The Atlanta Braves came off a tough 3-2 loss against the Pittsburgh Pirates Wednesday night with a vengeance. Atlanta’s offense took the life out of the Cincinnati Reds early in the ballgame leading to 8-0 victory. This was a complete team win by the Braves as starting pitcher Julio Teheran pitched another great game, while the Braves lineup handled their business once again. Thursday night’s shutout was the Braves 12th such victory of the season.
This is the Braves sixth victory in seven games, Atlanta is still seven games behind the Washington Nationals in the division but creep closer in the Wild Card as they are only a ½ game behind the San Francisco Giants.
Andrelton Simmons did the honors tonight smacking his seventh homerun of the season in the second inning to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.
Atlanta’s lineup threw down the hammer in the third inning scoring 5 runs off of Reds starter David Holmberg giving the Braves a 6-0 lead. The aforementioned inning started with a leadoff single by Jason Heyward, which was originally ruled a catch by Reds outfielder Skip Shumaker. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez challenged the play and it was overturned giving Heyward first base.
Phil Gosselin followed with a single, Freddie Freeman walked, and Justin Upton singled home two runners giving the Braves a 3-0 lead and extending Upton’s hit streak to 12 games. During such streak Upton is batting .400 with 4 homeruns and 18 RBI’s.
The line kept moving as Chris Johnson smashed a double off the wall allowing Freddie Freeman to score. After a coaching visit to the mound the next batter Evan Gattis hit a sacrifice fly bringing the Braves lead to 5-0.
After B.J. Upton was intentionally walked Reds starter Holmberg unintentionally plunked the pitcher Julio Teheran to load the bases. Holmberg couldn’t recover against the next batter Jason Heyward as he walked Heyward allowing another run to score giving the Braves a 6-0 lead. That was the end of the road for Holmberg as he only went 2.2 innings allowing six runs on five hits while walking four batters.
The Braves were able to add insult to injury adding on a single run in the fourth on a fielder’s choice by Andrelton Simmons and a single run in the fifth on a sac-fly by Justin Upton bringing the score to 8-0.
While the Braves offense took it to the Reds, Braves starter Julio Teheran cruised through six innings allowing only four hits while striking out three. Teheran didn’t walk a single batter and even though he didn’t strike out a bunch he was able to create weak contact. This was a big outing for Teheran as he’s had some recent struggles on the road and the fact his teammates picked him up early allowed him to calm down and attack the Reds lineup.
This victory, and the fashion they did it in, was huge for the Braves. A heartbreaking loss like they endured the night before can linger and hurt the team’s chances of winning the next couple of games. The fact they dominated from start to finish helps their confidence the rest of the series, and the fact the Reds playoff hopes are fading fast can only help the Braves chances of coming away with at least a series win.