3/3/18 1:30 pm
Christian Colon shines as the Braves stun the Cardinals 9-2
Photo: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
By. Andrew Rodberg
Following an 8th inning collapse where the Yankees came back and won on a walk-off homer, the Braves returned home to face the Cardinals at 1:05 pm.
The Braves gave the nod to Ace, Julio Teheran to face the Cardinal’s Miles Mikolas. Julio continues to improve after giving up a career high home runs in 2017. Mikolas has been pitching in Japan for the past 3 years and looks to make the Cardinals active roster. With the regular season just 26 days away, everyone is starting to feel the heat of needing to preform well. It should be a good battle this afternoon…
In the 2nd inning is where Julio started to heat up… He was able to strike-out two batters and give the Braves yet another clean inning of work. The bottom of the 2nd is when the Braves bats came alive. After singles from Nick Markakis and Preston Tucker, newly acquired Christian Colon came up to the plate and smashed a 3 run home-run over the left field wall. In doing so, the Braves jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
With all starting pitchers on an unspoken pitch count for the first few weeks of spring training, the Braves sent Julio back to the mound to start the 3rd. Julio gave up 2 singles but struck out yet another batter and secured the Braves lead through 3. To start the offense in the 3rd, Freddie Freeman hit a double to left field and Mr. Reliable (Nick Markakis), once again showed why he is a big part of the Braves lineup when he had an RBI single that scored Freddie to give the Braves a 4-0 lead.
From innings 4-5, the scoring stopped and the bullpens began to enforce their will. In the 6th inning the Cardinals began to pressure relief pitcher Jason Hursh who gave up a walk, double and a single to allow the Cardinals to pull within 2 runs. The bottom of the 6th was all Braves as Rob Brantly hit a solo home-run to right field, Preston Tucker hit a RBI ground rule double, Christian Colon hit a 2 RBI single to right and lastly Rio Ruiz hit a 2 RBI single to right to push the Braves lead to 9-2.
Unlike yesterday, the Braves only allowed 4 hits from the 7-9th innings and no runs on their way to a 9-2 victory over the Cardinals.
Key Players:
Freddie Freeman: 2-3 2 doubles
Christian Colon: 2-3 5 RBI’s
Julio Teheran: 3 innings, 2 hits, 3 strike-outs, 1 Win
Looking Ahead:
The Braves remain at home and now look ahead to a matchup with the Miami Marlins tomorrow afternoon at 1:05pm.
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