Marlins Knock On Wood, End Braves Winning Streak With 7-0 Beatdown

Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

Alex Wood finally pitched like a rookie and the Braves 6-game winning streak came to an end with a 7-0 beat down from the Marlins. Wood, who allowed only 3 earned runs in 30 innings in August, couldn’t make it out of the 3rd inning tonight, giving up 7 runs on 8 hits while walking 2 and striking out 2. Wood wasn’t fooling anyone and only retired 5 Marlins before his exit. Wood was so bad today that his season ERA went up almost a full run, from 2.27 to 3.15. I almost think it is a good thing that Wood got knocked around a bit with a month or so left in the season. Now, we will get to see how he responds to this and what he does to bounce back.

The Atlanta offense didn’t really help matters this evening. Despite collecting 8 hits and walking 3 times, the Braves were shutout yet again. They went 1-8 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. There were a variety of ways that the Braves left men on base tonight: Andrelton Simmons tripled with one out in the 1st and was stranded there, they left the bases loaded in the 4th as Dan Uggla struck out to end that threat, Paul Janish doubled in the 7th but was thrown out at home on a Jose Constanza single up the middle, Elliot Johnson doubled to lead off the 8th and was left at third, and Schafer grounded out with 2 men on in the 9th to end the game. Chris Johnson added a pinch hit single in the 9th to up his league leading batting average to .333 and maintain his slight lead over Yadier Molina (.329).

Braves fans were treated to the first appearance of Freddy Garcia in an Atlanta uniform. Freddy actually was used properly and came in for Wood in the 3rd to save the bullpen and eat up some innings. Garcia pitched 4.2 scoreless innings allowing 3 hits a walk and 2 Ks. Anthony Varvaro finished up the game for the Braves with 2 scoreless innings of his own.

Stay tuned for the series recap, coming Monday morning.