Atlanta Braves drop series opener to Boston Red Sox

The Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox kicked off a two-game set in Atlanta on Tuesday night.

The Atlanta Braves came into Tuesday night’s game feeling pretty good.  After taking two of three from the red hot Milwaukee Brewers over the weekend the Braves welcomed in a struggling Boston Red Sox team.

Boston came into Atlanta losers of five straight games and with a record of 10-19, the Red Sox found themselves sitting in last place in the AL East, already 10.5 games behind the New York Yankees.

Runs figured to be at a premium on Tuesday night as the Braves sent Kyle Wright to the mound and Boston countered with Garrett Whitlock.  Both Wright and Whitlock entered the game with ERA’s under 2.00 in the 2022 campaign.

But as it turns out runs weren’t that hard to come by, especially for the visiting Red Sox.

After breezing through the first inning, Wright ran into trouble in the second.

After retiring the lead-off hitter, the next five Red Sox hitters went single, single, walk, single, walk, grabbing a 2-0 lead in the process.  After getting Keke Hernandez to hit into a force-out, Rafael Devers ambushed a first-pitch fastball and smoked it high off the wall in the Braves bullpen for a grand slam, putting Boston up 6-0.

The Braves cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third.  Their three-run frame was capped off by a two-run home run by Travis d’Arnaud, and the Braves seemed to have some momentum back in their dugout heading into the fourth.

The Braves battled back to 6-4, but an ugly ninth inning blew the game open, and the Red Sox snapped their five-game losing streak at the expense of the Atlanta Braves with a 9-4 win.

The Atlanta Braves dropped the opening game of a two-game set to the Boston Red Sox, 9-4.

This was an ugly loss to a struggling Red Sox squad for the Atlanta Braves tonight.

There was a defensive decision made by Austin Riley in the bottom of the second inning that may have completely changed the trajectory of this game.

With the bases loaded and one out, Keke Hernandez hit a ground ball to Riley at third.  Rather than try to turn the double play to possibly get the Braves and Kyle Wright out of the inning, Riley chose to throw home and cut off a potential third run.

This led to Rafael Devers being allowed to bat in the inning and on the very next pitch, Devers crushed a grand slam, giving Boston a 6-0 lead, one they never relinquished.

There is no guarantee that the Braves would have turned the double play, and most would argue that Riley did the right thing by taking the sure out and cutting off the run at home, keeping the lead, if only momentarily, at 2-0.

And to be fair if Riley would have tried to get the double play and the Braves failed, allowing a run to score and the Braves went on to lose by one, we would be second-guessing that decision as well.

As frustrating as tonight’s loss was, the great thing about baseball is that there is almost always another game the next day.

The Braves and Red Sox will conclude their series tomorrow as the Braves try to salvage a split of the series.

Nathan Eovaldi and Ian Anderson are scheduled to pitch the series finale, with first pitch scheduled for 7:20 pm EST.