Braves belt out Lamet’s lament, engage Shuise Control in 8-1 win
In what was possibly their easiest win all season, the Braves smashed three two-run homers off Dinelson Lamet, while Jared Shuster and the bullpen stifled Colorado’s league-worst offense en route to an 8-1 rout. This game was really a tale of two things in this headline, which explain both the Braves’ eight runs and the Rockies’ sole tally on the night.
Lamet’s Lament
Dinelson Lamet did not have a good night. The Braves’ bats, on the other hand, had a very good night. Things snowballed for Lamet quickly. Ronald Acuña Jr. led off the home half of the first with a walk, and immediately stole second uncontested. After a groundout moved him to third, Lamet’s ball four to Austin Riley skipped past catcher Jorge Alfaro, allowing Acuña to score easily. Moments later, Travis d’Arnaud unleashed this apocalyptic blast:
For those of you keeping score at home, this moonshot traveled an estimated 474 feet, which makes it:
The sixth-longest homer hit by a Brave in the Statcast era;
The fourth-longest homer hit at Truist Park in the Statcast era; and
Tied for the fifth-longest homer hit this season.
Blam.
Two innings later, d’Arnaud struck again. Once again, Riley walked, this time with two out and none on. Once again, d’Arnaud brought him home with a massive dinger.
d’Arnaud entered this game with 99 longballs in the majors, and he left it with 101.
The next inning, it was Marcell Ozuna’s turn to draw a walk, and Eddie Rosario’s turn to crush a two-run homer.
After Rosario’s homer, the Braves put two more men on, and scored their eighth and final run as Acuña hit into a double play with men on the corners.
The bats did essentially nothing for the rest of the game, collecting just a walk in two innings of Peter Lambert pitching, and a couple of singles in two innings against Jake Bird. They didn’t really need to do anything else, though, because they engaged...
Shuise Control
Yes, for the first time this season, I’ve been able to use my excellent/horrible pun to good effect. Was Jared Shuster good in this game? Ehhhh. Did he cruise with the big lead? Pretty much, yeah. Considering the Rockies came into the game with both the league’s worst offense, and by far the worst offense against lefty pitching, the Shuise Control was perhaps less surprising here than at any other potential time, but being able to engage it was still fun to see.
In the end, Shuster managed to once again, somehow, run a line with more walks (three) than strikeouts (two). He also continued to avoid the longball. The Rockies collected a couple of singles in the first, but a d’Arnaud caught stealing rendered those two hits threatless. A walk went nowhere in the second. The third was a breeze with a groundout and two popouts, and the fourth was also a 1-2-3 inning despite a single, as the ball bounced off Matt Olson at first but then resulted in the runner getting thrown out trying to take second. The fifth was two groundouts and a popout.
Was it surprising that Shuise Control basically sputtered and ended once the eighteenth batter came and went? Kinda no, but again, the Rockies are horrid against lefties, so maybe kinda yes. Jurickson Profar doubled in his third plate appearance of the night and moved to third on a single. Shuster then walked Elias Diaz, and after an RBI forceout at second, walked Nolan Jones. That set his K%-BB% to negative for the game, and he was yanked. Kirby Yates came on, and inhaled struck out Jorge Alfaro to end the pseudo-threat. No word on whether he absorbed Alfaro’s powers... assuming Alfaro even has any left at this point.
Yates then collected two more strikeouts in a scoreless seventh, before giving way to Ben “High Water” Heller, making his first MLB appearance in nearly three years. Heller probably had a lot of fun in this one: he struck out the side in the eighth (also allowing a single and walking a batter), and then struck out the first two he faced in the ninth before ending the game with a groundout.
All in all, this game flew by in just two hours and 14 minutes. With its conclusion, the Braves grab hold of MLB’s second-best record and maintain a five-game lead over the Marlins, who beat the Nationals 6-5 tonight. The Braves’ three homers have also, perhaps temporarily, given them the team MLB homer lead, passing both the Dodgers and the Rays.
The series continues through the weekend, with the Braves looking to extend their current winning streak to five games and beyond.
Source: Battery Power
