Braves vs. Padres Sereis Wrap

The weather placed a huge damper on this series. Game one was rained out, game two was played completely, but there was some misty rain, game three (which was game one of a doubleheader) was played without rain, and then game two of the doubleheader was suspended because of the rain. SO, through all of the weather delays, the Braves won the first game, lost the second, and there will be a makeup game for the final one so the winner of that game is TBD.

Game One: Touki Toussaint vs. Yu Darvish, Braves won 2-1

This was a well-played baseball game from start to finish. And it was an even better one because the Atlanta Braves came out on top!

Touki Toussaint pitched absolutely amazing for Atlanta. This was his first start of the 2021 season, and he could not have preformed any better. He went 6.2 innings, allowed three hits, one run, two walks, and he had five strikeouts. Toussaint never seemed to be in a high-stress situation on the mound. He had good control over where he placed his pitches and his pitch count on the opposing batters he faced.

The Braves scored their first run in the bottom of the second inning. It came on an RBI single by Guillermo Heredia that allowed Abraham Almonte to score, making it 1-0 Atlanta.

The Padres tied the game up in the top of the fourth inning. San Diego’s Tommy Pham scored their second baseman, Jake Cronenworth with a sac fly, making it 1-1.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, MVP Freddie Freeman broke the 1-1 tie when he sent a solo home run into the left field seats making it 2-1 Braves. He didn’t miss that baseball, and it went a LONG way.

That second run was all the Braves needed! Atlanta’s bullpen was lights out and preserved a crucial one run lead.

Game Two: Kyle Muller vs. Chris Paddack, Braves lost 3-2; game one of doubleheader

Overall, this wasn’t a bad game of baseball… the Braves just didn’t come out on top. With this game being part of a doubleheader, the games were only seven innings. So pretty much the entire game was played out of a stretch.

Kyle Muller didn’t have an awful outing. He pitched just four innings, allowed only two hits, one run, three walks, and he had three strikeouts. His control over his pitches was not bad at all, he just made a couple slip-ups that the Padres’ skilled lineup didn’t miss. Muller got into a few deep counts against those Padres hitters, which drove up his pitch count and is what I believe to be the cause of his short outing on the mound.

San Diego had the lead throughout this entire ballgame. They scored one in the top of the fourth on a sac fly, making it 1-0. And they scored their other two runs in the top of the fifth innings when Padres’ young super-star, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-run bomb off of Atlanta’s reliever Shane Greene. Greene has struggled pretty consistently so far this 2021 season. Those struggles continued in this game, and it was the home run he surrendered to Tatis that, in the end, allowed the Padres to win.

Just because the Padres won, doesn’t mean that the Atlanta Braves didn’t put up a fight! Coming into the sixth inning, the Braves were down 3-0. To start Atlanta’s portion of the sixth, Dansby Swanson had a one-pitch groundout to make the first out of the inning. Freddie Freeman followed Swanson with a single, and then Ozzie Albies hit a double to advance Freeman to third. Freddie scored on a passed ball making it 3-1, and then Ozzie scored on a sac fly by Austin Riley making it a 3-2 game, Padres on top.

Atlanta couldn’t bring up anymore offensive help throughout the remainder of the game, so the San Diego Padres evened the series up 1-1.

Game Three: Bryse Wilson vs. Reiss Knehr, winner is TBD; game two of doubleheader

Weather played a huge part in this game. The game started out with sunny skies but as the game went on, the sky got cloudier and darker, and the rain finally fell free. At first, the game continued with the rain falling. As the rain got heavier and heavier, and it didn’t look like it was going to let up anytime soon, the game was suspended and there will be a makeup game at some point.

Bryse Wilson has had a shaky season thus far for the Braves, and those woes continued is this game for him. He only pitched two innings, allowed four hits, five runs, five walks, and he had two strikeouts. His command was all over the place, and he had a hard time throwing strikes.

From the beginning of the game, Atlanta was going to have to play out of the stretch. With the Padres taking a 5-0 lead after the first two innings, it didn’t look good for the Braves. However, being the relentless team that they are, our Atlanta Braves got themselves right back in the game! In the bottom of the second inning, Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley had back-to-back walks to start off the inning, Braves catcher Stephen Vogt had a fly out to make the first out, and then Guillermo Heredia had an RBI double to score my Ozzie and advance Riley to third. Orlando Arcia had a sac fly to score Austin Riley, making it 5-2 and to make the second out. Ehire Adrianza had an RBI double to score Heredia making it 5-3 and then, to get Atlanta within one run of the Padres, Joc Pederson had an RBI single to score Adrianza and make it a 5-4 game.

The Atlanta Braves had a serious comeback happening! After two and a half scoreless innings to get the game into the bottom of the fifth, the rain wasn’t letting up and the game had to be suspended.

I strongly believe that after the second inning that Atlanta had in game three, they would’ve had a very good chance of winning the game. But, because of the rain, we won’t know for sure. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all unfolds when the makeup game takes place!