BALTIMORE — Baseball being as it is, the Braves, up three runs in the bottom of the ninth, still saw the tying run come to the plate. As they tried to win a game for the first time in a week, they had to sweat it out.
“And it’s never gonna happen easy,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “The tying run’s gotta come to the plate in the ninth inning.”
Raisel Iglesias closed it out, and the Braves snapped their five-game losing streak with Thursday’s 6-3 win at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The Braves were 3-6 on their three-city road trip, but are headed home on a positive note.
Five observations:
Phew.
1. The Braves avoided disaster. You could feel their collective exhale. This would have been a disastrous loss.
But the Braves had been struggling.
You didn’t think the baseball gods were going to hand them this one, did you?
“It’s never gonna be easy when you’re fighting for a win like that,” Snitker said. “You’re not gonna get a blowout and win 12-0. You’re gonna have to endure.”
Before Reynaldo López even took the mound for the Braves, his guys put two runs on the board. López dazzled. Meanwhile, the lineup collected key hits with men in scoring position.
“To be able to get a win against a team like this who’s been hot is definitely huge, and I feel like it kind of gives the sense of – you can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel a little bit, and you’re hoping that it sort of sparks some resemblance of the team that we were last year, where we’re attacking guys in the first inning and we’re not letting anyone off the hook early and we just continue to attack, attack and put hits and runs on the board,” López said through interpreter Franco García. “You’re that aggressive that lets the other starter know that, ‘Hey, we’re here to get after you.’”
The Braves were up four runs, but saw their lead shrink to a run in the seventh inning. They pushed it back to three runs.
In the ninth, Iglesias had two men on with one out. He escaped.
The Braves had to bite their nails, but as the ball rolled to Ozzie Albies at second base, they could breathe a sigh of relief.
“That’s a good game to win,” Snitker said.
2. After the 2021 season, López, who began his career as a starting pitcher, viewed himself as a reliever. One person still believed he could start: His wife, Jhilaris, who kept telling López’s agent to keep looking for opportunities with teams who would let her husband start again.
“She was the only one who believed in me as a starter – not even myself,” López said. “When she would kind of start talking to us about, ‘Hey, let’s look for a team who would give us this opportunity,’ I told her, ‘Forget about that. Let’s just make the best of the opportunity that’s given to us.’”
But Jhilaris’ faith paid off when the Braves signed her husband and viewed him as a starter. He’s rewarded them: After six shutout innings against the Orioles, Reynaldo has a 1.69 ERA – the best mark among qualified starters in baseball.
Take that in again.
The best ERA in baseball.
“I’m definitely proud of the way I’ve been pitching, but to be honest, I don’t pay much attention to that kind of stuff,” López said. “I really just try to block out all the noise and all the thoughts that can creep into your mind. And so for me, the focus is just to be able to go out when I make my starts and give my best effort. If the team wins, then great, and we’ll move forward. And if the team loses, then we’ll move forward. But I’m happy with the way it’s been going.”
López has gone at least six innings in eight of his 12 starts. He has logged four scoreless starts, and he’s pitched six innings in three of them (and five in the other one). He hasn’t allowed more than three runs in an outing.
“And he just kind of quietly does it,” Snitker said.
3. The Braves on Thursday went 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position, but the three were huge.
In the first inning, Marcell Ozuna hit a two-run double. In the fourth, Albies singled home a run. And in the ninth, Matt Olson smacked a run-scoring double off the right-field wall.
The feeling when Ozuna drives in two in the first to get the Braves on the board?
“First off, you’re happy for him to get it done,” Olson said. “To be able to jump out to a quick start like that is big. When we’ve been losing games, it feels like we’re not getting anything going. To come out and do it early is a good feeling.”
Up a run heading to the ninth, the Braves scored on a wild pitch before Olson’s double. They scored six runs in a game for the first time since June 4, when they opened the road trip with eight runs in a win over Boston.
4. With Iglesias in the jam, Harris made an incredible diving catch for the second out of the inning. Initially, he broke back. But then he charged forward and caught it.
Had he not snagged it?
Well, we won’t go there. It could’ve been bad.
“I guess initially, when he hit it, it looked like he got it a lot better and it was kind of tough to see with all the white jerseys in the background, and he had a (light-colored) bat,” Harris said. “Just based off the swing, he took a good swing and looked like he got it a little better. I broke back, and then I knew I had to come in and make a play. I didn’t want this game to be prolonged on a ball I probably should’ve caught.”
Harris felt like he could’ve perhaps gotten an out at second base or third base if the ball had fallen, because the runners were cautious in case he did grab it. But we don’t even need to think about it. He saved the Braves.
He also helped set the table: He singled to lead off the game. Albies followed with a double. They scored on Ozuna’s double.
In the ninth, they both reached base and scored.
“Their ability to hit pitches that a lot of people can’t, I think, is important at the top of the lineup,” Olson said. “They can both run. Just two really good bat-to-ball guys who both have power.”
It sounds like Harris will stay in the leadoff spot. He works well there with Albies.
“It was good,” Snitker said. “I’m just kind of sticking with Michael up there and see what happens. I kind of like him up there. His at-bats have been really good, even off left-handers.”
5. Now, the Braves hope to keep the momentum going. They’ll host the Rays for a three-game series this weekend.
They’ll start Chris Sale on Friday, Charlie Morton on Saturday and Hurston Waldrep on Sunday. For now, the Braves seem intent on continuing to use a six-man rotation to help keep their starters fresh.
Thursday’s win, Harris said, meant a lot – especially because it came against a great team who’s been hot.
“We just felt like ourselves today,” Harris said. “We came out and got runs early, and put pressure on them. … That’s just the team we know we can be and we’re trying to get back to that on a regular basis.”
Stat to know
11-for-63 – Over nine games on this trip, the Braves went 11-for-63 with runners in scoring position – a .175 batting average in those spots.
Quotable
“It’s good. That’s what we’re gonna have to have to win. That’s part of our identity and all.” — Snitker on getting offensive contributions from many guys in the win
Up next
Friday’s game versus the Rays begins at 7:20 p.m.
