For the second straight night, the Atlanta Braves received a frustrating beating from the Tampa Bay Rays and for the third straight day, the offense didn’t have a lot of success at the plate. This time, it was a 7-2 loss for the Braves that doomed them to an ill-timed series loss.
Things stayed scoreless in this one for precisely one inning before the Rays proceeded to pick up where they left off following Monday night’s loss for the Braves. Reynaldo López had seen the minimum four batters before running into Victor Mesa Jr. with one out in the second and Mesa put Tampa Bay on thte board in a loud way with a deep shot to right center that broke the deadlock. López got to two outs and he was actually one strike away from getting out of the second inning with just the one run allowed. That is, until old friend Jorge Mateo managed to take the end of the bat and poke a slider out into the grass for a two-RBI backbreaker of a single.
Reynaldo López found himself in further trouble in the fourth inning. That’s when each of the first four Rays batters he saw in that frame all reached base safely. Three singles and a walk and suddenly the Rays had pushed ahead to a five-run lead. A sacrifice bunt from Jorge Mateo and a sacrifice fly from Yandy Diaz later, the Rays were up by six thanks to some steady hitting and productive outs. That’s good for them but not-so-good for all the folks here on this website who are cheering on the Atlanta Braves!
Fortunately, we finally saw some signs of life from Atlanta’s offense against Griffin Jax. Drake Baldwin got a sinker that he liked and drove it to center for a big solo homer that put the Braves on the board. Sure, it was only 6-1 but hey, that’s a sign of life! Anyways, not much happened after that and the Braves had to settle for only chipping away with one run at the time.
Once Griffin Jax mercifully exited the game ahead of the sixth inning, the Braves did get a little something going at the plate against Rays reliever Ty Johnson. The rookie was making his second big league appearance and Atlanta greeted him somewhat rudely after Drake Baldwin coaxed a walk out of him and then Ronald Acuña Jr. laced one into right center for a double. Matt Olson brought home Baldwin with a sacrifice fly and that was when Tampa Bay went to their bullpen in order to not let this one even get close to getting out of hand. Sure enough, Cam Booser struck out Michael Harris II to end the scoring threat right then and there.
By this the seventh inning, Reynaldo López had been long gone from the game and Ray Kerr had done a very good job of getting through an inning-and-a-third before handing the baton off to Victor Mederos. Unfortuantely, Mederos was unable to keep things from getting even rougher. Mederos hit Jonathan Aranda with a pitch and then gave up two straight singles in order to make it a 7-2 contest. The next two batters were retired in order but the Rays had gotten that run back from the sixth inning so they were plenty satisfied. They were even more satisfied after Cole Sulser retired the Braves in order in the bottom half of the seventh.
The only drama left in this one was whether or not the roach that invaded the TV booth at Truist Park would poke their head out to wreak some more havoc. Either that or if any of the Braves could hit the beer cup tower in the Chop House with a dinger. There was no such luck and the Braves went down quietly in a 7-2 series loss to the Rays.
Notably, the Braves had 11 separate batted balls above 95-mph that ended up turning into outs during tonight’s contest. They had 12 separate instances on Tuesday night, so that’s now 23 bullets the Braves have peppered out there that ended up turning into outs instead of hits. Mauricio Dubón’s final out of the game was hit at 99.4 mph and he snapped a bat over his knee in frustration, so that tells you where the Braves are at right now when it comes to their batted ball luck.
Atlanta has now lost three straight games and their lead in the division is down to three games after the Phillies evened up their series with the Astros in Philadelphia. With the Phillies coming to town this weekend, it’s certainly ideal for Atlanta to at least make sure that they’ll retain a three-game lead heading into that series so hopefully we’ll see something better from the Braves tomorrow afternoon.
The matinee contest will get going at 12:15 p.m. ET on Thursday, as Martín Pérez will be going for a bounce-back start opposite of Tampa Bay starting pitcher Nick Martinez.
