In a battle of tough lefties, Chris Sale and the Braves faced Kyle Harrison and the Brewers for game 2 in Atlanta.
After 1-2-3 frames from each lefty to start the game, Sale worked around some traffic to keep things scoreless in the second. From there things settled in for a pitching duel, as Harrison carried a perfect game into the fifth. Fortunately, righty Ozzie broke the perfect game, no-hitter, and shutout in one swing with a solo homer. Eli White legged out an infield single in the same frame, but was unable to score.
In the sixth, Chris Sale came out for what was presumably his last inning. Ozzie Albies fumbled a double-play ball with one out that would have ended the inning, but Contreras singled on the next AB, loading the bases. A sac fly tied the game and left runners on the corners with two outs. A brutal bloop single gave the Brewers 2-1 lead, as that Albies error became incredibly costly, as he could likely have even salvaged that play with an out at first, but instead went for the double-play despite the fumble, resulting in a 1-0 lead turning into a 2-1 deficit. At this point, Didier Fuentes took over for Sale (who had thrown 101 pitches) and struck out Bauers to mercifully end the inning. Sale ended his day with 5.2 innings of “2-run ball” on 7 strikeouts and 1 walk, another good day for the veteran ace.
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Two singles and a fielder’s choice scored an insurance run against Fuentes in the seventh. Still facing Harrison, Ozzie and Mike singled and doubled with one out in the seventh, giving Atlanta a huge chance to tie the game up or more. Austin traded an out for a run with an RBI fielder’s choice of his own, giving Dom Smith the next chance with two outs. Unfortunately, Dom was unable to deliver and the game went into the eighth a 3-2 Brewers ballgame. James Karinchak and Dylan Lee did their job in the eighth and ninth to give Atlanta a chance and Matt Olson represented the tying run with a bloop single in the home ninth. Ozzie Albies was next at bat, batting from the right side again and he pulled on just fair and just into the Chop House for a massive walk-off and redemption of his error, as his early homer, error, and walk-off homer really defined this game.
Join us again tomorrow at 1:35 PM ET, as the Braves go for what would be a very impressive sweep against this quality Brewers club with Bryce Elder on the mound.
