Don’t worry, Braves fans. With the current 4-0 victory in Miami, the Braves have not lost a series to the Marlins since the end of the 2017 season. However, this happened in a way that could be difficult to predict: after oodles of wobble, the Braves got a bunch of scoreless innings from Robbie Erlin en route to a shutout with five pitchers.
Erlin was only allowed one in four innings, but really worked while doing so. He threw more than 20 pitches in the first, despite being 1-2-3; his fastest inning was his last, with 13 pitches thrown. However, he knocked out five of the 13 fighters he faced in an admirable attempt to give the team some quality points.
After Erlin left, the bullpen took over and gave the Marlins a very small quarter. Darren O’Day threw a perfect fifth and went away to a single and a strikeout in the sixth. AJ Minter came on for Jonathan Villar and ended up with an away game with one play, as he immediately got a puffed double play ball after the second to end the inning. Shane Greene threw two scoreless, gave up the only walk of the team, but then knew it immediately on a double play. Tyler Matzek finished the game with a two-strikeout ninth.
Strikingly, the Braves could not quite solve the relatively soft throw Elieser Hernandez. After Marcella Ozuna’s two-out single in the first, Hernandez knocked out five Braves in a row, finishing with nine total punchouts in five innings. He released just three singles. The Braves looked a bit cooked up.
But, after Hernandez took advantage of Nick Vincent, the Braves went from cooking to cooking. Dansby Swanson started the sixth with a leadoff “double” which resulted in Lewis Brinson getting a terrible break on a ball that hit to the left in him. After Freddie Freeman started from the ground, Swanson moved to third, running Vincent Ozuna, bringing up Nick Markakis. He fell 0-2 behind at first, but then managed to blossom a donut hole single behind the second baseman, scoring the first run of the game. Adam Duvall almost banished a homer with three runs to go, but it was just a loud flyout and the Braves had to settle for a lone run.
That would have been enough, but they got a little more in the seventh, at least. Ender Inciarte and Swanson collected two-out hits from new relief Justin Shafer, and Freeman took a walk against side-winded lefty Brian Moran to load the bases for Ozuna. After falling behind 1-2, Ozuna took three straight balls to force in the second Atlanta run. Markakis then jumped over Moran’s first offer to him and threw it in the right for a two-run duel.
The Braves were otherwise bamboozled by Pat Venditte’s changing pitching shenanigans in the eighth and ninth, but no matter, as the relief corps slammed the door for the team’s 13th victory and a share of first place in the division .
