3/10/18 4:30 pm
Braves pull away as they defeat the Pirates 15-1
By. Andrew Rodberg
On Sunday afternoon, the Braves traveled to Bradenton, Florida to face the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 15th game of spring training. In doing so the Braves sent out pitcher, Mike Foltynewicz to face the Pirates Trevor Williams. With the first pitch scheduled for 1:05, the Braves looked to build on their last night 3-1 victory over the Yankees.
In the first inning, both pitchers worked a clean innings and began to sit batters down at an alarming rate. From innings 2-3, neither pitcher would give up a single hit as they each struck out 1 batter and kept the game 0-0 through 3.
In the top of the 4th inning is when the Braves batters finally got to Williams. The first problem Williams faced was when he walked the speedy Ronald Acuna on 4 straight balls and then followed that up with allowing a 1 pitch RBI double by Johan Camargo that scored Acuna and gave the Braves a 1-0 lead. The scoring didn’t stop there as Dustin Peterson crushed a 2 run home-run over the left field wall to give the Braves a 3-0 lead.
Mike Foltynewicz remained in the game in the bottom of the 4th as he gave up a lead-off double but then silenced the next 3 batters for Pittsburgh to work yet another clean, run free inning. As the top of the 5th got underway, the Braves continued to push the lead wide open. With Dansby Swanson at the plate, he worked a 3-2 count and connected on a pitch and sent it to left field for a 2 run home run that extended the Braves lead to 5-0.
In the bottom of the 5th inning, the Braves ended Foltynewicz’s day as he worked 4 innings, gave up 2 hits, struck out 1 batter and gave up no ER. The Braves then replaced him with the struggling Shane Carle who surprisingly had his stuff today and sat down the side in order to help secure the Braves 5 run lead.
For the Braves, the 6th inning looked a lot like innings 4-5 as the Pirates hit Danny Santana and walked Dustin Peterson to put two on and no outs. This is when the bats went to work once more, a single by Rio Ruiz and a sacrifice fly by Chris Stewart pushed the lead to 7-0. Ozzie Albies then joined the fun with a single to center to score Ruiz and give the Braves a 8-0 lead.
The Braves kept Shane Carle on the mound for the bottom of the 6th. In doing so, he continued to find the strike zone until he made a minor mistake and left a 1-0 pitch to high and Pirates Jordy Mercer smashed it to left field to get the Pirates on the board at 8-1.
In the top of the 9th inning, the Braves exploded and put up 7 runs courtesy of a HBP, 2 walks,1 double, a sac fly and an error to extend their lead to 15-1.
From innings 7-9, the Braves bullpen continued to perform well as they refused to give up any runs and only gave up 1 hit in those innings. The Braves closed out the game by shutting out the side for a 15-1 win.
Key Players:
Mike Foltynewicz: 4 innings, 2 hits, 1 SO, 1 W
Dustin Peterson: 2-4, 4 RBI
Dansby Swanson: 1-5, 2 RBI
Looking Ahead:
The Braves now look ahead to a showdown with the Detroit Tigers tomorrow in Lakeland, Florida at 1:05pm.
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