The Braves were very accomplished hosts in every way as they pulled off a big win Friday night
The Braves were very rude on Friday night. The Marlins came in with their best pitching performance in MLB for the month of June, but they would finish the month a full 0.4 fWAR down from where they started, with major damage done to the lines of three of the four Miami pitchers featured in this game. Beyond that, though, the fun turned comic: The Braves hit so many homers in this game that Friday night’s fireworks caused the kind of lighting problem that forced a game-long delay of the seventh. Then things got ridiculous when the Braves hit another homer, and a bunch of smoke flew over the field. In the end, it was a dominant and absurd 16-4 win, as Michael Soroka homered six runs despite allowing two homers that night.
Let’s talk about the exploits of our sassy boys, who made sure to dip Bryan Hoeing’s shooting stats well. Hoeing came in with a 2.31 ERA, 3.56 FIP, and a 4.45 putt. After tonight, he has a 3.72 ERA, 4.65 FIP, and 4.85 xFIP, as the Braves tag him to three runs in 3 2⁄3 innings pitched. Things quickly got out of control.
In the first inning, Ronald Acuna Jr. reached one and scored on an Austin Riley RBI single. Then Matt Olson hit a two-pound homer. A few minutes later, it was Eddie Rosario’s turn to hack a two-round shot.
After the Marlins tried to make the game by scoring three runs in the top of the third (more on that later), the bad guys on their red Friday team brazenly doubled down on their efforts to make it even more laughable. Riley immediately started the bottom of the third with a homer, hanging hard on the two-hit count and penalizing a slider on the inside edge instead of protecting the plate. Then Olson somehow hit a triple, the third of his career (and second of the season), scoring on Shaun Murphy’s sacrifice fly.
In the fifth, with Hoeing gone long and replaced by Archie Bradley, Ozzie Albies doubled, Riley hit an RBI single, and Olson cracked last A two-run homer, Murphy singled, Marcel Ozuna hit a crazy grind that somehow bounced off Joey Wendell’s short arm and slid into right field, and Rosario had an RBI hit.
In the sixth, Olson drove at Acuña on a hit-by-pitch single, then Murphy hit a two-run homer of his own. Then in the seventh, it was Acuna’s turn to hit a two-run Danger, this time off Stephen Auckert. The Braves scored in all but three of this game’s innings, and hit six homers for the second time in this year’s game. The first homeowners tied them and then set the franchise record for homeowners in a calendar month, but then they also hit four more to boot. Again, I just want to point out the surreal nature of their hitting several homers that were disrupted by lights and ended up in smoke covering the field – as two separate events, no less.
The other notable part of this game was Michael Soroka’s first appearance in Atlanta about three years ago, and this was much better than his other outings. Soroka got a rough third, hanging a few minor points and ending up giving up a massive two-round shot to Jesus Sanchez, then working a smash to Jorge Soler, but he made it through. It’s finished with a 7/0 K/BB ratio and made major adjustment after third adjustment, taking advantage of its four-stitching to get a whiff. By pushing back and hitting two different types of Marlins hitters’ fastballs, he reached the middle innings. By the time he used a slider to put away Garrett Cooper in the bottom of the sixth, the Marlins clearly didn’t know what they were looking for—never mind, given the giant drive the Braves so brazenly lumped at the time.
And so, the Braves haven’t even considered the idea of challenging the Marlins for their NL East flying seat tonight. They now have a seven-game winning streak and six-game winning streak, rounding out their ridiculous slate from June 21-4. They’ll get a chance at more shenanigans as the series continues tomorrow night. Hey, at this rate, you might not even need to watch the fireworks on Tuesday, because the Braves provide plenty of viewing pleasure every night.
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