Atlanta Braves baseball officially returned Tuesday night with an eighth inning of eight runs and a home run by Matt Adams in a 10-9 victory over the Miami Marlins.
It was all Marlins at first as they built a giant lead against Mike Foltynewicz, making their final warm-up start.
The exit was a mixed bag for Foltynewicz, who said his main concern was getting his 75 pitches and working on his change. He went through the first two innings while allowing just one base runner, then ran into big problems in the third when Jorge Alfaro, Miguel Rojas and Jonathan Villar connected on consecutive home runs to give Miami a 3-0 lead. lead.
Foltynewicz struck out two in a goalless quarter, but struggled in the fifth. Alfaro started with a single and Rojas followed with a helicopter that veered from Foltynewicz’s glove for a hit on the frame. Dansby Swanson then made a slippage stop on Villar’s penalty, but his shot went high and he pulled Ozzie Albies out of the bag in the second to load the bases.
Brian Anderson grounded Austin Riley in third position for an outout, but Corey Dickerson followed with a single to center that scored two runs to make it 5-0. Jesús Aguilar then released another single that scored Anderson to make it 6-0, ending the night of Foltynewicz.
Foltynewicz came out after throwing 69 pitches in 4 1/3 innings, allowing nine hits and six earned runs. He struck out four and walked with no one. He showed a good slider at times, but he left a few balls breaking above and on the plate. His speed seemed to be off with his fastball sitting somewhere between 89-91 mph. However, he was not terribly concerned about where his speed was.
“I’m throwing the ball well. It’s never fun to rain down for five innings. My cleats were a mess, I couldn’t catch the ball, ”Foltynewicz said after leaving. “My fastball is coming out where it needed to be, so I’m not worried about it.”
Atlanta finally came onto the board in the sixth inning when Freddie Freeman walked two outs and scored from first place on a double from Marcell Ozuna’s wall to make it 6-1.
Josh Tomlin and Tyler Matzek combined for 2 2/3 blank innings in relief from Foltynewicz before Miami extended their lead against reliever Chris Rusin in the eighth. Rusin immediately got into trouble, walking with Garrett Cooper to start the inning. Sean Rodríguez doubled to put runners in second and third. Rusin then struck out Jon Berti for the first out but allowed a double to former Brave Francisco Cervelli that extended the lead to 8-1. He escaped further damage when Monte Harrison made a double play to end the inning.
Things would get interesting from there. Robert Dugger retired William Contreras with a grounding and then issued consecutive walks to Adam Duvall and Yangervis Solarte. Freeman followed with a single that scored Duvall to make it 8-2. That would take the 2019 draft pick Michael Harris to the plate; Harris worked a 3-2 count and hit an infield single. Solarte scored on the play to reduce the deficit to 8-3.
That would be the end of the night for Dugger when Don Mattingly called Adam Conley out of the bullpen. Conley entered and immediately accompanied Matt Adams. After a wild pitch scored Freeman to put it 8-4, Conley walked with Yonder Alonso to load the bases. Charlie Culberson would make it pay, driving a double in the gap that cleared the bases and turned it into a one-run game at 8-7. Drew Waters followed up with a double of his that scored Culberson to tie the game.
Contreras struck out a second time in the inning, but Adam Duvall singled to the left that scored Culberson to give Atlanta the lead for the first time in the entire game. However, the lead wouldn’t last long: Chad Sobotka allowed Jesús Sánchez a long home run with one out in the ninth to tie things up at 9-9.
Alex Vesia struck out Braden Shewmake and Harris to open the ninth, but Matt Adams jumped on a 0-1 fastball and threw it to the right for the tie winner.
