It seems like that “one bad inning” has come around full circle to bite the Cardinals thus far in 2019. It seems like everything is going well, then bam. Danny Mac drops the ultimate jinx after the Liz King breezes thru his 5th inning of one run ball. (no I’m not blaming him entirely, but the announcers jinx, especially when it’s Horton, is a very real thing)
Anyways, Mike Foltynewicz coming into his start tonight was sporting a fantastic (0-3, 6.91), one of those losses against the Cardinals last week in Atlanta. (4.2IP, 7 hits, 8er, 3 bb, 4 k’s)
So naturally he’d spin his best start of the season, matching Mikolas stride for stride.
I will say that both starters really had the strikeouts working tonight. Not to mention, they both had an excellent pace out there, Manfred would be proud.
The first 12 batters of the game would be retired in order, with both Folty and the Liz King picking up a pair of k’s.
Mik would fan Swanson and Donaldson, getting Donaldson on an excellent curve in the dirt.
Folty would strikeout the Cardinals new leadoff hitter, or at least for the time being, Dexter Fowler on a slider to begin his evening, needing just 9 pitches to get out of the inning.
Mik ran into a bit of an issue to open up the 3rd, surrendering three consecutive singles in a row to the 7-8-9 hitters (McCann, Albies, Foltynewicz) in the Braves lineup, loading the bases for Acuña.
Mik and his defense behind him would trade a double play for a run, getting Acuña to bounce into a 4-6-3 DP, scoring McCann and moving Albies over to 3B.
Swanson would then strikeout for the second time in two at bats, whiffing at a 95mph heater from Mik.
The baseball gods blessed the Cards (kind of) in the bottom half of the 3rd. KoWo would leadoff the inning with a two base error from Riley in LF, as him and Acuña didn’t seem to be communicating very well.
The next batter stuff got weirder. Harry Bader would rip a triple off the outstretched, twisting and turning, Acuña’s glove in CF (prolly could’ve been ruled an error, but it was a tough play) to score Wong, tying things at 1-1.
The problem....
Harry got a little too aggressive with the throw into the infield being a bit wild and squirting around a bit, finding himself in no man’s land between third and home. Folty would throw over to Donaldson at 3B to get Harry out, bringing up Mikolas with nobody on and one out.
Mik would ground out, Dex then got HBP, Goldy then reached on an infield single, but Deez would go down looking at a slider to end the threat.
Mik would pick up four more strikeouts thru the 4th and 5th. The two biggest being one to Riley on a 95mph fastball to strand Markakis after a two out double, and Acuña whiffing at the 80mph curve low and outside to end the 5th.
Folty was on cruise control thru the 4th-6th in case you were wondering. Picking up four strikeouts, allowing only a single to Bader.
The one bad inning happened to begin the 6th, as Swanson and Freeman connected for back-to-back blasts off Mikolas, giving the Braves a 3-1 lead. They wouldn’t look back.
Mik retired the next 6 he faced, ending his evening after 7 innings. (7IP, 7 hits, 3er, 0 bb, 9 k’s)
Both starters wouldn’t allow a walk all game, shoot neither would either bullpen. A game with no walks and 22 strikeouts (11 on each side).
Gallegos would get hit hard to open the 8th, giving up three straight hits and adding a throwing error on a pickoff attempt. Swanson would take him deep for a 2 run shot, his second HR of the game to extend the Braves lead to 5-1.
Webb would come in to clean things up, getting an inning ending double play on Markakis.
Brebbs worked a scoreless 9th and the ghost of the Leadoff Guy would smack a HR to leadoff the bottom of the 9th, tucking it around the RF fair/foul pole to make it 5-2.
Game over.
Dakota Hudson (3-3, 4.40) gets the ball in game-two, matching up with a tough sinker baller, Mike Soroka (5-1, 1.01). First pitch tonight at 6:15pm c/t. The game will be aired on the big FOX network.
Cheers, Stew
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