CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The Atlanta Braves remain undefeated in rubber matches this season.
Neither starter – Cal Quantrill for the Guardians and Michael Soroka for the Braves – were able to survive the fifth inning but it was Atlanta who made the most of their scoring opportunities in an 8-1 win.
Sean Murphy collected four hits, including a home run, while seven of nine batters for Atlanta collected at least two hits and three Braves hit homers in the rout.
Here’s our Final 9 from Wednesday night.
1. The first inning for Quantrill did not go well. Atlanta sent eight men to the plate, five collected hits, four scored and he threw 34 pitches. “I mean it was tough right from the get-go,” Guardians manager Terry Francona said. “They came out and were aggressive. Couple balls, found holes and some balls were hit hard. A lot of hits, a lot of base runners.” Matt Olson drove home the first run of the night with an RBI single followed by another from Sean Murphy as Atlanta collected four consecutive hits. Eddie Rosario finished the inning off with a two-out, two-run double to the gap in right center, and that was essentially the game.
2. Quantrill allowed five runs on 11 hits with three strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings to suffer his sixth loss of the season and fall to 2-6. “I thought I threw the ball pretty well, honestly,” Quantrill said. “You’ve got to find a way to get those balls hit at people or make them miss it.”
3. The Guardians put two men aboard in each of the first five innings but had nothing to show for it. In all, 11 men were left stranded Wednesday night and they went 0-11 with runners in scoring position. “First, three, four innings I think we stranded eight and some of those were with less than two outs,” Francona said. “It’d been nice to crawl back in there a little bit and see if we could make it different, but we didn’t.”
4. Braves catcher Sean Murphy delivered a Quantrill offering to the home run porch in the top of the third with two out for a 5-0 Atlanta lead, his 15the home run of the season. “I mean, pretty much one through nine, they all have the ability to homer but that's kind of the game we play now,” Quantrill said. “Big League baseball’s gone that way for five, 10 years now and they're pretty exceptional at it, but I thought for the most part we did a pretty good job of keeping them in the ballpark.”
5. The Guardians threatened in the bottom of the second after Will Brennan and David Fry lead the inning off with back-to-back singles, but Braves starter Michael Soroka struck out Bo Naylor, Myles Straw and shortstop Orlando Arcia made a beautiful grab and spin to throw out Steven Kwan to end the inning. It was a theme that played out all night long.
6. Tim Herrin saved the Guardians bullpen. Herrin was able to get the game to the eighth inning with a 2 2/3 inning effort that saw him allow one run – a solo home run to Braves third baseman Austin Riley, his 16th bomb of the season – that made it 6-0. Herrin allowed three hits and struck out three.
7. Matt Olson slugged his 29th home run of the season for the Braves, which traveled 428 feet into the right field seats, to begin a two-run ninth inning and provide the final score.
8. The Guardians avoided being shut out for the ninth time this season thanks to Amed Rosario’s RBI groundout in the ninth to score Steven Kwan but it marked the 45th time in 86 games the Guardians scored three or fewer runs in a game this season.
9. The good news is the hapless Royals roll into town for the next four before the All-Star break, so perhaps a chance for the 42-44Guards to get fat, and above .500.
