The Atlanta Braves went for their eighth straight win on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and they managed it comfortably with a second late night, west coast game in a row. The Braves took the lead early on and never gave it up as they now have guaranteed themselves a series win in San Diego.
Kevin Pillar got the scoring going in the second inning with a ground rule double that likely kept the Braves from scoring a second run in the inning as well. The offensive woes with RISP continued afterwards and it remained 1-0. In the fourth inning, Sean Murphy obliterated a solo homer 420 ft. to left-center field to make it 2-0 where the game stayed for four innings.
Ozzie Albies scared the warning track earlier in the matchup and clearly mixed in some bench press mid game. From the left side, Albies cranked a three run homer to straight center to open up a huge lead for Atlanta. It continued a slow burn for Ozzie as he is starting to show good form as of late. The Padres scraped a run across in the eighth off of a couple of hits, but they never really made it much of a game from an offensive standpoint. Matt Olson added insult to injury in the ninth as he calmly sent a ball 440 ft. into orbit and put the game completely out of reach at 8-1.
The late offense nearly overshadowed what was the real story of the night. Spencer Strider prevented runs early on but struggled with a high pitch count through three and four innings. He rallied over his last two innings to complete what resulted in a dominant outing. Strider finished with six shutout frames and nine strikeouts while allowing only one hit. The early inning laboring seems to be a pattern this season, but he clearly has a knack for finding a groove through the middle innings. It was a very impressive outing considering the stout Padres lineup and hopefully it becomes the norm for the young Braves stud. Jesse Chavez, Nick Anderson, and Kirby Yates combined to give up one run in the last three, uneventful innings on the defensive side.
The Braves look to go for the series sweep (and tenth straight win) in the Wednesday matinee with first pitch at 4:10 est.