Tucker Davidson sets the tone as Braves blank Brewers, 3-0

We’re two games deep into this series and the Braves have only given up one run. The pitching staff is feeling it here in Milwaukee.

Tucker Davidson started things off for Atlanta with five scoreless innings, and his good outing set the tone for the rest of the pitching staff this evening. A two-run home run from Marcell Ozuna eventually put the Braves out of reach as they got payback for Monday’s shutout loss with a 3-0 shutout win over the Brewers tonight.

There were two main stories for the Braves going into this game: Could Tucker Davidson give the Braves a good start and could the Braves themselves actually find a way to get it done at the plate? The early returns were promising — still disappointing, but promising! Things got started off on a positive foot as Ronald Acuña Jr. immediately announced his return to the lineup with an infield single where he hit the “wow, he’s fast” sprint speed threshold of 30 feet per second on his way to first. Matt Olson followed that up with a walk and then the first two hitters of Atlanta’s lineup found themselves in scoring position following a groundout. Then as we’ve seen countless times so far this season, the scoring threat immediately evaporated as Marcell Ozuna struck out and Ozzie Albies grounded out on the first pitch he saw.

The Braves would go a few innings without getting anything close to a scoring chance against Adrian Houser, but fortunately for the Braves, Tucker Davidson picked up where Ian Anderson left off last night. Davidson did run into trouble in the third and fourth inning — each inning saw him give up two consecutive baserunners with two outs on the board before finally getting the final out to preserve the scoreless inning. In the third inning, Kolten Wong got on with a bunt and then Luis Urias poked one for a single before Davidson got Yelich to fly out to end that threat. The fourth inning saw Davidson lose the plate a little as he walked two batters on nine pitches. This was a shaky moment for sure, but Tucker clamped down and got Mike Brosseau to pop out to the catcher to snuff out Milwaukee’s chance once again.

Tucker Davidson finished the fifth inning with just one baserunner stranded this time, and that was the end of his night at that point. All in all, you can’t really ask much more from a guy getting the start in this type of situation — five innings, three hits allowed, three walks given up and three strikeouts with zero runs given up. Most importantly, he was able to exit with the lead after the Braves finally ended what was a 20-inning scoreless drought in the top of the fifth inning.

Adam Duvall and Dansby Swanson hit back-to-back one-out singles to get ducks on the pond for Ronald Acuña Jr., who sent a scalding-hot 106 miles-per-hour bouncing ground ball to Mike Brosseau, who couldn’t effectively deal with it at all. Adam Duvall made it home while the Brewers were cleaning up the mess and the Braves had broken their scoring drought with a go-ahead run.

Atlanta managed to hold onto the one-run lead through the sixth and seventh inning — the seventh in particular was a nail-biter as Milwaukee saw one of their runners go first-to-third on a stolen base and a throwing error. However, A.J. Minter was able to strike out Kolten Wong to strand the runner at third base and then got two outs deep into the eighth inning as well. By the time Minter took to the mound to start the eighth, the Braves actually had a bit of breathing room.

Ronald Acuña Jr. led off the eighth inning with a walk and then proceeded to wreak havoc on the basepaths. He stole second base without a throw and then tagged up with two outs on a fly ball that only a baserunner with elite speed would be able to move up on. Just like that, all Marcell Ozuna needed to do was have a ball find some green in the outfield and that would give the Braves some insurance. Instead, Ozuna decided to just go ahead and forego the whole “just get a hit” deal and went for it all by sending a baseball from Brad Boxberger straight to the daggone moon.

While A.J. Minter did start the eighth, he was unable to finish it as he walked two batters on his way to getting the first two outs of the penultimate inning. Will Smith was then handed the baton to get the final out of the eighth inning and things only got more nervous for Braves fans when Smith walked the first batter he saw to load the bases. Fortunately, Lorenzo Cain proceeded to swing at the first pitch he saw and grounded it to Austin Riley. Riley made a great play on the ball and then made a solid throw to get the third out of the eighth and send another scoring chance for Milwaukee careening to the wayside.

The Braves had a bases-loaded opportunity themselves with two out in the ninth inning, but were unable to capitalize as Matt Olson got under one and feebly popped out to center field. So Kenley Jansen had a three-run lead to work with heading into the ninth inning. Jansen continued to be very reliable on the mound, as he sat down the Brewers in order to pick up the win and preserve the shutout. It was a much-needed palate cleanser of a win and it also sets the table for what should be a colossal pitching matchup between Max Fried and Corbin Burnes tomorrow afternoon.

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It also shows you how quickly the narrative can be flipped. Instead of the story being the Braves struggling mightily at the plate, now the story is that the Braves have only allowed one run in this series so far with their best pitcher set to take the mound tomorrow. The Braves have done a fantastic job of limiting the Brewers and they’ll have to do it one more time to win this series.