Reynaldo Lopez was great through five innings, and still solid through six, but as I climbed off my lawnmower, I thought, “That was a Bummer.” Lopez left the game trailing 2-0, giving way to Aaron Bummer, and the Braves bats finally woke up, emerging with a 5-2 victory.

I live on more than an acre of ground and have grown accustomed to mowing my lawn while listening to/watching Braves baseball. On this particular night, the game was flying by as both Lopez and Mitchell Parker were breezing through the batting order.

Lopez had given up just two home runs all season heading into the bottom of the sixth, when he gave up back-to-back jacks to C.J. Abrams and Lane Thomas. Lane Thomas is a Brave killer. My thinking on those homers is that Lopez’s margin for error was finer than a frog’s hair because the offense wasn’t hitting, and he made a couple of mistakes. That was a Bummer!

As I hopped on the mower, I figured those two bombs would lead to a gNats victory. The offense, after all, was one-hit the night before and had mustered just one hit off Parker at this stage. That was a Bummer isn’t exactly what I was thinking, but I was done paying attention.

Shoeless Brandon Gaudin

Brandon Gaudin had taken off his shoes to try to ignite a rally and threatened to lose his socks. Did he ever do that? I didn’t go back to watch. Whatever the case – maybe it’s because I stopped paying attention – the bats woke up. Marcell OHzuna led off the seventh with a single and Adam Duvall ran into a 90 mph fastball that he hit 102 mph 402 feet. Duvall’s sixth of the season tied the score.

After Bummer worked a worked a clean seventh, the Braves went back to work in the eighth. With two outs, Ozzie Albies doubled to right field. Austin Riley, mired in about a three year slump with RISP, strode to the plate. He had two balls hit more than 100 mph recorded as outs in the game, but his flare to right (just 76.7 off the bat) scored Albies and gave the Braves the lead. OHzuna followed with a “Big Fly for the Big Bear” to seal the deal, 5-2. OHzuna’s big fly traveled 442 feet and was 104.8 ph off the bat. This team is 10 games over .500 and OHzuna is still the only one doing any real damage. He has hit 18 HRs and has 55 RBI.

Game two of this series with gNats features Chris Sale (8-1, 3.06) vs. Jake Irvin (3-5, 3.39) Sale is coming off his work start of the season. I expect to see him shine this evening in the nations capitol!