There was actually reason to hope that the Atlanta Braves could at least hang with the Seattle Mariners and make things tough for them as they continue their march to the Postseason. After all, the Braves had performed pretty solidly at home and the Mariners were essentially limping into town after having struggled up to this point during this road trip (and having struggled on the road in general this season). Yeah, one team has real postseason aspirations and the other one is playing out the string
but it wasn’t delusional to thing that this could’ve been a competitive series.
Instead, we got what we got! From the seventh inning on Saturday through the entire game on Sunday, this was all Mariners and the Braves were forced to grin and bear it as the Mariners proceeded to take out their road frustrations on Atlanta over the course of two games. Beware, those who are brave enough to enter!
Friday, September 5
Braves 4, Mariners 1
Chris Sale’s first start on the mound in Cobb County after having returned from the 60-Day IL was a successful one, as Sale continued to pick up exactly where he had left off before he suffered his unfortunate injury. In fact, Sale’s line against the Mariners was strikingly similar to how he fared in Philadelphia — last week, he went six innings and only gave up one run on three hits and one walk with nine strikeouts. Against the Mariners, Sale pitched into the seventh inning and once again surrendered a just a lonely run on four hits, no walks and another nine strikeouts. Sale was stellar and the Braves needed every last out that he got while he was on the mound, since the Braves were also only able to push one run past Logan Gilbert.
However, the game eventually turned on its head in the bottom of the eighth, as we got one of those vintage eight-inning rallies that used to be a fixture for the Braves over the past few seasons. Jurickson Profar led it off with a double and then Matt Olson delivered a huge hit to put the Braves ahead by a run. Ozzie Albies hit a long ball that eluded Dominic Canzone’s glove in right field and bounced off the wall, allowing Albies to make it to third for a triple and Matt Olson to go first-to-home. Drake Baldwin capped off the rally against Carlos Vargas by poking one into right field for an RBI single to make it 4-1. Raisel Iglesias sat down the M’s in order in the bottom of the ninth and that was that!
Saturday, September 6
Mariners 10, Braves 2
It had to happen eventually but it was still jarring to see: Hurston Waldrep finally gave up more than one run in a single outing of his. Unfortunately, the two runs that Waldrep gave up in the first inning were a sign of things to come from the Mariners. Julio Rodríguez hit his first moonshot of the night to put the Mariners up 2-0 in this one. At least for Waldrep, he was able to do his job in keeping Seattle quiet once that ball left the yard and he also did so long enough for the Braves to tie the game at two runs apiece after six innings.
Matt Olson hit a big homer of his own in the fourth inning to put the Braves on the board and then Michael Harris II’s sacrifice fly tied it up at two.
Then the money innings rolled around and Atlanta’s bullpen got absolutely bamboozled. Daysbel Hernández gave up Julio Rodríguez’s second homer of the night that put Seattle in front again and then Eugenio Suárez haunted the Braves once again as he hit his fifth homer of the year against Atlanta in order to give Seattle some breathing room. Hayden Harris entered the game after that and promptly gave up a double and an RBI single to make it a 6-2 game. Speed Demon Josh Naylor crushed a three-run homer off of John Brebbia in the eighth inning to make it 9-2 and then Cal Raleigh continued to bolster his AL MVP campaign with a solo homer in the ninth to bring us to our eventual final score of 10-2. This was an ugly one, folks!
Sunday, September 7
Mariners 18, Braves 2
To let you know how badly this one went for the Braves, they gave up a touchdown and extra point before the NFL games kicked off at 1:00 p.m. ET. Once the Mariners were done scoring, they had outscored 13 NFL teams on the day so far with their 18 runs — and all of the NFL games were in the second half once Vidal Bruján (who, is not a pitcher) finally retired the side in the top of the ninth. Outside of that, this was brutal for Atlanta. Joey Wentz gave up eight runs, Dylan Dodd gave up three, Rolddy Muñoz surrendered five more and then Vidal Bruján’s two ninth inning runs completed the disasterclass for Atlanta’s pitching staff in this one.
Eugenio Suárez added another two homers to his shockingly-high career home run tally against the Braves and then Jorge Polanco, Josh Naylor and Cal Raleigh continued to pad their stats as Atlanta’s pitching provided little-to-no resistance in this one.
All the Braves could muster up in response was a solo homer from Jurickson Profar in the fourth inning and a sacrifice fly from Michael Harris II once the game was all-but-over in the ninth inning. Once the smoke cleared from the destruction, the Braves had become the first team to drop a home series against the Mariners since the All-Star break and had also suffered what was easily their worst two-game stretch of the season so far.
Atlanta’s eighth-inning breakout during the series opener was really the only thing that kept this from being a complete and utter massacre on the part of the Mariners. Those final two games were just dreadful to watch, as the Braves looked completely overmatched by a Seattle squad that had previously been mediocre-to-bad on the road. Now granted, Seattle’s offense (under the tutelage of new hitting coach Kevin Seitzer; you may have heard of him) has been among the best in baseball so this wasn’t particularly shocking that they’d go off like this. Still, this was just a staggering beatdown — especially when you consider that the Braves had just gotten done playing the Cubs and Phillies pretty tough over the past week on the road.
So while this was a brutal, ugly and any other negative adjective that you could think of-type of series for the Braves, it’s hard to feel majorly disappointed since this has just been a season enveloped in disappointment for the Braves. At a certain point, you get numb to it while continuing to count the days until the season finally and mercifully comes to a close — or at least that’s just me. I can’t speak for the rest of y’all when it comes to your levels of masochism but I will say that if you watched all 27 innings of this series, you deserve a medal. Anyways, the series loss at least helped to consolidate Atlanta’s position in the Top 5 of the MLB Draft Lottery odds — even if the Marlins are threatening to “catch” the Braves after having lost five straight and the Twins are starting to “pull away” after having lost six straight. If that’s what you’re rooting for then this was a banner weekend adn you should rejoice in that. That’s all I got, though!
