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Atlanta Braves Drop Rainy Opener to Rockies 5-3

By John Buhler

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The Atlanta Braves drop their series opener to the Colorado Rockies 5-3 on a rain-soaked Thursday night.  Weather was a major issue the entire night in the Mile High City.  Braves starter Alex Wood was only able to throw two pitches to Colorado’s leadoff hitter Charlie Blackmon in the bottom of the first before the sky opened up and rain cascaded all over Coors Field.

-= Related: Atlanta Braves Finish 1st Half With 4 Games at Coors Field =-

It was an entertaining game in miserable conditions for both ball clubs.  After a 2 hour and 6 minute rain delay, play resumed by Wood could not continue as starting pitchers never seem to handle weather delays well.

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    • RHP Jake Brigham had to come in and eat innings for Fredi Gonzalez tonight.  The absolute last thing a manager wants is to blow through his bullpen in the most hitter-friendly ballpark in Major League Baseball.  Though Brigham earned the loss, allowing 4 earned runs on 10 hits in just 4 innings pitched, I applaud his effort tonight saving the Braves bullpen from certain disaster.

    Mike Foltynewicz, the new David Carpenter and David Aardsma pitched the other four innings of relief tonight.  While Carpenter and Aardsma pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings respectively, I cam away the most impressed with Folty’s two innings of one run ball.  After giving up a double to C Nick Hundley in the bottom of the 5th that scored Carlos Gonzalez, I felt that Mike settled in nicely in an extremely tough road environment.  He went on to strike out 4 Rockies batters in those two innings.

    Foltynewicz gained confidence in his appearance tonight in terrible playing conditions.  It reminded me of how Julio Teheran gained swagger in that below freezing road game in Denver back in April 2013 when he was on his way to becoming a front-line starter for the Braves.  Let’s hope that this appearance for Folty brings out the best in him from here on out this season.

    Offensively for the Atlanta Braves, 1B Chris Johnson led the way with 3 hits including a sharp double off former Brave David Hale in the top of the 3rd.  Jace Peterson went 2 for 5 with a solid two-RBI double in the top of the 5th.  Tonight Atlanta totalled 10 hits at Coors Field, not bad but Colorado had 16.

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    No lead is safe in the most one-side ballpark in all of baseball.  The Braves hung around the Rockies the entire night, but just could not string together any big innings outside of the three-run fifth tonight.  You could tell that rain dampened the mood tonight for both teams.  With the way the infield was absorbing the perpetual rainfall, I’m a little surprised that this game wasn’t suspended.  The middle seven innings of tonight’s game were a muddy, nasty mess.

    Atlanta needs to hunker down and win its next three games if the Braves want to head into the All-Star Break with an above-.500 record.  I’ll give the Rockies credit tonight. They were able to string together doubles offensively and get strong outings from their bullpen.  Here’s to the weather not ruining any more games in beautiful Colorado this weekend.

    Next: Fredi Gonzalez: Best Year as Atlanta Braves Manager?

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