<img alt="Atlanta Braves v Tampa Bay Rays" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cVxc9vm6yggDX1ymknWkIaA98Bw=/0x0:3824x2549/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/74022564/2210110160.0.jpg">
Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
At least they finally won a game away from Cobb County? Well, that was one of the series of all time, huh? The Atlanta Braves travelled down to Tampa hot off the heels of winning their first series of the season over their divisional rivals in the form of the Philadelphia Phillies. The obvious hope for Atlanta heading into this series was that they would find a way to keep those good vibes going as they embarked on a road trip — and this time, this wasn’t even a trip all the way across the country, either! The Braves will stay in the Eastern time zone for this entire trip to see two AL East teams with the first stop being in Tampa.
With that being said, the Braves were already on the back foot after they got into Tampa late following their long night at the ballpark to end their series with the Phillies. While the pitching matchups weren’t particularly looking great for Atlanta as they had the bottom of their rotation going, there was always the hope that splitting one of the first two games could give Atlanta a chance to pick up the series win since Chris Sale was going on Sunday. However, the best laid plans for the Braves have rarely worked out so far this season and that was the case for Atlanta during this series in the Yankees’ spring training facility.
Friday, April 11Rays 6, Braves 3
The high point of this game for Atlanta took place in the first inning, which is when they went ahead 1-0 on a bouncing ground ball RBI single from Matt Olson. However, Atlanta’s ugly habit of leaving runners in scoring position reared its ugly head again, as the Braves were unable to extend their lead despite having two men on with just one out after Olson’s RBI.
Bryce Elder pitched six innings in this one but this was yet another example of Elder having a really bad habit of throwing the meatiest hangers that any big league hitter could ever hope to see. Danny Jansen (who had one of the best games of his career) broke the 1-1 deadlock after he crushed a sinker from Elder that didn’t sink. Christopher Morel later made it 4-1 in the sixth inning after he hit his first homer of the season by going down and golfing a changeup over the fence. Danny Jansen re-appeared later on in that frame delivered an RBI double to make it 5-1. The best thing I can say about Elder’s outing is that he pitched six innings.
As the title of the recap suggests, we probably should’ve seen this loss coming for the Braves after they had gotten into Tampa extremely late following their rain-delayed walk-off victory in extras over the Phillies way earlier on Friday. Still, it was rough to see Atlanta’s losing streak on the road continue in such uninspiring fashion to kick off this road trip.
Saturday, April 12Braves 5, Rays 4
For six innings, this was looking like another one of Those Days for the Braves at the plate, as they were stranding runners in scoring position all over the place while the Rays were in complete control of the game. However, Tampa Bay did blow some golden chances to blow the game wide open and that ended up costing them once Atlanta’s offense finally woke up in the latter stages of the game.
The Braves hit four homers in this game and three of them happened in the final two innings of this contest. Ozzie Albies and Sean Murphy went back-to-back with two outs in the eighth inning (with Murphy’s dinger being his second of the game, mind you) and then Michael Harris hit a go-ahead two-run shot to put Atlanta in the lead. The late surge was extremely positive to see as this was the second time in three games that Atlanta’s offense had picked a fantastic time to finally wake up and put some runs on the board.
<img alt="MLB: APR 12 Braves at Rays" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iJJP1riQqT5sd6og9Wf6XdiTulw=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25952356/2209365792.jpg">
Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Raisel Iglesias gave up an absolute moonshot to Jonathan Aranda (who was a consistent thorn in Atlanta’s side during this series) but he held them to just that one run in the ninth inning and the Braves found themselves in the winner’s circle on the road for the first time all season. Hooray!
Sunday, April 13Rays 8, Braves 3
This might come off as a hot take but despite the fact that Chris Sale gave up four runs and was only able to pitch five innings, this wasn’t a bad start from Sale at all. Instead, it feels like this was just a continuation of the rut that he’s been in in terms of batted ball luck. While you can’t argue with the leadoff homer from Yandy Díaz, the next three RBIs the Rays had varied from “Well, you can’t get mad at that” to “come on” in terms of frustration.
José Caballero made it 2-0 by poking a slider that was outside the zone and then the next two RBI singles from Coco Montes and Christopher Morel were both under 70-mph in terms of exit velocity off of the bat. While Sale did himself no favors with the walks, getting dinked and dunked like that had to have been incredibly frustrating and he certainly showed that frustration while he was out there.
Anyways, the Braves were once again forced to play from behind in this one as Joe Boyle (!) absolutely dominated them (!!!) for nearly six innings. While they did make it a one-run game after a three-run top of the sixth, it didn’t matter as Pierce Johnson and Enyel De Los Santos gave up two runs each in a four-run bottom of the sixth. That made it 8-3 and that’s how this trip to Tampa ended.
If you want to take a positive view of this series, I guess you could say that the offense didn’t suffer a complete and total power outage. Now granted, this might have to do with the fact that Steinbrenner Field is essentially a carbon copy of Yankee Stadium when it comes to the dimensions (for obvious reasons), which meant that offense was going to come as long as the team showed a pulse. The performance on Saturday was definitely encouraging — not just because of the win but because this team looked incredibly frustrated for six innings before they managed to get it going. For a moment, we started to see flashes of what this offense is capable of when their guys (with a capital ‘G’) are going. This lineup can still make something happen out of nowhere — it just needs to happen more often.
Unfortunately for the Braves, the pitching wasn’t quite up to par and ultimately that was what cost Atlanta in this series. Bryce Elder was underwhelming, AJ Smith-Shawver was fine but took a bit too long to find his comfort zone and Chris Sale apparently has been cursed to wander in the wilderness for some reason or another. They just couldn’t put a complete game together, even with the dramatic win in the middle game. The Braves have no choice but to put it behind them as they go North of the border for a series against the Blue Jays, where they can hopefully get things going in the right track on the road for a change.
<img alt="Atlanta Braves v Tampa Bay Rays" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/cVxc9vm6yggDX1ymknWkIaA98Bw=/0x0:3824x2549/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/74022564/2210110160.0.jpg">
Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
At least they finally won a game away from Cobb County? Well, that was one of the series of all time, huh? The Atlanta Braves travelled down to Tampa hot off the heels of winning their first series of the season over their divisional rivals in the form of the Philadelphia Phillies. The obvious hope for Atlanta heading into this series was that they would find a way to keep those good vibes going as they embarked on a road trip — and this time, this wasn’t even a trip all the way across the country, either! The Braves will stay in the Eastern time zone for this entire trip to see two AL East teams with the first stop being in Tampa.
With that being said, the Braves were already on the back foot after they got into Tampa late following their long night at the ballpark to end their series with the Phillies. While the pitching matchups weren’t particularly looking great for Atlanta as they had the bottom of their rotation going, there was always the hope that splitting one of the first two games could give Atlanta a chance to pick up the series win since Chris Sale was going on Sunday. However, the best laid plans for the Braves have rarely worked out so far this season and that was the case for Atlanta during this series in the Yankees’ spring training facility.
Friday, April 11Rays 6, Braves 3
The high point of this game for Atlanta took place in the first inning, which is when they went ahead 1-0 on a bouncing ground ball RBI single from Matt Olson. However, Atlanta’s ugly habit of leaving runners in scoring position reared its ugly head again, as the Braves were unable to extend their lead despite having two men on with just one out after Olson’s RBI.
Bryce Elder pitched six innings in this one but this was yet another example of Elder having a really bad habit of throwing the meatiest hangers that any big league hitter could ever hope to see. Danny Jansen (who had one of the best games of his career) broke the 1-1 deadlock after he crushed a sinker from Elder that didn’t sink. Christopher Morel later made it 4-1 in the sixth inning after he hit his first homer of the season by going down and golfing a changeup over the fence. Danny Jansen re-appeared later on in that frame delivered an RBI double to make it 5-1. The best thing I can say about Elder’s outing is that he pitched six innings.
As the title of the recap suggests, we probably should’ve seen this loss coming for the Braves after they had gotten into Tampa extremely late following their rain-delayed walk-off victory in extras over the Phillies way earlier on Friday. Still, it was rough to see Atlanta’s losing streak on the road continue in such uninspiring fashion to kick off this road trip.
Saturday, April 12Braves 5, Rays 4
For six innings, this was looking like another one of Those Days for the Braves at the plate, as they were stranding runners in scoring position all over the place while the Rays were in complete control of the game. However, Tampa Bay did blow some golden chances to blow the game wide open and that ended up costing them once Atlanta’s offense finally woke up in the latter stages of the game.
The Braves hit four homers in this game and three of them happened in the final two innings of this contest. Ozzie Albies and Sean Murphy went back-to-back with two outs in the eighth inning (with Murphy’s dinger being his second of the game, mind you) and then Michael Harris hit a go-ahead two-run shot to put Atlanta in the lead. The late surge was extremely positive to see as this was the second time in three games that Atlanta’s offense had picked a fantastic time to finally wake up and put some runs on the board.
<img alt="MLB: APR 12 Braves at Rays" data-mask-text="false" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/iJJP1riQqT5sd6og9Wf6XdiTulw=/400x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25952356/2209365792.jpg">
Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
Raisel Iglesias gave up an absolute moonshot to Jonathan Aranda (who was a consistent thorn in Atlanta’s side during this series) but he held them to just that one run in the ninth inning and the Braves found themselves in the winner’s circle on the road for the first time all season. Hooray!
Sunday, April 13Rays 8, Braves 3
This might come off as a hot take but despite the fact that Chris Sale gave up four runs and was only able to pitch five innings, this wasn’t a bad start from Sale at all. Instead, it feels like this was just a continuation of the rut that he’s been in in terms of batted ball luck. While you can’t argue with the leadoff homer from Yandy Díaz, the next three RBIs the Rays had varied from “Well, you can’t get mad at that” to “come on” in terms of frustration.
José Caballero made it 2-0 by poking a slider that was outside the zone and then the next two RBI singles from Coco Montes and Christopher Morel were both under 70-mph in terms of exit velocity off of the bat. While Sale did himself no favors with the walks, getting dinked and dunked like that had to have been incredibly frustrating and he certainly showed that frustration while he was out there.
Anyways, the Braves were once again forced to play from behind in this one as Joe Boyle (!) absolutely dominated them (!!!) for nearly six innings. While they did make it a one-run game after a three-run top of the sixth, it didn’t matter as Pierce Johnson and Enyel De Los Santos gave up two runs each in a four-run bottom of the sixth. That made it 8-3 and that’s how this trip to Tampa ended.
If you want to take a positive view of this series, I guess you could say that the offense didn’t suffer a complete and total power outage. Now granted, this might have to do with the fact that Steinbrenner Field is essentially a carbon copy of Yankee Stadium when it comes to the dimensions (for obvious reasons), which meant that offense was going to come as long as the team showed a pulse. The performance on Saturday was definitely encouraging — not just because of the win but because this team looked incredibly frustrated for six innings before they managed to get it going. For a moment, we started to see flashes of what this offense is capable of when their guys (with a capital ‘G’) are going. This lineup can still make something happen out of nowhere — it just needs to happen more often.
Unfortunately for the Braves, the pitching wasn’t quite up to par and ultimately that was what cost Atlanta in this series. Bryce Elder was underwhelming, AJ Smith-Shawver was fine but took a bit too long to find his comfort zone and Chris Sale apparently has been cursed to wander in the wilderness for some reason or another. They just couldn’t put a complete game together, even with the dramatic win in the middle game. The Braves have no choice but to put it behind them as they go North of the border for a series against the Blue Jays, where they can hopefully get things going in the right track on the road for a change.
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