The Braves had not had a good time recently, especially in terms of hitting the ball. Jacob Misiorowski came into this game as the best pitcher in baseball. It seemed like a recipe for continued misery/Miz-ery. Well, I am happy to inform you that about two hours and thirty minutes after first pitch, the Braves prevailed by a score of 3-2. They did a bit of everything: they eventually wore down and punched out Misiorowski thanks to Mauricio Dubon’s two-run single, they hit a homer, Martin Perez pitched a really good game, and Eli White had a game-saving outfield assist in the ninth. Woo. Wow. Wooo!
Early on, the Miz was as advertised. Things felt unfair, even without the context of the Braves’ recent offensive struggles. After Martin Perez threw a 12-pitch, 1-2-3 first, Misiorowski sprung out of the dugout and hurled a nine-pitch frame of his own. Perez responded by striking out the side… and Misiorowski vaguely wobbled a bit.
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Dominic Smith led off the bottom of the second with a bloop single, and Austin Riley took a two-strike approach in a zero-strike count and bounced a hopper through the right side to put two on with one out. Mike Yastrzemski hit a hard grounder that led to a bang-bang out at first, which brought up White. Misiorowski pumped in four fastballs, the first two at 103 and the next two at 104, White missed two of them (and fouled off one in the middle), and that was that.
Then, it was Milwaukee’s turn to kinda-sorta strike. This was, of all of them, the definite Perez pachinko inning. Blake Perkins led off the frame with a swinging bunt single. After a strikeout, Joey Ortiz turned a down-the-pipe fastball into a hard grounder up the middle. It could’ve been a double play if it were hit at an infielder, but it was not. A comebacker moved the runners up, and the Braves elected to walk Jackson Chourio so that Perez could face Brice Turang with the platoon advantage. That sorta worked, because Turang hit a down-the-middle sinker into the ground, but it also didn’t work because the ball was again hit nowhere near the Braves’ defensive alignment, and went for an infield single as it hobbled up the middle. The Brewers led, 1-0. It seemed imposing, given Misiorowski’s presence looming on the mound. (Perez got out of it as old friend William Contreras flew out on a 2-0 count.)
It was imposing, as Misiorowski faced the minimum in the third, fourth, and fifth. To his substantial credit, Perez didn’t fall apart either — the strikeouts went away but he and the defense kept the Brewers at bay. A two on, zero out situation was untangled as lefty-killer Andrew Vaughn hit a screamer right at Jorge Mateo at shortstop, giving the Braves a double play; Perez escaped he frame with a strikeout to end his outing.
And then, the stage was set for the Braves upending everything by tagging Misiorowski for a couple of runs. Mateo got things started with a weak bouncer infield single of his own. After Misiorowski once again got the better of Drake Baldwin, Ozzie Albies was able to take a first-pitch, down-the-middle 100 mph heater out to right center for a single. Matt Olson and The Miz then engaged in a legendary-feeling battle: three strikes in the zone (the third was a foul), then three balls out of the zone, then two fouls on wicked 96 mph cutters that Olson seemed to bend the laws of physics to be able to reach and fight off as they bore in on his knees, and finally, a cutter that Misiorowski mis-executed and hurled towards Olson’s shoetops, loading the bases. So, up came Dominic Smith… and not much later, he sat down. He missed one of those ogrish cutters for strike one, and eventually missed two balls (102, then 103) in the middle of the zone.
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It was up to Mauricio Dubon. He came through. Misiorowski’s idea was clear: move horizontally and jam Dubon. After a ball outside, he threw a fastball in the up-and-in part of the zone, and got a foul. He darted a cutter off the plate away, and got a whiff. He came back in with a fastball in that same place as strike one, and… Dubon was ready:
There’s some world where Dubon hits this too hard, and the misery/Miz-ery continues. This is not that world. Woo. Misiorowski struck out Austin Riley to end the inning, but the damage was done.
And, finally, with a late-ish lead, it was time for the Braves’ overly-well-rested bullpen backend to get some high-leverage work. First up was Dylan Lee. A bloop single and a steal put the tying run on second, but Lee struck out Ortiz. Up next, Christian Yelich hit a deep drive into the left-field corner, but White made a nice running catch to snare it on the warning track. Rather than walk Chourio again to set up a lefty-lefty matchup, the Braves swapped Lee for Robert Suarez, who got a routine groundout to end the frame.
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Abner Uribe came in for the seventh. The first Milwaukee non-Misiorowski pitch was promptly creamed into right field by Yastrzemski for a homer. Actually, it wasn’t really creamed — it was a Truist Park special cheapo homer to right, but it still counts, and gave the Braves some breathing room that they’d end up needing.
Suarez stayed in for the eighth and had some drama. There were two quick outs, but then a couple of well-struck balls that put the tying runs on base. The Brewers pinch hit with Jake Bauers to gain the platoon advantage. Suarez got ahead of Bauers with two strikes, including a silly-looking whiff on a changeup out of the zone, but then tried to get that same whiff four more times and ended up walking Bauers instead. Sal Frelick pinch hit with the bases loaded, and Suarez had a spot of trouble locating his fastball — but after pumping in two get-me-over ones to fill up the count, Frelick hit a hard comebacker on another get me over-ish heater. The ball bounced off Suarez but not very far, and the inning ended with the game still at 3-1.
The Braves got a Smith double in the eighth, but nothing else. So, it was up to Raisel Iglesias in the ninth. Fortunately, he ended up getting some help. After a groundout, Iglesias walked Yelich to bring the tying run to the dish. Chourio didn’t tie the game, but he did yank a changeup into the left-field corner to put the tying run in scoring position. Turang jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Iglesias and lined it to left, kinda in the same spot where Dubon came through earlier… and it would have tied the game, except… Eli White to the rescue! White threw a bullet to Baldwin, cutting down Chourio at the plate. The Brewers challenged because, well, why not — but the call was confirmed, with the perfect throw nudging Baldwin’s glove into Chourio’s leg ahead of his foot scraping the plate. The Brewers did, technically, now have the tying run on base with Contreras up, but Iglesias got ahead of him with a sinker and then ended the game with two changeups that Contreras could only flail at. Game over.
And what a game it was. The Braves haven’t had it easy, and tonight wasn’t either, but they came away with a win. Chris Sale gets the ball tomorrow. We’ll see what happens.
