Pitching duel ends in extra-innings letdown

Looking for the series win, the Braves turned to Charlie Morton, facing Tanner Bibee and the Guardians.

Morton started with two strikeouts in the first that bookended the inning, which contained a single and a HBP with no runs allowed. The Braves offense couldn’t muster a baserunner in their own first frame. Charlie walked another in the second, but got an assist from d’Arnaud in a strike-em-out throw-em-out doubleplay as Florial tried to steal second. D’arnaud threw again from his knees, which is something he has done a number of times this season.

The pitchers continued to cruise through three, as an Ozuna double amounted to nothing in the second, Charlie worked around a single, and Bibee struck out the side in the third. Morton worked his first 1-2-3 inning of the evening in the fourth and an Ozzie hustle double presented a big threat, leading off the home half. Unfortunately, an Austin Riley strikeout and a brutal tootblan from Albies and Olson turned a pickle for Ozzie into a doubleplay to end the inning.

Charlie spun another perfect inning in the fifth, aided by a little luck on a well-hit liner caught by a leaping Ozzie. Bibee matched Morton again, keeping the Braves off the bases with two strikeouts.

Andres Gimenez got on base with a one out single in the sixth and Matt Olson made a nice play on a soft grounder from Jose Ramirez to get Gimenez out at second instead of Ramirez at first. Naylor then roped a line drive to right field and Ronald made a great play to cut it off and get a strong throw in to Olson quickly, who made a great relay throw to Travis for the tag on Ramirez trying to score from first. That previous play from Olson to get Gimenez at second and the combined defensive effort were tremendous to save a run and hold the game even at 0.

The pitchers’ duel resumed as Bibee continued to have his A+ stuff in the bottom sixth and Ronald barreled a ball to dead center that was caught for the third out, Morton silenced the Guardians again in the seventh, and Bibee matched him once again to keep the game scoreless through seven innings.

Joe Jimenez got the eighth for Atlanta, ending Morton’s evening with 7.0 scoreless innings pitched, 6 Ks, 1 BB, and 1 HBP. Jimenez fell victim to a lead-off swinging bunt single and a one out intentional bunt single, after the Braves couldn’t quite turn two on a ground ball for the first out. The Guardians got another swinging bunt single to load the bases with one out in absolutely brutal luck for Jimenez and Atlanta. Three singles all hit less than 32 MPH, none of which left the infield grass. Ramirez got an RBI sacrifice ground ball that was a split second away from being an inning-ending double-play, continuing the excruciating inning for Atlanta. That was a play that might have ended the inning with a quicker transition from glove to throw from the second-baseman. Ramirez attempted to steal second with runners on the corners and Travis threw the ball to Orlando way ahead of Ramirez, but a tremendous slide on the outside of the base avoided the tag, allowing Kwan to score the second run of the game. Probably not the best decision for d’Arnaud to throw down to second in that scenario, but he did make a very good throw, to his credit. Jimenez got Naylor to pop up for the third out. What you see below is an unbelievably unfortunate way to allow two runs.

The Guardians finally pulled Bibee, in good news for Atlanta and Ozuna greeted Gaddis out of the bullpen with a leadoff double down the third baseline. Michael Harris snuck a ball through the right side and set up runners on the corners with one out for the back of the lineup. Travis d’Arnaud delivered a ground-rule double right on the left field chalk that almost certainly would have scored Harris had it stayed in play. Luke Williams came in to pinch-run for Travis at second with Kelenic due up. Kelenic blooped in a fortunate single to score Harris, tying the game, and Tuiasosopo made an extremely ill-advised decision to send Williams home, where he was thrown out, but did allow Kelenic to advance to second. Ronald grounded out to end the eighth inning tied at 2.

Raisel Iglesias got the ninth for Atlanta and walked a batter but faced the minimum, aided by an inning-ending doubleplay. Emmanuel Clase got the ninth for the Guardians and was a few feet away from giving up a leadoff single to Ozzie and then a home run to Austin (on a batted ball that would have been a homer in 13 parks), but saw both turn into outs before inducing a groundout to end the inning.

Dylan Lee took the ball for the 10th and masterfully kept the runner on second in a perfect inning, giving a huge walk-off opportunity to the middle of the Braves’ order starting with Marcell Ozuna. The Guardians walked Ozuna to face Arcia to start the inning. Orlando led off the inning with a single to lead the bases as the slower Olson had to hold up at third. Harris hit a swinging bunt and the pitcher Barlow made a nice play to get the out at home, but Michael’s speed kept the bases loaded. Chadwick Tromp was the next batter up for Atlanta, after Travis was pinch-run for in the eighth. Tromp struck out, placing the game in the hands of Jarred Kelenic, who promptly grounded out to send us on to the 11th.

Lee was the pitcher again for Atlanta and got a groundout to start the inning but allowed a double down the right field line to score one run and move the intentionally walked Ramirez to third. A sac fly scored Ramirez for the second out and Lee struck out Florial to hold the game at 4-2 with the top of the Atlanta order coming up. The Braves went down in order, as the Guardians won and evened the series.

That brutal sequence in the eighth looms large knowing that result, but the Braves still got some really strong pitching performances on the night, just couldn’t muster the offense to back it up and overcome the bad luck.

Join us for the rubber match at 1:35 PM ET tomorrow.