streak has been extremely impressive and they took care of teams that they should be taking care of, but they have faced less than impressive pitching staffs. Tonight, they faced a good pitching staff that came in and got the job done when they needed to.

I by no means think this is something to worry about, it was just something that could have been expected from a playoff contending team like the Yankees after facing the teams the Braves have faced of late.

The Braves have a chance to start a new winning streak tomorrow, so let’s get it going guys!