Hudson, Posey Best Folty, Freeman: Braves Lose 4-2

I want this West Coast road trip to end. The Atlanta Braves lose 4-2 to the San Francisco Giants Friday night. When Chip Caray couldn’t correctly pronounce Stephen Curry’s name when he was spotted at AT&T Park, I knew that it might not go over so well for Atlanta tonight. In all honesty, it was a better ball game than last night’s eighth inning collapse. But once again the Atlanta offense failed to provide much run support to a starter deserving it.

Mike Foltynewicz pitched great tonight in 6.2 innings. His lone mistake was a two-run blast to catcher extraordinaire Buster Posey in the bottom of the first inning. Folty kept his pitch count low and only walked one batter while striking out eight Giants. Mike’s ERA on the year is now below 4.00 (3.96) and he is progressing nicely as a young flame-throwing starting pitcher for the Braves. His 99 MPH heater to retire Matt Duffy in the fifth was his best pitch as a Brave.

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Former Brave Tim Hudson was as good as Foltynewicz. Huddy had his sinker working marvelously as recorded 13 groundouts in seven innings of work, allowing one earned run. He looked like the Tim Hudson of old and he may not want to hang up the spikes at the end of the season if he keeps pitching like he did tonight. Huddy could pitch into his early 40’s if he can keep his ERA respectable.

Atlanta mustered six hits tonight. Cameron Maybin and Andrelton Simmons each had a pair of singles. I really like Kevin Seitzer’s work with these two hitters. Both are hitting in the .260’s and driving the ball most at bats. Freddie Freeman hit an angry home run in the top of the ninth to straight away center off Giants Closer Santiago Casilla. Freeman let out all frustration on Casilla’s ninth inning offering. I’m tired off seeing Freddie hitting into the shift, too. Hopefully this blast brings Freeman’s bat back to life again.

AJ Pierzynski looks lost at the plate now and I almost want to see Christian Bethancourt get more playing time instead. At least with Bethancourt he catches strike threes and throws runners out at second. AJ couldn’t catch two of Folty’s strike threes tonight and San Francisco easily stole two bases off Pierzynski.

Lastly, while Luis Avilan was able to cleanup after Foltynewicz for the final out in the seventh inning, Jim Johnson gave up two crucial runs in the bottom of the eighth. Posey hit a ground rule double to give the Giants the decisive third run. Two hits and two walks in one inning of work can’t be very good for a reliever’s WHIP. His outing looked worse than what the box score will indicate.

I really hope the bullpen doesn’t let us down at midnight on the East Coast again tomorrow night. While I’m happy I saw Freeman’s mammoth solo shot, I don’t want to see another relief corps implosion in the wee hours of the morning. Though this was a better game than yesterday’s, it wasn’t a good enough effort offensively to deliver an Atlanta Braves victory.

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