We had that entitled look about us tonight, the expectation perhaps that another win against Miami was as good as done with half the game gone, a two run lead and our pitching good enough to shut them down. Last night’s scare with the tying run up in the ninth was apparently forgotten. We ended up matching their fate in our ninth inning tonight and the game was lost.

It was two back to back homers off Kyle Wright into the Chop Shop in the fifth that changed the whole tenor of the game. The score stayed locked at 2 till the ninth when their hitting was better than our hitting because their closer was at a level above what we had to offer. I think it’s fair to say they surprised us primarily with the endless supply of high heat out of their pen and, ultimately, the awesome power of Alfaro with his two homers, exquisitely timed as they were. The first set up the tie in the fifth, the second broke the game open in the ninth off Minter. And so it went.

So what can we learn from the performances of individual players tonight, there were some real positives. Kyle Wright obviously at the forefront – 6 IP 5H 2R 1BB 4K. Presumably he was tiring in the 6th when he gave up those 2 homers – he had thrown 77 pitches, 46 of them strikes. Hard to be too critical of that – the one walk was a blessed relief. Jeff did question why, early on, he started so many hitters 2 and 0. But good for him.

Parsons was fine in his one inning, Sobotka was not but got away with murder, Minter was anything but good, very poor control, gave up the winning two runs and looked nothing like the finished product of a closer. But we knew that I guess at this stage. Overall though, because of Wright’s six innings, decent pitching performance.

Wish I could say the same about our offense. The responsibility for their woeful performance lay squarely with the top of the order. The top 6 hitters in that order were 3 for 23, Freddie had two of the three. Some Observations on that…

We were reminded that Ozzie from the left side remains a problem. The Marlins played to that in the ninth.
Acuna was bad…when it didn’t matter and when it did matter.
Nick was back to awful – SIT HIM DOWN!
The rest of them were ok and produced modestly in the first half of the game, not later.

We ran into two unfortunate injuries toward the end of the game BMac sliding into third left the game with a strained right hammy. Flowers subbed and soon got hit on the underside of his right wrist but manfully played on- for Charlie’s sake! The ramifications and consequences of all this will have the shuttles on the road tonight. Me, Arsenal in the morning to cheer me up hopefully. At this time of the year we are indulged with both sports, and rugby makes three. But pin me to the wall and tell me I can only have one and the Bravos it is, no contest. Good night.

https://www.mlb.com/gameday/marlins-vs-braves/2019/04/06/567161#game_state=final,lock_state=final,game_tab=box,game=567161