Spencer Strider was hoping to build on his last two starts with another one, building some confidence in his new iteration.
The first inning couple innings achieved that goal, as he struck out three and worked around a few singles to keep things scoreless, as Mize kept the Braves’ offense quiet on the other side. The third inning brought the first run of the game and it was an Atlanta run, as they got fairly lucky to get three singles, with Brujan scoring on an Acuna bloop single. Spencer worked around two
walks with no outs in the third to keep the Tigers off the scoreboard, recording two strikeouts to close the frame. Ha-Seong Kim gave Atlanta another run with a nice solo homer in the fourth.
Matt Olson drew a one out walk in the fifth and Drake Baldwin hit an RBI triple with two outs to bring him home, giving another boost to that NL ROY race. Strider worked around another two soft singles in the fifth to complete a scoreless inning with a strikeout of Torkelson. That completed a strong outing from Strider, who generated 14 whiffs, 5 on his curveball in 5.0 scoreless innings with 6 strikeouts and 3 walks. The Braves’ offense was a bit unlucky in the sixth, as the umpires seemingly blew a call at second that should have resulted in the bases being loaded and instead left runners on the corners before a walk that would have brought a run home and a brutal called third strike on Ozuna.
Tyler Kinley worked around a single and double to hold the Tigers scoreless in the eighth and the Braves came back with some insurance in the ninth, as Acuna and Baldwin walked before Albies brought Ronald home with a double. Kim brought home Baldwin with a sac fly and Harris brought home Albies with a double to the wall, giving the Braves a 6-0 lead going to the bottom of the ninth.
That insurance became a bigger deal when Dylan Dodd allowed a walk, double, single, and sac fly to start the ninth, giving the Tigers two runs with one out, as Snitker turned to Raisel Iglesias. Iggy wasted no time, striking out Torkelson and getting a flyout to end the game.
That’s eight straight victories for Atlanta here at the end of the season. They’ll be back on Monday against the Nationals in Atlanta, as they have six games left in the season.
