They’re on pace for what would be a record 49 one-run losses.
Everything started out fine.
Ronald Acuna walked to lead off the game, and Austin Riley followed with a single that moved Ronnie to third. Matt Olson followed with a groundball to give the Atlanta Braves a 1-0 lead. Spencer Strider then got a pop out and struck out the next two batters. This is how you draw it up.
Then the Braves made a few mistakes, and they paid for it.
In the bottom of the second, Matt Chapman doubled down the right field line for a double, and after Dominic Smith walked, the San Francisco Giants had two on, no out. Then Strider got Casey Schmidt to strike out. But with Mike Yastrzemski up, Strider wasn’t paying attention to Chapman, who has had 21 stolen bases over the last two seasons, and Chapman stole third. Yastrzemski hit a fly ball to bring in Chapman to tie the score. A ground out finished the inning.
Atlanta immediately fought back, though. Nick Allen singled, and Riley scorched a double to put two people in scoring position before Olson doubled to center to bring both guys home, making it 3-1.
Strider was able to get a “shutdown inning” before things fell apart in the 4th. Two walks to start the inning was the first step. Strider was able to get two outs with both runners moving into scoring position. Yastrzemski came back up and whacked a double to tie the game. Tyler Fitzgerald followed with a groundball to the right side of the infield that Ozzie Albies couldn’t handle, and Yastrzemski (I’m just spelling his full last name at this point to learn the spelling) scored all the way from second, making it 4-3.
And that was it for the offense. Like almost literally. Only one other half inning had more than 4 batters in it, and that was the top of the 6th when the Braves got two on after 2 outs to start the inning. Ozzie tapped out to the pitcher to end the inning.
Spencer Strider was okay in this one. He got through 6 innings, but his fastball velocity was down from his season average. He got 4 whiffs on his fastball, but his slider was the more effective pitch in this one. He’s still not blowing anyone away, but I’m not sure how much it matters when the offense isn’t doing much.
Landen Roupp, to be honest, wasn’t all that impressive, and Atlanta had 8 of the top 9 exit velocities in the game. He only got three whiffs in his entire appearance, but it didn’t matter. Atlanta hitters didn’t find enough holes, and even with Roupp looking mostly like a junkballing side-armer, runs were hard to come by.
The Giants bullpen, however, was impressive. Ryan Walker, Ronny Rodriguez, and Camilo Doval combined for three straight innings where they each struck out 2 batters, and they only gave up one hit, mildly scaring Duval before he finished off Drake Baldwin to end it.
It’s hard to figure it out at this point. Just another frustrating one-run loss.
Atlanta heads to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers tomorrow for a three-game set before the woeful Colorado Rockies come to Atlanta next weekend.