Braves rally late to beat Astros in extra innings

The Atlanta Braves took on the Houston Astros this afternoon in the series finale

The first inning looked like the Braves may get something going when Ronald Acuña had a fly ball single that dropped in front of the center fielder and then got to second off of a balk from J.P. France on an attempted steal. However, France was able to retire the next three batters with no damage done.

Fried struggled in the first inning and was fortunate to only give up one run. Altuve hit the ball hard (98.2 MPH) to Riley which resulted in an out, but then Yordan Alvarez hit one over the left field fence for a 1-0 lead. Interestingly, Minute Maid Park is the only park in which the hit would have been a home run. Fried then walked Bregman. Yainer Diaz hit a single that landed between Acuña and Guillorme after Fried got Tucker to line out. With runners on the corners Fried was able to end the inning on a fly ball.

It did not take long for the Braves to fight back as Marcell Ozuna hit a no doubter over the left field wall to tie the game and extend his hitting streak to sixteen games. Coincidentally, Ozuna’s hit would have been a HR in all thirty ballparks. Arcia followed it up with a double off the wall, but the Braves could not capitalize and he was stranded at second base.

Fried did walk Abreu in the second inning, but he did look much sharper inducing two ground balls with one resulting in a double play.

In the third inning the Braves were able to get two runners on when Acuña reached on the error and Matt Olson walked, but the Braves were not able to plate a run during the innings. Ozuna broke his third bat of the series to end the top of the inning.

In Fried’s third inning he started off with his third walk of the game and it was on four pitches to Altuve. He was able induce yet another groundball that resulted in a double play. Fried then walked his fourth hitter of the game when he walked Bregman, but then struck out the Astro’s cleanup hitter, Kyle Tucker, to end the inning.

In the opt of the fourth, we finally got what we have all been waiting for, Acuña’s first big fly of the season which went over the wall in dead center.

The Astros answered back after three straight singles with the third one being an RBI from Bregman scoring Altuve. Kyle Tucker then doubled to plate another and the Astros took a 3-2 lead. Fried was able to end the rally when struck out Diaz and forced a groundball from Jeremy Peña.

Jesse Chavez entered the game in the sixth to relieve Max Fried. Fried ended his outing pitching 5.0 innings, walking four to only two strikeouts, and allowing three earned runs.

Chavez gave up a HR to Mauricio Dubón, who was the first hitter he faced, which put the Braves down 2-4. However, Chavez settled down and was able to finish his inning with relative ease other than a single and stolen base by Altuve.

The game was relatively quite until the top of the eighth inning when the Braves rallied back. Michael Harris hit a single off of Ryan Pressly, followed by a ground-rule double from Austin Riley. Jose Abreu botched a grounder from Matt Olson and everyone was safe on the error. Michael Harris crossed the plate cutting the Astros’ lead to one.

Ozuna struck out, but Orlando Arcia was able to get the sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Austin Riley to tie the game 4-4.

d’Arnaud walked and then after a wild pitch there were now on second and third. Kelenic struck out for the second time, ending the eighth inning surge from Atlanta.

After an excellent 1.1 innings and 0.2 innings from Joe Jiménez and A.J. Minter respectively, they were able to make it through the first three of the order for the Astros lineup and make it to extra innings.

In the top of the tenth, with Harris starting on second Riley struck out. Matt Olson was then intentionally walked to face Marcell Ozuna to try and force a double play. Ozuna lined out to give the Braves two outs. With it looking like the Braves may leave a seventh runner in scoring position with two outs, Orlando Arcia came through with a single, scoring Harris.

Travis d’Arnaud struck out to end the top of the tenth. The Braves were up 5-4. The Braves ended the game 1-14 with RISP.

In the bottom of the tenth Raisel Iglesias came in to try and close out the game. He walked the first batter her saw in Kyle Tucker. Diaz hit a fly ball that moved the runner to third, but Iglesias was able to induce the Astros’ third GIDP to end the game.

The Braves successfully swept the Houston Astros in Minute Maid Park. Next, the Braves will travel back home and face the reigning World Series champion Texas Rangers on Friday.