Atlanta Braves Drop Heartbreaker to Diamondbacks

The Atlanta Braves looked to get back in the win column on Tuesday night as they played game two of a three-game set with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Atlanta Braves sent Charlie Morton to the mound hoping to even up the series with the Diamondbacks after dropping the opener to Arizona by a 6-2 score.  The Diamondbacks would counter with Humberto Castellanos, who was looking to pick up his fourth win of the year.

The bottom of the first was a tale of errant curveballs from Morton.  After getting ahead of the Arizona lead-off hitter, Daulton Varsho, 0-2, Morton would plunk him on the foot with an errant curve.  Three batters later, Christian Walker hammered a hanging curve into the left-field seats, and Morton and the Braves found themselves in an early two-run deficit after one inning.

The Braves got on the scoreboard with a single run in the third and then grabbed the lead in the top of the fourth when Matt Olson blasted his sixth homer of the year, a two-run shot, putting Atlanta up 3-2.

The Braves added on to their lead in the fifth when they loaded the bases without the benefit of a hit and then Matt Olson played the part of the offensive hero again by knocking a two-run double into left-center, scoring two more runs and extending the Braves lead to 5-2.

Michael Harris II’s first career RBI pushed the lead to four runs in the top of the sixth, but Morton ran into trouble in the bottom half and after giving up a walk and a double without recording an out, Morton was lifted in favor of A.J. Minter.

Minter allowed both inherited runners to score, cutting the Braves lead to 6-4, but Minter escaped further damage when Austin Riley made a slick barehanded play on a high chopper to strand a potential fifth Arizona run on third base and end the inning.

The Braves squandered a great chance to add on some insurance runs in the top of the eighth inning and the Diamondbacks shaved another run off the lead in the bottom half of the eighth, sending the game to the ninth with the Braves clinging to a 6-5 lead.

Arizona was able to produce a run in the bottom of the ninth off of Kenley Jansen and the game would head to extra innings all tied up at six.

The Braves hurt themselves on the basepaths and in the field in the tenth inning as Marcell Ozuna was thrown out at third with no one out in the top half of the inning and Adam Duvall made an ill-advised throw to the plate allowing the winning run to move into scoring position in the bottom half and the Diamondbacks capitalized on the Braves’ miscues by earning a walk-off, come from behind win.

The Arizona Diamondbacks came back from a four-run deficit to beat the Atlanta Braves, 8-7 in ten innings.

This was a tough loss for the Braves who entered the sixth inning with a 6-2 lead.  But the Braves failed to add on any insurance runs in the late innings and the Diamondbacks kept chipping away.

This game was one of the better hitting performances that the Braves had put together this season.  They had an excellent approach all night and scattered the ball over the park, highlighted by Matt Olson’s first-ever three extra-base hit game.

But in the end, the bullpen failed to hold serve and some questionable baserunning decisions in the late innings kept the Braves from evening up the series with Arizona.

The Braves wrapped up the final day of May with a 23-27 season record and find themselves 10.5 games behind the first-place New York Mets.  It goes without saying that a much better performance will be needed in June from Atlanta as this Mets team seems to be a much different team than in years past.

The Braves will attempt to salvage the final game of the series tomorrow when they send Kyle Wright to the mound.  Wright will be opposed by Madison Bumgarner with first pitch scheduled at 3:40 EST.