Braves Bullpen Collapses in 8th, Fall 7-0 to Giants

This was a great pitcher’s duel between the Braves Shelby Miller and the Giants Chris Heston Thursday night.  Both pitchers were cruising through six innings of scoreless baseball.  Shelby Miller made one mistake tonight to Brandon Belt and ended up the pitcher of record.  He received no run support in seven innings of work with just that one solo shot.  Heston went 7.1 innings of scoreless baseball before handing the ball over to the rock solid Giants ‘pen.

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It was a great one-run ball game heading into the eighth inning.  And then it happened again.  The Atlanta Braves bullpen collapsed like a planned stadium demolition, surrendering six runs in the eighth inning.  Brandon Cunniff had a terrible outing, allowing five earned runs on four hits in just 0.1 inning before getting pulled.  Hunter Pence’s bases clearing triple to make it 5-0 Giants ended Cunniff’s 30+ outs streak versus righties to begin a Major League career.

Donnie Veal didn’t fair any better, giving up three hits and an earned run in 0.2 innings of work.  In limited appearances with the Braves, Veal’s ERA on the year is 11.25!  He was tearing it up in AAA Gwinnett but can’t figure it out in Atlanta.  Seriously, when the clock struck midnight on the East Coast, the Atlanta Braves were metaphorically Cinderella.  Atlanta fell completely fell apart and lost 7-0 to San Francisco.

The Braves offense has only scored six runs in the first four games of this road trip, including two shutouts: tonight’s game and in the Clayton Kershaw start against the Dodgers.  Apparently Atlanta has not adjusted to the change in time zones.  Or maybe it’s just the Braves’ luck to play two great ball clubs consecutively on this West Coast road trip.

Atlanta needs to make some adjustments at the plate as the next three games against the Giants feature three outstanding starters: Tim Hudson, Tim Lincecum, and Madison Bumgarner.  Better luck tomorrow, Bravos!  I love Huddy, but we need to win scoring a lot of runs Friday night in San Francisco to rectify tonight’s implosion.