Coming into tonight’s game, the San Diego Padres were statistically the worst offensive team in MLB. However, early in this game they looked liked a halfway decent offensive club as they knocked around Braves starter Alex Wood pretty good. San Diego went on to win 5-2 against the Atlanta Braves.
The Padres pounded out twelve hits through five innings against the Braves southpaw. Of those twelve hits, eleven of them were singles. The Padres lineup was playing pepper against Wood and the Braves defense. Alex Wood allowed the Padres leadoff hitter to reach base in every single inning. The leadoff hitter has been a problem for Wood all season and tonight led to five runs for a Padres offense that has been swinging the bats well of late.
The only saving grace for Alex Wood and the Braves were the two double plays they were able to get in the first two innings to limit the Padres to just one run. It kept them in the game, but unfortunately that was not the case for Wood in the latter innings as the Braves offense was not able to get much going against Padres rookie starter Jesse Hahn.
Hahn pitched a great game for the Padres pitching six innings allowing only one run on three hits, while walking three batters and striking out four. He was able to get ahead consistently with his 91 MPH fastball and finishing the Atlanta hitters off with a nasty 12-to-6 curve ball. The Braves were able to get runners on base in five of the six frames Hahn pitched, but the offense could not come up with that big extra-base hit to get enough runs across. The only extra-base allowed was the triple by Freddie Freeman. Freeman later scored on a Justin Upton sacrifice fly.
The Braves did have a prime opportunity to make a game of it in the 8th inning. After Tommy La Stella grounded into a double-play, Freddie Freeman singled with two outs. The Padres brought in Joaquin Benoit after Justin Upton walked. The veteran reliever continued the trend by walking the next two batters, Jason Heyward and Evan Gattis, which ended up bringing home the Braves second run making it 5-2.
With the bases loaded and two-outs the Braves had the go-ahead run at the plate in the form of Chris Johnson. Instead of making Benoit throw a strike after he just walked the last two batters, Johnson hacked at the first pitch and flied out to center. The rally over ended just like that to the chagrin of the Braves.
The Braves went down quietly in the 9th and lost to the Padres, 5-2. This is the Braves fourth loss in the last five games at home. All four losses have been against teams with records under .500. The Braves will need to win the next three games against the Padres to have a winning record on this home stand. To make matters worse, the Nationals defeated the Cincinnati Reds tonight, which puts the Braves 2.5 games back in the division. Atlanta needs to turn their fortunes around quick before they go on the 8-game West Coast road trip where they face the Dodgers, the Padres, and the Seattle Mariners. The month of August will not be kind to Atlanta and they need to figure out how to get back to their winning ways before the Nationals put too much distance between them.