Three Cuts: Bullpen coughs up win, former Braves return to haunt Atlanta
ATLANTA -- The Braves had to share the stage Monday night with some pretty big sporting events, both on a national and international scale. Some were baseball related, others elsewhere, but there was an enormous buzz in the sports world.
Directly before Shelby Miller threw the first pitch in Atlanta, the 2015 MLB First-Year Player Draft got started. The Braves picked 14th and had five picks in the first 75. Shortly after first pitch, the United States Women's National Team kicked off its 2015 World Cup with a match against Australia, and then the NHL Finals continued in Chicago with the Blackhawks and Lightning tied at one game apiece.
While millions of fans tuned in to events outside of Turner Field, there were still plenty of eyes on the first game of this Atlanta-San Diego series.
Here are three observations from Atlanta's 5-3 loss to San Diego:
There were myriad weird or unique plays that went into San Diego's 5-3 win over the Braves. The first was what Shelby Miller called a "bone-headed mistake on my part" by not getting out of the way of first baseman Freddie Freeman as they both tracked a foul ball popup and collided.
Bumps and bruises aside from that collision (Miller compared it to being hit by Brian Urlacher), that first-inning faux-pas was nothing compared to what happened later.
In the seventh inning with runners in first and second, Juan Uribe's hard-hit grounder got tangled up in Freddie Freeman's feet. The play ended the inning before it became fruitful.
"We had a chance to add on and [then] a freak play," said manager Fredi Gonzalez. "I don't know, I don't think Freeman saw the ball. It hit him. I don't know if that ball goes through or not, I think it does. It was just a freak of a play."
Instead of a possible run scored and the continuation of an inning, the Braves gave way to the eighth inning. And that's when the bullpen had another meltdown.
Jim Johnson gave up a run in the eighth to bring the score to 3-2.
Then Jason Grilli, with pinch-runner Melvin Upton Jr. on second base, tried to pick Upton off and threw the ball into center field. Upton moved to third and scored when the next batter hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game at three.
After Nick Masset handled the 10th inning swimmingly, Cody Martin sank in the 11th.
Martin walked Justin Upton to start the inning. He then gave up a double to Matt Kemp after Utpon stole second. Upton scored on the double. Luis Avilan came in to help and gave up a hit that scored Kemp.
Former Braves closer Craig Kimbrel came in to save the game for the Padres in the bottom of the 11th inning. Kimbrel got A.J. Pierzynksi and Andrelton Simmons to ground out and then struck out Todd Cunningham to earn his 200th career save.
Not only did Atlanta's bullpen, once again, blow another game, but three former Braves all factored into the come-from-behind victory. Melvin Upton Jr. scored the tying run, his brother Justin the winning run, and Kimbrel saved the game for the visitors.
Forget about the Upton-Kimbrel bizarro finish and put lots of thought on the sad state of Atlanta's bullpen.
Shelby Miller followed up his worst outing of the 2015 campaign with one of his better on Monday. But he didn't come away with a win to show for his efforts.
Miller tossed seven innings of one-run baseball and allowed five hit hits and struck out six batters. He left the game with a 3-1 lead.
"Shelby was good, he was really good," said Gonzalez. "It was a tough seven innings. He gets bowled over in the first inning, gets all scratched up and beat up and it's hot and humid. We had a chance to win.
"Shelby was tremendous. You can't ask for anything more from him."
Monday's start against the Padres was Miller's seventh where he allowed one run or fewer to the opposing team. It was a breath of fresh air, however, after his last start -- a June 2 debacle where he gave up four runs and walked six in 4 1/3 innings.
"I had a lot more command of all my pitches today than I did last time, which is nice not going out there walking guys," said Miller. "I'm just trying to get guys out in the zone and get ahead in the count, and be as efficient as possible.
"I felt good all around, both mentally and I felt like we made some good pitches."
Miller's ERA now sits at 1.84 after throwing 94 pitches. It was his sixth outing of seven innings o longer.
Cameron Maybin collected two hits on Monday, which looks as if it's starting to become a normal occurrence.
When the Braves center fielder went 2 for 5, he posted his fifth consecutive multi-hit game and has two or more hits in eight of his last 10 games. Over that span he's hitting .413 with seven runs scored, nine RBI and four stolen bases.
What's even more impressive is the fact that when Maybin entered the Braves game on April 28 he was hitting .135. He's now sitting at .299. That's a 164-point upswing in 34 games.
There was even a moment when Maybin was sitting above the coveted .300 mark. With his fifth-inning single, Maybin's average climbed to .303. After he hit into a double play in the seventh and grounded out in the ninth, he landed at .299.
