Well, it had to end eventually. Atlanta's 14-game winning streak came to a screeching halt tonight at the hands of Nathan Eovaldi and the Miami Marlins in a 1-0 loss.
The 23-year old Eovaldi was dominant tonight for Miami, allowing just one hit and three walks while striking out eight Braves batters. He racked up ten whiffs, six of them coming on his four-seam fastball that sat 96 miles per hour and touched 99 tonight.
Alex Wood was equally effective for Atlanta tonight, firing six shutout innings while allowing just two hits and one walk. The left-hander struck out seven batters and racked up six whiffs on 87 pitches. However, it wasn't enough.
After David Carpenter and Luis Avilan continued their strong relief work with two scoreless innings, Jordan Walden entered to pitch the ninth inning. Adeiny Hechavarria greeted him rudely, smoking a ball into the gap in left center that went all the way to the wall. The speedy shortstop cruised into third easily with a triple to bring up Ed Lucas.
With a 2-2 count, Walden threw a slider in the dirt that somehow got under Evan Gattis' glove, allowing Hechavarria to come in and score from third to make it a 1-0 game. The pitch was ruled a wild pitch, but it should have been ruled a passed ball instead.
Atlanta had a chance to rally in the ninth as Gattis reached on a single with two outs, but Paul Janish struck out to end the game. Janish, who was playing third due to the fact that Chris Johnson was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the first innings, hasn't recorded a major league hit since August 31st of last year.
Joey Terdoslavich was still on the bench, and would have been a good choice to use as a pinch-hitter there. While he's not a third baseman, he's played the position before and would have been fine there if the game had gone to extras.
Note:
Jordan Walden, who left the game in the ninth inning after a line drive hit his hand, had x-rays after the game. They were negative, according to manager Fredi Gonzalez. So, despite the loss, that's some good news for Atlanta.
<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=0&type=livewins&num=0&h=450&w=450&date=2013-08-10&team=Braves&dh=0" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe><br /><span style="font-size:9pt;">Source: <a href="http://www.fangraphs.com/livewins.aspx?date=2013-08-10&team=Braves&dh=0&season=2013">FanGraphs</a></span>