Thanks to a huge fifth inning, the Atlanta Braves built up a healthy lead to back up an uneven start from Kyle Wright. From there, it was mostly smooth sailing as the Braves won this half of their doubleheader with the Twins to complete the sweep by the score of 9-4. A hat tip to Joshua Fuentes who hit two homers in this one.
Kyle Wright took the mound in this Braves' game today and the results were...mixed. On the one hand, his fastball looked live and his breaking stuff seemed to be much crisper. However, he also gave up a pair of home runs through his first four innings of work. Definitely a step forward from his first spring training start that did not go particularly well, but it is worth nothing that Wright only went 57 pitches, so how the Braves handle just how far he is stretched out should be interesting.
Fortunately for Wright and the Braves, the offense came ready for battle. A pair of solo home runs from Joshua Fuentes and Yolmer Sanchez along with a RBI double from the surprisingly hot Marcell Ozuna allowed the Braves to keep pace and have the game tied through the first four innings.
In the fifth, after Kevin Pillar led the inning off with a single and Ehire Adrianza doubled to give the Braves runners on second and third, a sac fly from Travis d'Arnaud would give the Braves the lead. The Braves would be far from done in the fifth, though, as Sam Hilliard's RBI single would bring one run, Ignacio "Nacho" Alvarez's double would make it a 6-3 game. Back to back homers from Cade Bunnell and Joshua Fuentes (his second of the day) after that made it 9-3 and it felt like the rout was on.
The later innings saw us firmly settle into the "give the minor leaguers some time" portion of the game. Very little of consequence happened beyond a minor meltdown in the ninth inning that saw the Twins manage to scrape together a run.
Upcoming Braves Schedule
The Braves next spring training game is tomorrow against the Pirates at 1:05 PM EST. By this time next week, we are going to have baseball games that count and this pleases us.