The Braves spent a long night at Busch Stadium waiting for something to break their way, and instead got a 2-1 loss that came down to a pair of loud swings in the eighth inning.
The most frustrating part for Atlanta was how close the difference really was. In a tie game, Michael Harris II smoked a ball at over 105 mph that had a hit probability of just about 60 percent and would’ve left the yard in 26 of MLB’s 30 ballparks.
It stayed in the park and was caught at the wall. A few batters later, pinch-hitter Jimmy Crooks launched a ball over 102 mph with nearly the same hit profile, and this time it cleared the fence for the game-winning homer.
Chris Sale had been scheduled to start this one, and he looked sharp before the weather intervened. After a rough outing in his previous start, he opened with five strikeouts over three innings before the rain ended his night early. He did run into a small issue in the third with a double and a walk, but Ivan Herrera couldn’t do anything with a hanging first-pitch slider.
Kyle Leahy was on the other side in what had also been a start that turned into something else. He retired the first eight Braves he faced, allowed a single to Jim Jarvis, and then got a big assist when JJ Wetherholt snared a Michael Harris II liner. Wetherholt also signed a big extension today.
Then came the delay. Play stopped for nearly three hours as the rain turned Busch Stadium into Busch Lake.
When the game finally restarted, both teams looked like they were trying to shake off the sleep. Mike Yastrzemski ripped a double with one out in the fifth and scored on a hard grounder from Austin Riley up the middle, giving Atlanta its only run.
The Braves had a shot at more in that inning, too, but Wetherholt made another liner catch to end the frame. In the sixth, Drake Baldwin came close to a two-run homer, but the ball stayed just foul.
Victor Mederos handled two clean innings after the rain, but Didier Fuentes gave up the lead in the sixth. It started with a one-out walk, then a slow single on a pitch that was basically in the “waste” area, and then Jordan Walker lined a hard ball the other way.
Fuentes and the defense escaped with the game still tied. Tyler Kinley then saw a leadoff walk wiped out by a double play in the seventh.
That set up the eighth, and the swing that decided it. Harris came up empty, Danny Young entered instead of Dylan Lee, and Crooks sent a sweeper into the seats.
Atlanta still had one more near-miss in it. Baldwin drove another ball deep off closer Riley O’Brien, and while it wasn’t a true barrel, it traveled 402 feet and would’ve been a homer in 12 parks. Busch Stadium wasn’t one of them, and the game ended soon after.
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