The Atlanta Braves put their season-best nine-game winning streak on the line Tuesday evening in Cleveland. Kolby Allard took to the mound for his second start of the season after an impressive outing against the Twins last week.
Things started off well for Allard as he was able to get through the first two innings without a lot of action. The first inning featured an impressive web gem from Austin Riley to end the inning and Michael Harris II in the second inning with a web gem of his own for the first out of the inning.
The Guardians struck first in the third inning as Ahmed Rosario lined a two-run double to center field. Cleveland would take a 2-0 lead early on but it wouldn't last as the Braves tied things up in the top of the fifth thanks to an Ozzie Albies two-run home run that just stayed foul down the right field line.
The fifth inning continued with an Austin Riley single and a walk to Matt Olson to give Atlanta runners on first and second with one out. d'Arnaud promptly singled to score Riley from second and break the tie as the Braves now led 3-2.
Ozuna would line out for the second out of the inning and that brought former Guardian, Eddie Rosario to the plate. Rosario doubled to left field to extend the Braves lead to 4-2 in the fifth. Arcia would strike out swinging to end the inning.
Shane Bieber was pretty good against the Braves early on but just couldn't hone in his command. Bieber walked five batters during Tuesday night's contest and only lasted 4.2 innings allowing 4 runs on 6 hits and just 4 strikeouts.
Cleveland started fighting back in the bottom of the sixth inning as Ahmed Rosario once again drove in another run. This time he homered to left center field and brought the Guardians within one run. We headed into the late innings with a one-run lead.
Kolby Allard left in the sixth inning and was relieved by Collin McHugh who allowed one hit and struck out one batter in his outing. Kirby Yates checked in for the seventh inning and unfortunately, could not hold the lead. Yates allowed an RBI single to Steven Kwan that tied things up at 4 apiece.
Kwan then stole second base and scored on an RBI single from Ahmed Rosario. Rosario tormented the Braves all night as he accounted for 4 of Cleveland's runs on Tuesday and went 3-for-5. Atlanta would escape the inning without allowing any more damage.
Atlanta headed into the top of the ninth trailing by one run. First up was Ozzie Albies who found himself in a 0-2 count. Albies then deposited the next pitch he saw from Emmanuel Clase into the right-field seats for his second homer of the night. This tied things at 5-5 and gave the Braves a chance to come back and win the game.
Nick Anderson checked into the game and threw a 1-2-3 bottom of the ninth sending us to extra innings for some bonus baseball on the 4th of July. Sam Hilliard checked in for Travis d'Arnaud as the runner at second base to start the inning.
Marcel Ozuna hit a high towering fly ball to the outfield but it wasn't enough for a homer. It did, however, advance the runner to third base. Hilliard would then try to score on a fly ball to center fielder Myles Straw who threw out the runner for a double play. I'm not sure why Hilliard would go on a fly ball that wasn't super deep but the decision was made and it didn't work out.
Raisel Iglesias came in for the bottom of the tenth and Atlanta decided to intentionally walk Jose Ramirez to start the inning and set up a potential double play. Things worked out for the Braves as the Guardians attempted to bunt the ball and it went straight to Iglesias on the first pitch.
Iglesias immediately turned and threw to second base for one out and Arcia made the throw to Albies who was covering first base for the second out of the inning. The runner from second did advance to third base on the play, however.
The Braves intentionally walked Andres Gimenez to bring David Fry to the plate. Fry hit the second pitch he saw and it was over the head of Eddie Rosario to walk things off for the Guardians and end Atlanta's nine-game win streak.
It was an unfortunate loss and the silver lining is Iglesias didn't throw many pitches and the Braves are still very much in first place in the NL East. It's always tough to see a winning streak end but the team will go out tomorrow looking to win the series and start a new streak.