Braves rally, take Game 1 of NLDS
Braves rally with 6 runs in 7th inning, take opener
After an early offensive outburst, the Marlins seemed well positioned to keep their playoff momentumrolling and takeGame 1 against the Atlanta Braves in the National League Divisional Series. The bullpen, however, wasn’t up to the task.
Holding a one-run lead in the seventh, Miami coughed up six runs in the decisive frame, turning a tight game into a blowout as Atlanta rallied for a 9-5 victory.
Miami will look to even the five-game series on Wednesday. Game 2 of the NLDS is scheduled for 2:08 p.m. on MLB Network. The Marlins will send Pablo
Lopez to the mound, while the Braves will counter with Ian Anderson.
Making his second postseason, Sandy start of the Alcantara couldn’t replicate his strong outing against the Cubs, but kept Miami in the contest, allowing three runs through the first six innings. The 25-year-old right-hander ran into trouble in the seventh, allowing back-to-back singles to open the frame.
With Miami nursing a 4-3 lead, Marlins manager Don Mattingly turned toYimi Garcia, whoposted
a .60 ERA in 14 regular-season appearances as the team’s top middle reliever. Garcia didn’t have it on Tuesday, though. After getting the first out, the right-hander surrendered the game-tying RBI single to Marcell Ozuna and then coughed up a back-breaking three-run homer to Travis d’Arnaud, giving Atlanta a 7-4 lead.
“Yimi looked like he left some balls where he didn’t want to,” Mattingly said. “We weren’t able to stop them there when we needed to. They got the momentum right there and we weren’t able to do much more. The tide kind of turned.”
On Tuesday, d’Arnaud dominated Marlins’ pitching, finishing 3 for 3 with a home run, double, fourRBIandtwowalks.
After allowing a single in the next at bat, Garcia was relived by James Hoyt, who promptly served up a two-run home run to Dansby Swanson, breaking the game open. Similar to Garcia, Hoyt was strong in the regular season, posting a 1.23 ERA in 24 appearances.
“Both of those guys have been great for us all year long,” Mattingly said. “Today it didn’t work out, but you still have confidence in [Garcia and Hoyt] knowing they’ve been our best guys all year long, so we’ll be backwith them.”
Miami’s bullpen was a weak link through the team’s surprising 2020 run through the pandemicseason. During the regular season, theMarlins’ relievers posted the fifthworst ERA (5.50) in baseball.
Making their first playoff appearance since 2003, the Marlins swept the Cubs in the bestof-three wild card series. They had not played since Friday’s clinching game.
On Tuesday, the Marlins jumped off to a hot start in Game 1 of the NLDS, scoring four runs off in the first three innings off Braves’ ace Max Fried. After Miami allowed a lead-off home run to Ronald Acuna Jr., Miguel Rojas quickly evened the contest with a 418-foot solo homer of his own in the second.
Miami plated three runs in the third inning, with two courtesy of a two-run Garrett Cooper double. Marlins third baseman Brian Anderson, who was hitless in his previous two playoff games, scored Cooper with an RBI single, giving Miami a 4-1 lead. Anderson finished the day 3 for 4 at the plate.
Fried, whofinished the regular season 7-0 with a 2.25 ERA, lasted just four innings, allowing four runs on six hits. Atlanta’s bullpen, though, stepped up, giving up just one run in six innings of relief.