5/1/17
Teheran’s 4th Inning Collapse, Dooms Braves in 7-5 loss to Mets
Before the beginning of a 7 game home-stand against the New York Mets and St Louis Cardinals, Ender Inciarte was given his 2016 Gold Glove Award. He was greeted by a nice applause from the fans, coaches, and players. Ender is 1 of 15 Braves to receive the award with the last being Andrelton Simmons in 2014. Julio Teheran took the mound to face the Mets young pitcher, Robert Gsellman in the 4 game series opener and in the top of 1st inning, only 4 pitches in gave up a home run to straight away center to Mets’ lead off man Michael Conforto. Followed by a ground out, line out and fly out to end the top of the 1st. The Braves looked to tie up the Mets in the bottom of the 1st by sending Inciarte, Phillips, and Freeman to the plate. Ender Inciarte was first up to bat for the Braves in the bottom of the 1st, and gave Gsellman quite a battle. After fighting off 3 straight strikes, he got ahold of a high 92 mph fastball and sent it into the Braves’ Chophouse in right field to tie the Mets at 1 a piece. After Teheran and Gsellman both gave up lead off home runs, they began to settle down and really attack each batter individually. That was until Teheran gave up 5 runs courtesy of Mets’ Neil Walker, Jose Reyes, TJ Rivera, and Michael Conforto in the top of the 4th inning, giving the Mets a 6-1 lead. After his offense gave him a 5 run lead, Gsellman hit Freeman with a pitch and sent him to first base, followed by a long double from Matt Kemp, that put base runners on second and third with no outs and Nick Markakis up to bat. Markakis grounded out to second allowing Freeman to score and moving Kemp to third. Adonis Garcia then sharply hit a ground-ball that got past the shortstop scoring Kemp and cutting the lead to 6-3 in the bottom of the 4th. The Braves began threatening in the bottom of the 5th after an error by Asdrubal Cabrera and a walk to Ender Inciarte, but was unable to score any runs from a passed ball which ended the 5th. The top of the 6th looked like a cake walk to Teheran as he was able to take down the side with no issues, keeping the Braves in the game. The Braves once again got runners in scoring position from back to back doubles by Freeman and Kemp in the bottom of the 6th, that put runners on second and third with no outs and Markakis once again up to bat. The Mets were forced to go to the bullpen and sent Josh Edgin to try and get an out. After just 2 pitches, Markakis grounded out to second scoring Freeman and moving Kemp to third. A sacrifice fly to right field by Adonis Garcia scored Kemp and makes it a 6-5 game! After a blooper by pinch hitter Lane Adams, the 6th inning came to an end. The Braves looked to relief pitcher, Ian Krol, to keep the game close and eat some innings and he did just that until the top of the 8th when he gave up a 1 run home run to Jose Reyes to push the Mets lead to 7-5. Krol then exited the game giving up 1 earned run in 1.2 innings of work. After a non impressive bottom of the 8th the Braves sent Jason Motte to the mound. Motte in his SunTrust Park debut, gave up 1 hit on 20 pitches to end the top of the 9th. With the Mets leading by 2 runs and three outs remaining they sent their closer, Jeurys Familia to the mound. After a strikeout of Dansby Swanson and single by Jace Peterson, Ender Inciarte hit into a double play to end the game. Braves lost 7-5. The Braves will look to end a 2 game losing streak tomorrow night as they send R.A Dickey to the mound to face Mets’ Matt Harvey. The game is set for a 7:35 pm start EST.
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