This Braves road trip couldn’t have started much worse, with the team facing a 5-0 deficit in the first inning.
It ended, though, like so many games have this season. With Atlanta celebrating a victory.
The Braves rallied from a 6-0 second-inning deficit for an 8-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies in the opener of a nine-game road trip Friday night in Denver, securing their 12th comeback victory of the season.
The Braves (23-10) got a run back on Matt Olson’s 10th homer in the fourth inning and another
on Jonah Heim’s RBI groundout in the seventh.
The real damage, though, was done in the eighth, when Atlanta loaded the bases with one out before Mauricio Dubon promptly unloaded them with a three-run triple down the right-field line. Austin Riley — who had a two-hit night — tied the game in the next at-bat with a sacrifice fly down the right-field line.
After a scoreless eighth from Didier Fuentes, a leadoff walk in the Braves ninth put a runner on for pinch hitter Michael Harris II, who is still producing despite being limited with a sore quad, lofting a go-ahead two-run homer to right with an assist from the thin Denver air.
Robert Suarez worked a scoreless ninth for his first save, preserving Fuentes’ bad night.
Ronald Acuña Jr. and Dubon each had two hits as well for the Braves.
It’s tied for the franchise’s largest-ever comeback at Colorado. And given how it started, it’s that much more impressive.
Atlanta was in a 3-0 hole before Grant Holmes recorded an out in the bottom of the first. On the play where the Braves finally recorded an out, the Rockies tacked on two more runs thanks to a Matt Olson throwing error.
When the dust had finally settled after a first inning which saw the Rockies bring 10 batters to the plate, the Braves were in a 5-0 hole.
Colorado made that 6-0 when Mickey Moniak led off the second with a moonshot to right.
But for as bad as Holmes was early, he saved his outing, relatively speaking, over his final four innings. After a 38-pitch first inning, he needed just 49 pitches to get through the second through fifth.
After the Moniak homer, Holmes allowed just one more hit, one more walk and no strikeouts over his last four innings. At the time, it seemed that was just going to be a good thing for the preservation of the bullpen on the fourth day of a stretch which will see the Braves play on nine straight days.
But as the offense woke up, it wound up being critical that Holmes settled in to keep Atlanta’s dangerous offense in striking distance.
Anthony Molina, called up the major league roster on Friday, followed with two no-hit innings where he allowed just one walk.
After the Rockies had five hits and six runs in the opening one-plus inning, they managed just three hits the rest of the way.
Mind you, it wasn’t a particularly great game for the Braves offense either, which started slow and finished 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
But this team has shown time and time early again this season that it doesn’t need to play its best game to win.
That was certainly the case Friday night at Coors Field.
