In the immortal words of Danny Joe Brown: “Flirtin’ with disaster, y’all, damn-sure know what I mean…”

Right now, that’s our unfortunate situation. Before dropping six of eight to the Nats, Pads and Phils, the Braves had scratched back above .500 with some inspired ball. However, after this 5-1 loss to Boston, the past 24 hours have seen them fall four games below the water line and lose a promising starting pitcher. That growlin’ ol’ Molly Hatchet tune is playing inside my head.

As this one was streamed as “Friday Night Baseball” on the dreaded Apple TV+ platform, I’m not sure how many of us actually saw this teasefest of a game. I went for the 7-day subscription, which was immediately canceled post-game, and so I was able to report on this relative snoozer of a contest.

What happened? In a nutshell, Kenny Powers pitched pretty well, giving up 3 ER in 5.2 IP w/ 6 H, 1 BB & 9 K. But, as we’ve seen all too often, the Braves failed in several situations to get a big hit – 6 LOB in the first four innings – costing them another rung on the ladder to .500.

The Game

The Braves did get a bit busy early. A 1st inning RAJ single, a Big Bear walk and an Olson laser single into RF tallied the first run. Truth be told, RAJ should’ve been a dead duck at home, as Sox catcher Narvaez couldn’t handle Abreu’s perfect one-hopper to the plate. Instead, it skipped away, leaving Ozuna & Olson on 2nd & 3rd with one out. Unfortunately, Giolito, who danced thru raindrops all night, whiffed both Riley & Verdugo to halt the uprising.

Holmes cruised thru the first 3-plus innings, confounding Sox hitters with an effective slider and a well-placed 4-seamer. By the middle of the 4th, his slider had gotten downright nasty, with Sox hitters nubbing it foul or badly swinging over it. But after giving up a scratch 2-out single to Toro, Holmes threw an inside breaking ball to Trevor Story, something that Leo Durocher might’ve called a “nickel curve” because there was little break to it, and the Boston SS smashed it into the LF stands. 2-1 BoSox.

Holmes worked into the 6th, but gave up a pair of doubles to Narvaez and Toro, the second one with 2 outs, putting the Sox up 3-1. That brought out Snitker, who brought in De Los Santos who extinguished the fire with a strikeout of Story.

The biggest tease came in the Braves half of the 7th. With 2 on & 2 out, Olson (against LHP Bernardino) lined a one-hopper to Story at short, who threw his own one-hopper to 1B Toro, pulling him off the bag. Williams scored from 2nd and Ozzie took third on Toro’s wild throw home. Hey, a break… it’s rally time!

But wait… hold the phone. Cora requested a replay and the call was cruelly reversed – Toro apparently held the bag. (To be honest, I couldn’t tell. But, if it’s inconclusive…) Anyway, it was out 3, so… no runs & 2 more LOB. Yep, it’s gonna be like that.

In the Boston 9th, after another Riley error at 3B – oops, sorry, an infield single off his glove – the Sox loaded the bases and a Devers’ 2-run single off Dylan Dodd tacked on Boston’s remaining tallies to go up 5-1.

Gotta turn it back around, fellas.

Game 2 of the Red Sox series is set for 4:10 tomorrow – Spencer Schwellenbach vs. Walker Buehler.