The Atlanta Braves just keep rolling no matter what month. The offense put up six first inning runs and Charlie Morton had a strong outing in today’s 7-0 win for the Braves.
Old friend Jorge Soler got Miami’s first hit with a hard hit double in the first inning. The electric Jazz Chisholm Jr. came up with a chance to put Miami on the board first, but Charlie was having no part of that as he struck him out on three pitches.
Even after a historic month from the Braves, I find myself shocked on a nightly basis with this team. Baseball is not supposed to look this easy. And the first batters of this ballgame just made it look absolutely effortless.
So after the expected back to back home runs from Ronald and Ozzie, rookie pitcher Eury Perez at least settled in a bit. And by settled in I mean he kept the ball in the park. Unfortunately for Perez none of the first six batters in the Braves lineup made an out and it was a 5-0 lead for Atlanta before anyone could blink.
Picking up where we left off! 🔙2️⃣🔙 Edition.@ronaldacunajr24 🤝 @ozzie pic.twitter.com/yGVjwPCCnw
— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) July 1, 2023
The struggling Orlando Arcia came up with a RISP and provided another loud double that gave the Braves a 6-0 lead and chased Perez from the game after recording just one out. The phenom hard-throwing rookie that had 1.34 ERA and 21 inning scoreless streak coming into today’s game and yet was only able to record one out. Sometimes you just catch a hot team, and there isn’t any team close too as hot as this Braves squad right now.
After the absolute chaos that was the first inning the baseball game seemed to settle in a bit. Charlie Morton had it working early and George Soriano came in and righted the ship for the Marlins and as a result we got through the next two innings scoreless.
In the top of the fourth inning Charlie Morton made a bit of history when he struck out Bryan De La Cruz to reach 1,800 career strikeouts. Morton became the 13th active pitcher to reach this mark, and better yet he kept the Braves lead at 6-0 through four.
Soriano was finally lifted to start the fifth after 3.2 innings of relief without allowing a hit. Huascar Brazoban then worked a scoreless fifth inning to keep things rolling for the Miami bullpen.
Charlie Morton came out for the sixth and allowed a single to Luis Arraez to lead off. Morton got two outs but his day came to an end after surrendering a single to Jazz on his 106th pitch. Kirby Yates was the first Atlanta reliever to follow and walked the first batter he faced. Thankfully, after a couple deep inhale/exhales from Kirby (yes that’s a Nintendo reference) he escaped a bases loaded jam with a gracious strike three call on Yuli Gurriel.
Nick Anderson and Ben Heller combined to work scoreless seventh and eighth innings. Finally, after a well deserved break the Braves offense woke back up in the bottom of the eighth when Riley and Olson hit back to back doubles to lead off and tack on a run. Nothing else came from the inning and the Braves carried a 7-0 lead into the final inning.
Joe Jimenez came on for the ninth inning and continued to churn out some quality work. He polished off another win for the Braves, this time of the shutout variety.