Braves drop offensive battle to Nationals, 16-15
Mar 1, 2014; Melbourne, FL, USA; Atlanta Braves second baseman
Tommy La Stella(84) slides and knocks the ball loose from Washington Nationals catcher
Jose Lobaton(59) during the fourth at Space Coast Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
The Atlanta Braves dropped yet another spring training game today, and yet again–who cares?
Like many of the other writers on this site have iterated, it really doesn’t matter what the scoreboard shows in these games, but that injuries are avoided and players are getting ready for Opening Day.
The runs were aplenty today, with the Washington Nationals slipping past the Braves 16-15. The best news from today was probably just seeing Teheran have a successful outing.
He got the start in this one and threw two innings against Washington’s Jordan Zimmerman. Teheran was the only pitcher to have a good game for Atlanta, allowing just two hits during his time while striking out one. He didn’t walk any one or allow any runs. A solid outing.
For each of the Braves other pitchers though, it was a terrible day. Ryan Buchter, Anthony Varvaro, Mark Lamm, Juan Jamie, Wirfin Obispo, Shae Simmons and Atahualpa Severino combined to throw the remaining seven innings and somehow allowed 16 runs. Varvaro, Lamm and Obispo each had particularly rough outings, each allowing four runs while combining to walk eight batters in just two innings.
Clearly some guys are still working on getting that control back.
For the hitters it was a much different tale. Obviously the pitching’s not top knotch, but it’s still nice to see so many players with multi-hit games in these early games. Here are the more notable performances from the hitters today:
- Jordan Schafer went 3-3 with two doubles
- Elmer Reyes went 2-2 with a double
- Ernesto Mejia went 2-3
- Steven Lerud went 2-3
- Ramiro Pena went 2-3
- Tommy La Stella went 3-6 with a double and three runs
- Matt Lipka was also 3-6 with two runs and four RBIs
- Jose Constanza went 2-6
Clearly a lot of fun days for these guys at the plate.
We’ll continue to fill you in on the Atlanta Braves as we move through spring training and get nearer and nearer to “real” baseball. I can’t wait.