Atlanta Braves Even Up Series With Giants And Pull Within a Half Game Of Mets

The Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants hooked up for the middle game of their three-game set on Tuesday night at Oracle Park in San Francisco.

ICYMI: The Atlanta Braves headed into Tuesday night’s game in San Franciso as losers of three straight with two games remaining on this eight-game western road trip.

After winning the opening game of the series 3-2 last night, the Giants sent Jakob Junis to the mound while the Braves countered with Kyle Wright.

All eyes were on Kyle Wright heading into this start. On the one hand, the young Braves righty was trying to pick up his 18th win of the season, but on the other Wright was coming off a rough start against an offensively challenged Oakland Athletics team and had his scheduled start pushed back a day because of a tired arm.

The game got off to a rocky start for Wright who gave up a first-inning run and then had to escape further trouble in the bottom of the second by getting out of a bases-loaded jam.  While Wright limited the damage to one run through two innings, it took him fifty-one pitches to do so.

Much like last Tuesday in Oakland where the Atlanta offense gave Wright plenty of run support, the offense went to work early on this night as well.

The Braves tied the game up in the second inning and then put a three-spot on the board in the top of the third, highlighted by Dansby Swanson’s two-run homer, his 20th of the season.

Heading out for the bottom of the third inning with a three-run lead Kyle Wright settled down and looked more like the pitcher that Braves fans have seen all year.  Wright breezed through the next three and one-third innings, giving the Braves five-and-a-third total innings of one-run ball and putting his squad in a great position to even the series up at a game apiece.

The Braves bullpen would do their part to secure Wright’s eighteenth win, and the Braves celebrated a much-needed 5-1 victory… and yes, that included Kenley Jansen securing the save with a 10-pitch, 1-hit 9th inning.

The Atlanta Braves beat the San Francisco Giants 5-1 on Tuesday night to pull within one-half game of the division-leading New York Mets.

At least for one game, Kyle Wright was able to ease the minds of Braves Country about his arm issues.  There is no doubt that the Braves need Kyle Wright down the stretch and in the postseason, and tonight’s performance was a collective sigh of relief.

The way the use of Kyle Wright is managed down the stretch may end up being one of the keys to the Braves postseason success in 2022.

Vaughn Grissom got a well-earned night off on Tuesday as the rookie phenom has struggled at the plate on the most recent part of this road trip.  Ehire Adrianza got the start in his stead and made a great play on a rocket hit by Joey Bart to produce an inning-ending double play in the seventh.

Speaking of rookie phenoms, Michael Harris II continued his rookie of the year bid on Tuesday.  Harris picked up his 25th double in just his 95th game this season and had another multi-hit performance.

Matt Olson‘s struggles at the plate continued on Tuesday, as Olson struck out in his first three plate appearances of the game.  Olson is now hitting .113 with .419 OPS over his last 15 games, and Tuesday’s 0-4 performance did nothing to help build confidence in either Olson or Braves fans that the slump might be ending soon.

Brian Snitker continues to trust the ninth-inning save situations to Kenley Jansen, despite Jansen’s recent struggles.

A lot of Braves fans find this maddening but it was about a year ago at this time when most of Braves Country was calling for Will Smith to be removed from the closer’s role.  And we all remember how that turned out in the 2021 postseason.  Maybe Snit knows something that we don’t.

While the Braves were taking care of business on the west coast tonight, there was some news of interest back on the east coast as well:

• Ozzie Albies went 5-5 with a walk-off home run for Gwinnett on Tuesday as the Stripers beat the Durham Bulls.
• In New York, the Chicago Cubs beat Jacob deGrom and the Mets 4-1, as the Mets have now dropped three of their last five games against the Marlins and the Cubs and seemed determined to leave the door to the top of the NL East standings open for the Braves.

The Braves and Giants will wrap up their series on Wednesday afternoon when Charlie Morton and Carlos Rodon take the hill for their respective teams.  First pitch is scheduled for 3:45 pm EST.