When you read a final score of 12-8, you probably imagine a slugfest. That’s not really what happened in the series opener between the Braves and the Brewers tonight. Oh, sure, there was slugging, largely done by the Braves: they held a 12-0 lead heading into the seventh inning. But, bullpen-related drama once again reared its head late, and would not be settled until Luke Jackson had to be summoned with two outs in the ninth to slam the door and prevent the Brewers from scoring any more than eight runs in the game’s final three innings.
In other words, this game was largely a laugher... until it briefly became no laughing matter. I really wanted to have the headline be something like “Braves decimate Brewers” associated with a 10-0 score; however, the Braves actually scored too many runs for that particular verb to be apt, and then gave up too many for anything connoting domination to be appropriate. Here’s how it happened.
Max Fried set down the visitors in order in the top of the first, and then the Braves wasted no time in getting to Milwaukee starter Jhoulys Chacin. Ronald Acuña Jr. laced a pitch into center and stretched it into a hustle double as Lorenzo Cain was slow getting the ball back into the infield. In a not-too-common-these-days-and-eventually-pointless display of A-B-C baseball, Dansby Swanson moved Acuña to third on a fly ball to right, and he came around to score the game’s first run when Freddie Freeman grounded into the shift.
Fried once again went 1-2-3 in the top of the second, and the Braves proceeded to pound Chacin with a bevy of singles in the bottom of the frame. Nick Markakis, Austin Riley, and Tyler Flowers each hit two-strike singles to load the bags with none out. Ozzie Albies then hit a two-strike sacrifice fly to plate the Braves’ second run. Chacin would load the bases by hitting Acuña with a full count pitch, but Swanson popped out to end the inning with no further damage.
Fried got into a tiny bit of trouble in the third, as he allowed two singles and a walk, but the leadoff single ended up being erased on a heads-up play by Freddie Freeman and over-aggressive baserunning by Keston Hiura, and Fried got Christian Yelich to hit a hard grounder at Swanson to end the inning. More Chacin obliteration was on tap for the bottom of the frame, as Freeman led off with a homer. The Braves ended up loading the bases in this frame as well, thanks to a walk and two singles (including Albies swinging and singling on a 3-0) count, but the Braves didn’t send the runner home despite the pitcher’s spot coming up, and Fried flew out to left to end the frame.
The next five half-innings were basically silent. The only batters to reach base against Chacin and Fried were Riley with a bloop single to right and pinch-hitter Eric Thames, who drew a leadoff walk in the top of the sixth. After all that, with Chacin departing having allowed three runs in five innings, things got fun for the Braves (and miserable for the Brewers).
Milwaukee skipper Craig Counsell summoned Corbin Burnes from his bullpen to start the sixth, which ended up being a real BarnesBurneser. BurnsBarneser. Barnburnser? Whatever, it’s not important. Burnes, who was booted from the Brewers’ rotation, had been basically untouchable over his last five relief outings, but boy, did he get touched tonight. Albies started the frame with a bloop double to left. Burnes goofed up a pickoff attempt, moving Albies to third, and then goofed up the whole pitching thing, issuing a five-pitch walk to Fried. Acuña singled, 4-0 Braves. Swanson obliterated a grooved fastball into center field, 7-0 Braves. Josh Donaldson followed Swanson’s lead two batters later, 8-0 Braves. Nick Markakis walked, and then Flowers also took Burnes out to center, 10-0 Braves. Decimation: achieved. On came Jacob Barnes, and things didn’t actually get any better for the Milwaukee bullpen. Albies, batting for the second time in the inning, reached base on an infield single. Fried then doubled to left. Yes, the Braves’ pitcher reached base twice, in the same inning. This is a thing that happened. Acuña singled again, 12-0 Braves. Finally, Swanson lined out to end Atlanta’s nine-run sixth. Woo.
Even though Fried batted twice for himself in the bottom of the sixth, he was lifted given the laugher state of the box score at that point in favor of Josh Tomlin. Tomlin came in to throw strikes and he kind of did, except that many of those strikes resulted in singles, three of which came consecutively and led to Milwaukee’s first run. He threw even more strikes in the eighth (no balls to the first four hitters he faced), but the issue was that those strikes got pounded, as Tomlin yielded a single, double, and Jacob Nottingham’s first career major league homer to render the score 12-4 by the end of the inning. The Braves then had a humorous bottom half of the eighth as Hernan Perez, who started the game as Milwaukee’s third baseman, came on to pitch. Perez walked Albies and Acuña, but struck out pinch-hitter Matt Joyce and got Swanson to hit into a double play, making him Milwaukee’s most successful pitcher of the night, kinda sorta.
So, 12-4 game heading into the ninth, easy peasy lemon squeezy, right? Wrong. Oh, so wrong. Actually, it was even worse than that: Jonny Venters came on in relief of Tomlin and struck out the first two batters he faced, so it wasn’t just a 12-4 game in the ninth, it was a 12-4 game with two outs in the ninth. And then, the dramaz, with a z. Venters issued a stray two-out walk. He got Cain to hit a grounder to short, but it rolled under Swanson’s glove. Then he issued another walk. A single by Ryan Braun made it 12-6. See ya, Jonny Venters, say hello to new reliever Wes Parsons. Parsons walked the first guy he faced. Then he allowed another two-run single to bring the lead to “just” four runs. Brian Snitker had seen enough, see ya, Wes Parsons. In trotted Luke Jackson from the bullpen. It took him six pitches, but a foul tip full count slider up in the zone retired Perez (the opposing pitcher, kinda sorta), and that was that.
Despite the ugly ending, the Braves move to three games over .500 for the first time since April 14. They keep pace with the Phillies, who beat Colorado today to maintain their division lead at 1.5 games. Their playoff odds are at a new season high, of 47 percent. They scored 10-plus runs for the second consecutive game; if they do so tomorrow, it will be the first time the team has done so in three consecutive games since 2007. 12 runs scored is a new season high for the team, and the most since July of last year.
The individual lines in this game were pretty fun. Max Fried dealt six stellar frames of two-walk, two-hit, five strikeout ball, with no extra-base hits allowed. Luke Jackson gathered potentially the stupidest save of the season, his sixth of the year. Every Braves regular had a hit, and the team combined for four homers for the second time this season. Ozzie Albies went 3-for-3 with a walk. I’m not going to post the bullpen lines for this game, because I do not wish to violate the Geneva Convention.
As a reminder, you can see all the highlights from this game in neat format on baseball.theater, here: https://baseball.theater/game/20190517/567185.
The Braves will try to grab their fourth victory in a row for just the second time this season tomorrow night, as Kevin Gausman faces Chase Anderson.