Is this what fun feels like?
The scoring started quickly. In the top of the first, Yordan Alvarez ripped a double to rightbefore Christian Walker singled that way to put the Houston Astros up 1-0. Matt Olson, not content to have another first baseman upstage him, slammed a majestic shot to right field to tie it up a half-inning later.
Am inning later, Atlanta took their first lead off the game. Ha-seong Kim hit a dinky dribbler down the first base line, and Framber Valdez decided to try to pick it up
with his glove for some reason and let Kim get to first with an infield single. Marcell Ozuna walked, and Michael Harris hit a sacrifice fly that’s not sacrifice fly to move Kim to third. Sandy Leon hit a grounder that probably could have been turned into a double play, but Mauricio Dubon booted it to allow a run to score.
In the top of the fourth, Jake Meyers singled with one out and promptly stole second. Yainer Diaz singled to bring him around, and Joey Wentz wouldn’t last a whole lot longer.
Wentz made it 4 innings, throwing 93 pitches while striking out 5 and walking 1. In general, I thought he looked pretty good stuff-wise, but it seemed to always take him a bit to finally put batters away. The most notable … change was his use of the change-up. Having thrown it around 1% of the time coming into the game, Wentz threw it 14 times. He only got one whiff on it, but tinkering with that might’ve been a reason he wasn’t terribly efficient. At this point of the season, it’s a valuable exercise to work on developing some pitches, and he should throw it more often in his final starts.
Opposing Wentz was Valdez, who didn’t have a great day himself. He was also out of the game after 4 innings, but he did pitch into the fifth, probably wishing he hadn’t. The lefty walked the top of the order before Ozzie Albies singled with the bases loaded, and Kim delivered the final “blow” with his own RBI single, giving the Braves a 5-2 lead. In true 2025 Braves fashion, old “friend” Enyel de los Santos struck out three batters with an infield single sandwiched in there to end any further damage.
Hunter Stratton did a solid job as the bulk inning guy, with his main line mistake being to Cam Smith who launched one over the fence to left-center to bring the score to 5-3.
Ozzie continued his lefty-mashing a half-inning later. Jurickson Profar walked to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning before Olson and Acuña got out. Albies then hit one to the left-center gap that Meyers made a rather feeble attempt at, getting Profar all the way around the bases to re-extend the lead back to three.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Astros tried a little more Braves trolling by bringing in another old friend in Craig Kimbrel. The Braves got the last laugh after a single by Ozuna and a stolen base from Eli White (who pinch ran) led to *checks notes* SANDY LEON hitting a two-run bomb to put the game out of reach.
The Braves bullpen finished things off rather quietly, and the home team avoided a sweep.
Now they head to Washington for a four-game set against the somehow lowlier Nationals, including a double-header on Tuesday.
