It feels like only yesterday that pitchers and catchers were reporting, but with this afternoon’s 2-2 tie against the New York Mets, the Braves are ready to wave goodbye to the 2017 Grapefruit League. Farewell, Disney/ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Hello, SunTrust Park!
The Braves rolled out their presumptive Opening Day lineup in this one, with the glaring exception that Josh Collmenter took the hill in lieu of Julio Teheran. The Mets, meanwhile, used a bunch of backups and minor league depth, along with former Braves first-round pick Sean Gilmartin as their starter.
At the very start, it looked like the Braves might have the game in the bag. Ender Inciarte hit a rope into right field to start the bottom of the first, and advanced to second as Gilmartin walked Dansby Swanson to bring up Freddie Freeman. Unfortunately, both Freeman and Kemp hit comebackers to Gilmartin. The first was converted into a double play, while the second ended the inning.
The Braves did manage to scratch out a run in the second off of Gilmartin: Nick Markakis hit a leadoff single and scored on Adonis Garcia’s double. While Gilmartin walked Tyler Flowers to put runners on first and second, the Braves were unable to get anything else after Collmenter grounded into a forceout at third base and Inciarte lined out to second.
In the third, the Mets got their chance to strike against Collmenter, leveraging a one-out single, a Gilmartin sacrifice bunt, and a single from T.J. Rivera into a game-tying run.
Collmenter, essentially a lock for the swingman/long relief role in the Opening Day bullpen, was otherwise great. He allowed just four hits and that one run while striking out five Mets in five innings and not issuing a walk. It’s always a little strange to see Collmenter’s unorthodox delivery and pitching style, and it’s not something I’d bet on succeeding long-term, but it’s still amazing when it works.
After Gilmartin exited following his two innings of work, the Braves struggled to get anything going off of Rafael Montero and Hansel Robles. In the sixth, Chaz Roe came on in relief of Collmenter and had a very Chaz Roe inning. He hit the first batter he faced, but luckily had him retired as Tyler Flowers somehow threw out a basestealer. He then struck out Michael Conforto, walked the next two hitters, and struck out Travis Taijeron to end the frame. A hit by pitch, two walks, two strikeouts, no balls in play the entire half-inning.
In the seventh, Roe had the exact opposite set of results as far as conventionality: he pitched a 1-2-3 inning with two groundouts and a flyout. The seventh is also when the Braves retook the lead, thanks to a Blake Lalli homer to deep center field off of Beck Wheeler (no, not Zack Wheeler, Beck Wheeler, seriously).
After an uneventful eighth from Wes Parsons, Chad Sobotka was asked to close out the ninth, but could not seal the deal. Despite getting two outs, Sobotka walked three hitters to load the bases, and was pulled for Caleb Dirks. Lalli, potentially the hero, quickly became the goat, as he could not corral a Dirks pitch that led to the tying run scoring. Dirks got a flyout to end the inning with the game still tied.
The Braves had a chance to walk it off, but instead ended an uninspiring Grapefruit League affair in very fitting fashion: Emilio Bonifacio reached base with a two-out single, and with Chase d’Arnaud batting, was thrown out trying to steal second to end the game, and the 2017 Spring Training experience for the Braves, in a 2-2 tie.
The Braves managed just eight baserunners; Adonis Garcia was the only Brave to reach base twice in the game, while his RBI double and Lalli’s homer were the only extra-base hits for the team.
The Braves will head to New York to play these same Mets on Opening Day next Monday. Before then, however, they’ll be inaugurating SunTrust Park with an exhibition game against the Yankees — that will happen on Friday night.
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