The Atlanta Braves took on the Chicago Cubs today in hopes of clinching a playoff spot. It would have required them to win and then get some help with hoping either the Diamondbacks or the Padres lost.
JR Ritchie was called up to pitch the game to give some extra rest to the rotation and try to prove his recent performance in AAA where he had twenty-four strikeouts to only three walks in his past two starts was legitimate enough to keep him in the rotation for the rest of the season.
The start did not go as hoped. So much so that it almost begs to wonder if Ritchie may be dealing with the yips.
The game did look promising at first for the Braves. After the first two hitters were retired, Matt Olson and Ozzie Albies had back-to-back singles. However, Michael Harris was not able to get the job done on line out to Ian Happ in LF.
Ritchie struggled from the get go. He walked Crow-Armstrong. He was able to get Suzuki to ground into a double play but then again surrendered a walk. Bregman then doubled to score a run but was then thrown out in a pickle between second and third.
In the second the Braves got a single out of Riley, but that was the only offense that Shota Imanaga and crew allowed. Ian Happ then led off the bottom of the second with a double off of Ritchie, but fortunately he was able to settle down and induced ground out and pick up two strikeouts.
The Braves were up to the top of the order in the again in the third, but they were sat down in order. It is hard to win games that way. In the bottom of the third, Ritchie picked up another strikeout and only gave up one hit. The bad news is that the hit was a HR to MVP front runner Crow-Armstrong to put the Braves down by two.
Imanaga really settled in for the Cubs and retired the side again in the fourth to make it eight straight. Ritchie continued his trend on the night. Not giving up many hits, but when he did, they were big ones. Alex Bregman led off the bottom of the fourth with a HR to put the Cubs up by three, and that was the only offense of the inning.
Imanaga continued to dominate the Braves by retiring the side yet for the third straight inning, to include two more strikeouts. The fifth inning was the worst for Ritchie. After a pop up he gave up a single and then Crow-Armstrong hit a triple to plate a run. Ritchie then hit Suzuki to put runners on the corners. Ritchie then got another strikeout thanks to a successful challenge by Sean Murphy, but then Alex Bregman had a triple of his own to plate two and put the Cubs up six. This led to Ritchie’s replacement Dylan Dodd coming in to finish out the inning. Ritchie’s final numbers were six ER on seven hits, on two walks and five strikeouts. It should also be of note that six of those hits were extra base hits.
The Braves finally broke the seal in the sixth when Ronald Acuña doubled, and was moved over to third and then scored on two consecutive groundouts. This pulled the Braves within five. Albies then struck out to end the top half of the sixth. Owen Murphy then came in to pitch the sixth. He gave up a walk, but that was the only base runner. He picked up one strikeout in the inning.
The Braves were able to score one more run when Mauricio Dubón hit his third triple of the season and then scored on a groundout, but that was the only offense for the Braves in the seventh. Murphy stayed in the game to pitch the seventh and instantly gave up a HR to PCA which was his second of the game and forty-fourth on the year. Murphy settled down to retired the rest of the hitters to include a strikeout of Suzuki.
Acuña had a single in the eighth, but it was the only offense for the Braves. Weiss decided to leave Owen Murphy in the pitch the eighth to basically let him eat innings in a lost game. He gave up a double right away to Tyrone Taylor. He got Hoerner to fly out, but then started to give away bases like they were free. Conforto singled to score a run, followed by Pedro Ramírez having a single of his own. Carson Kelly then also singled to load the bases. Finally Weiss took Murphy out of his misery and brought in Brent Suter to face the red hot Crow-Armstrong with the bases loaded. Suter was able to buckle down and get PCA to strikeout on a slider outside of the zone and then got Suzuki to groundout to finally end the eighth.
The Braves may not have had much offense, but one fun thing that happened is Ozzie Albies led off the ninth with one of the longest at-bats of his career. He saw thirteen pitches, to include fouling off seven straight pitches and ultimately walked on a fastball way out of the zone. This seemed to lead to Ryan Rolison losing some control. Harris worked a 3-1 count and then singled. The Cubs wisely then made a pitching change to bring in Ryan Zeferjahn. Dubón was not deterred and hit a double, his second extra base hit of the night, scoring a run to bring the game within five. This brought up Austin Riley who struck out. Sean Murphy was able to plate a run, but it was a groundout. Yazstrzemski came in to pinch hit, but grounded out to end the game. Braves lose 4-8.
The bad news is the Braves lost. The good news is that they are not depending on Ritchie. He was more of a fill in. Dubón and Acuña had a nice night with the bat as well, but four runs is hard to win with against a high octane offense with one of their best rotation arms on the mound.
The Braves now move on to face the Houston Astros as their pursuit of a division crown continues.
