For the second straight night, the Atlanta Braves rallied late in the game to defeat the Miami Marlins. The elder statesman of the Braves lineup, Nick Markakis and A.J. Pierzynski, came through and carried the offense to a 6-3 victory.

The first part of this game was a straight up pitcher’s duel between Marlins ace Jose Fernandez and Braves right-hander Julio Teheran. Through three innings, Fernandez was perfect as he didn’t allow a base runner and struck out three. During that same stretch, Teheran went three shutout innings allowing only one base hit.

The game started to change in the bottom of the fourth inning as Atlanta recorded their first base runner off Fernandez with a one-out walk by Daniel Castro. Nick Markakis followed that up with a single to left, advancing the runner to third and extending his hitting streak to 14 games. A.J. Pierzynski came up to the plate next and singled to left, extending his hit steak to 12 games, to score Castro and giving the Braves a 1-0 lead. After Cameron Maybin loaded the bases with a single, Joey Terdoslavich came through with an RBI single to extend the lead to 2-0.

Fernandez finished the game going five innings allowing two runs on four hits, while striking out six and walking only one. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason for Fernandez’s early exit as he only pitched five innings while throwing 76 pitches. The right-hander is coming back from Tommy John so maybe this was a situation to limit his innings.

Julio Teheran cruised through six innings and looked like the old vintage Teheran. However, in the seventh inning things would get dicey as he gave up back-to-back singles to Martin Prado and Ichiro Suzuki to lead off the inning. Adeiny Hechavarria would follow that up with a two-run triple in the right-center field gap to tie the game at two. Before his exit, Teheran would do a great job limiting the damage as he forced a groundout to third and recorded a strikeout to keep the runner from scoring. Unfortunately, Braves left-handed reliever Ross Detwiler came into the game to face Dee Gordon and allowed the runner to score on an infield single, giving the Marlins a 3-2 lead in the seventh.

Teheran finished the game going 6.2 innings allowing three runs on six hits, while walking one and striking out three.

Atlanta would respond in a big way in the bottom half of the seventh inning. Todd Cunningham, who was called up from Triple-A when the Swisher-Bourn trade went down, got the rally started with an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error by Hechavarria. Pinch-hitter Pedro Ciriaco came up next and reached first base on another fielding error by the normally sure-handed Hechavarria and Jace Peterson walked to load the bases with one out.

Marlins manager Dan Jennings would go to the bullpen and replace rookie right-hander Kendry Flores (0-1) with left-hander Mike Dunn. That’s when more craziness ensued. Daniel Castro would hit a grounder to third base and the throw would come home for the force out, so we thought. Marlins catcher Jeff Mathis would receive the throw and not only missed the plate with his foot but couldn’t apply a tag on the runner. The call was initially ruled out, but under further review would be overturned, tying the game up at three.

Nick Markakis would further the Braves lead as he served a two-run single to center field, giving the Braves a 5-3 lead. Markakis ended the night 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. After another replay challenge in the favor of Atlanta that kept Daniel Castro at third base, Pierzynski simply put the ball in play and scored the fourth run of the inning making it 6-3 in favor of Atlanta.

Arodys Vizcaino came on for the second straight night and recorded his second save of the season. Ross Detwiler (1-5) was rewarded with the win as he recorded the final out of the seventh inning.

Newly acquired outfielders Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn are expected to start tomorrow and make their debuts with the team. Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons (sprained right thumb) is hoping to return to the lineup tomorrow after being out since August 2nd. All reports are that he’s doing better after taking batting practice today.

GAME THREE MATCHUP:

The Marlins will send right-hander Tom Koehler (8-8, 3.71 ERA) to the mound as they look to snap their five-game losing streak. In three starts this season against Atlanta, Koehler is 1-1 with a 2.51 ERA.

The Braves will send rookie right-hander Mike Foltynewicz (3-3, 5.40 ERA) as he looks to find consistency on the mound and extend Atlanta’s winning streak to three games. In six home starts, Foltynewicz is 3-1 with a 5.97 ERA.