Well, that could have gone better. The Indians have now won 11 games in a row, and the Braves have run into them at a bad time. They took a 2-0 lead in the 1st off Matt Wisler, who I thought was pretty lucky to only give up those 2 runs to start the game. He then settled down and pitched pitched pretty well, finishing the game on a strong note and picking up 9 strikeouts over his 6 total innings.

The Braves offense, meanwhile, appeared to have phoned it in before the first pitch. They were no-hit until the 6th inning, when two consecutive hits led off the inning and later came around to score and tie the game. Wisler was off the hook for the loss, and the Braves showed they hadn’t totally forgotten how to hit.

The game continued to roll merrily along until the 9th, when Arodys Vizcaino tried to keep it tied and failed miserably. He was shouldered with the loss when he got two outs and gave up three runs on two hits and two walks.

The Braves got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 9th, after Jace Peterson hit a solo home run and Freddie Freeman tripled. Sandwiched between them, however, was Ender Inciarte and a reviewed call at first that could have gone either way, but looked like a tie to me (which used to go to the runner. Now it goes to whoever the replay guys in New York feel like it should.) Had Inciarte gotten on, the outcome of the game may have been different. I’m not even sure why managers are bothering with replay any more this season, since it’s been obvious for awhile now the calls are only going to be upheld. Replay has turned from a waste of time that could potentially help get the call right, to just a waste of time. MLB should just scrap it if the umps are going to fight back like this and render the whole system pointless.

Watching Francisco Lindor play shortstop this series has been nothing but a delight. His instincts are so Simmonsesque that for a few short moments he made it seem all was right again with the baseball world in Atlanta. Brilliant shortstop defense is truly something to behold. I got engaged this weekend to a man I knew was a keeper when he not only bought a Braves hat and started wearing it everywhere for me, but he also started making a noise of disgust whenever we watched a game together and Aybar was shown on the screen (something he picked up on without any commentary from me). Watching Lindor play tonight was almost enough to let him see what playing shortstop in Atlanta used to mean. Ah, the good ol’ days.

Aybar delenda est.