The Braves came into Saturday looking for a series win behind Owen Murphy, facing MacKenzie Gore and the Rangers.
Murphy went up 1-2 on Joc Pederson to start the game, but gave up a solo homer to the Braves’ legend. Drake Baldwin led off the bottom of the frame with an opposite field single, but the Braves were unable to capitalize on the leadoff baserunner. Murphy walked two in the second, though one of those walks could have been a strikeout with a timely ABS challenge, but ultimately escaped the frame unscathed
with a double-play. Dubon led off the second with a line drive single and Eli White capitalized with a big homer, giving Atlanta a 2-1 lead.
Austin followed White with a single, Bart walked, Baldwin brought home Austin with a single, and Ozzie brought home another run with a sac fly, as the Braves left the second with a solid 4-1 lead in support of the rookie starter.
A miscommunication between Dubon and Harris in the outfield (that seemed mostly Dubon’s fault) turned an easy out into a baserunner to lead off the third for Texas. Three line drive singles (and a pop-out) later and it was a 4-3 game with two runners on. Jake Burger snuck another single through to load the bases, and this was big trouble still with only one out. Murphy got a big strikeout for the second out and Walt Weiss took that opportunity to pull him for Dylan Dodd, who got a flyout to end the inning. It was an alright outing overall for Murphy, in my view. He certainly wasn’t spectacular, but got a bit unlucky in a few ways that likely shortened his outing. I’d give him another shot next turn of the rotation. Regardless, the game marched on at 4-3, Braves.
Michael Harris launched a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the third, pulling a run back for Atlanta.
Dylan Dodd and JR Ritchie did their job, maintaining the 5-3 lead into the sixth. Tyler Kinley took the ball in the sixth and allowed a very unlucky (.80 xBA) leadoff double that landed about 6 inches in front of a diving Mauricio Dubon’s glove. Evan Carter made the most of it, with a game-tying two run homer. Kinley got a flyout and walked the ninth hitter, before Weiss brought in Dylan Lee to face Pederson and the top of the Texas lineup. Lee got soft ground balls from Pederson and Langford, though Langford’s converted to an infield single, before a moderately hard single loaded the bases for Nimmo. Nimmo hit a dribbler through a hole in the infield for two runs, giving Texas a two-run lead. That is some exceptionally bad BABIP for the Braves’ bullpen.
Gore got the first two outs of the home sixth before hitting Bart and Jarvis consecutively to put two on with two outs for Baldwin, as the Rangers went to the bullpen. Drake lined out to end the threat. A walk, a swinging-bunt single and a hit batsman (with a sac bunt in between) loaded the bases for the Rangers in the seventh, with Danny Young on the mound, but a double-play ended the threat. Michael Harris singled with two outs in the seventh and Dubon brought him home with a double. Eli White had a chance to tie the game up by bringing Dubon around, but flied out to left-center, ending the frame with a 7-6 Rangers lead. Didier Fuentes got the eighth and after striking out Langford, got a soft chopper, fielded it bare-handed, but was unable to convert the out with Olson, on a play that was unclear who was truly at fault. Fuentes fanned Nimmo for the second out and got a nice running catch from Harris to end the inning.
Jim Jarvis singled with two outs in the eighth, but Drake Baldwin lined out to end the inning, leaving the Braves one more inning to try to tie or win the game. Raisel Iglesias got the call out of the pen for the ninth and did his job with a 1-2-3 frame. The offense was unable to do anything in the ninth, however, cementing a huge bummer of a loss.
Join us again tomorrow at 1:35 PM ET, as the Braves go for the series win.
