The Braves will be leaving Pittsburgh after a wacky few days with only one win out of four, after the Pirates battered Braves pitching this evening and eventually won tonight's game by the score of 8-2.
If teams were given only two outs per inning to do work, then Mike Foltynewicz probably would've ended up having another good night. Instead, it ended up being a rough evening for the hard-throwing 24-year-old righty. Folty only lasted three innings and gave up five runs (four earned) in the first two innings, with all five runs being scored with the Pirates sitting on two outs.
In the first inning, Folty was working with John Jaso on first base and two out when he hit Jung Ho Kang to to extend the inning. Things got worse thanks to a passed ball, and then that led to Starling Marte floating one up the middle to score Jaso and Kang and give Pittsburgh an early 2-0 lead.
It seemed like Foltynewicz was going to make it out of the second inning without too much of a problem, but then John Jaso hit a two-out triple to extend the inning for the Pirates. That brought Andrew McCutchen to the plate, and he proceeded to do what players of his caliber do -- he brought in a run. McCutchen singled to right to make it 3-0, and then Gregory Polanco broke the game open by hitting a deep fly to left field that went into the seats to make it 5-0 Pittsburgh.
As you can see on the WPA chart at the end of this recap, the game was pretty much over once Polanco's fly ball went over the fence. The Braves were in a five run hole at that point, and unlike for the majority of this series, Atlanta's offense was completely stymied as Jeff Locke locked down the Braves' offense on the evening.
Locke ended the night with 7 IP, 6 Ks, and only 2 walks allowed, and his only three mistakes came as a result of two Braves batters: Tyler Flowers and Jeff Francoeur. Frenchy doubled to lead off the fourth inning, and Flowers hit a double of his own to bring in Francoeur for the Braves' first run of the evening. Frenchy's good night continued in the sixth inning, which is when he went deep off of Locke and smashed one out into the left field seats for a solo shot.
Those two runs clearly weren't enough for Atlanta to keep up with the Pirates on the night, as the game eventually ended 8-2 once the Pirates added on a few more runs after chasing Folty from the game.
The Braves will be leaving picturesque PNC Park in Pittsburgh with three more losses, one less manager, one less coach, and hopefully without any more chicken bone incidents. What a wild week this has been.
Source: FanGraphs