The Braves were going for a series win on Saturday, in a matchup of back-of-the-rotation starters.
As one might expect, given the pitchers involved, there were baserunners scattered throughout the early innings. The Orioles struck first in the third, as Jim Jarvis committed an error and didn’t make another play on a hard line drive, allowing a run to score. Bryce Elder’s first fly ball of the game allowed a second Baltimore run in the fifth on a Gunnar Henderson homer. It was a very unusual start
for Elder as he struck out 8 batters and walked 4, but ultimately completed 5.0 innings with only the 1 earned run on the homer, which the Braves will take any day. Matt Olson correctly challenged a strike 3 call, turning it into ball 4, and ended up scoring on a Michael Harris double for the Braves’ first run, making that challenge pretty huge.
Victor Mederos was first out of the bullpen in the sixth and looked like he had completed 2.0 scoreless innings when he induced a pop-up to shortstop from Pete Alonso, but Jim Jarvis again dropped the ball, landing runners on the corners still with two outs for Gunnar Henderson. Mederos struck out Henderson and was fired up leaving the game, as he had struck out 3 Orioles over 2.0 scoreless innings and continues to look like a nice bullpen find. His outing became even bigger as lefty Ozzie cranked a homer over the right field wall to lead off the eighth inning, tying the ballgame up at 2 runs.
That was all the offense was able to do in the eighth, so Didier Fuentes took over and cruised his way through the eighth with two strikeouts and a soft lineout. After a quiet frame from the bottom of Atlanta’s lineup vs the back of Baltimore’s bullpen, Fuentes was sent back out to hopefully shut down the ninth and send the game to extra innings. Jackson Holliday doubled with one out to create a threat and moved to third on a deep flyout for the second out. A soft single from Beavers in the leadoff spot ended the game, handing the Orioles a 3-2 victory.
Join us tomorrow for the rubber-match in Camden at 1:35 PM ET.
