It Happened Again: Braves Bullpen Fails, Lose 5-3 to Padres
By John Buhler
The Atlanta Braves bullpen happened again. It took a 3-1 lead with six outs remaining after a terrific seven innings from Braves starter Shelby Miller and turned it into a 5-3 collapse of epic proportions. Guess who scored the tying run? Pinch runner Melvin Upton, Jr.! Who scored the deciding run? Justin Upton. And who got the save for the San Diego Padres? You guessed it, Craig Kimbrel. If that wasn’t a slap in the face loss for the Atlanta Braves, I may never know what is. This is right up there with the Dan Uggla game against the Washington Nationals.
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I knew that when Freddie Freeman got hit by Juan Uribe’s grounder with the bases loaded to end the seventh inning that things were about to go south very quickly for the Braves. Had Freeman avoided the batted ball, Juan Uribe would have easily had a two-RBI single and Atlanta would have had a 5-1 no doubt about it. But baseball is funny game and tonight it felt like a sick joke for the Braves.
When I saw Joey Terdoslavich step into the batter’s box to pinch hit for Shelby Miller, I knew that our bullpen was going to blow the game no matter how runs the Braves could have scored in the seventh. That’s how little faith I have in this relief corps at this point. Sure enough, Jim Johnson let a run score in the eighth, Jason Grilli blew the save in the ninth, and Cody Martin gave up two runs in the eleventh. Can we just call a Mulligan at this point and completely swap our relief corps with AAA Gwinnett’s. We’re that desperate for bullpen relief.
I want to put a positive spin on this game but I can’t. Nick Markakis, Cameron Maybin, and Freddie Freeman all had two hits tonight. Shelby Miller didn’t need three runs but his bullpen needed a dozen. Didn’t Andrelton Simmons and Freeman pitch in high school? Can’t they both throw 95 MPH? Is John Hart going to have to designate every relief pitcher for assignment? It doesn’t matter if Peter Moylan’s ready or not, here he comes. I want Moylan, Aardsma, Eveland, and Banuelos up by this weekend.
This is the epitome of something that doesn’t work. Our bullpen is ruining an otherwise decent season for the Atlanta Braves. Spare yourself from this late inning madness if you can. I’ll let you know when things improve. Or I’ll let you know how weird things start getting as we take this bullpen into the summer. At least the Uptons didn’t go yard tonight. So there’s that I suppose.