Atlanta Braves: Foltynewicz Stares Down History In Win Against Oakland
By W. M. Lawson
The Atlanta Braves won a thriller late Friday night (3-1) in Oakland. Mike Foltynewicz, and his attempt at history, was the story, though.
Late Friday night, if you were watching the Atlanta Braves, you wanted to call someone. If you are one of those folks who did, and who said the words, I blame you. We blame you. We blame all of you. In a close game, Mike Foltynewicz blew past his pitch count and took a no-hitter into the 9th.
We all know now what happened. That dude hit a bomb on Folty. He had blown straight through any idea of a pitch count already at 119 pitches. He had sat for a long half-inning while the Braves’ bats poked out from behind the coma curtain briefly to pad the lead. It was chilly. Folty looked tired coming out in the 9th.
So, yeah. That dude ended it with a bomb. But, who freaking cares? That pitching show that Mike Foltynewicz put on was fantastic. Folty was both dominate at times and battled through adversity at times. He did this while the Braves lineup was getting schooled by Sonny Gray. As my esteemed colleague, Kit Anderson, wrote here the other day, that dude can pitch, too.
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The fine folks in Oakland gave Folty a standing ovation (there seemed to be a few of us out there, too). And then Jim Johnson (that’s an entirely different article to be written), came in and closed it out in typical J.J. fashion: With a free eye-roll and “are you kidding me?”.
But they did it. And by it I mean they won the game. They won the 1st game of a road series. They evened their record on this road trip. Atlanta gained a game against the Nationals and both Wild Card leaders. And Mike Foltynewicz took a no-hitter into the 9th.
Think back to what it felt like to watch an Atlanta Braves game in 2015…the last time an Atlanta Braves Pitcher took a no-hitter into the 9th (Shelby Miller). It felt nothing like this.
There is no way to know how much better this team will be record wise, but we do know one thing: They are way more fun to watch.
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