The Braves looked dead in the water — until they weren’t. That’s baseball for you!
The Atlanta Braves looked down in the doldrums for the vast majority of this contest. That was until the lineup came alive with five runs in the eighth inning to pull off a major comeback in a 6-4 win over the Minnesota Twins.
The first two innings of this game felt like a typical April 2025 Braves game. The Braves smoked a couple of baseballs to start their hitting portion of the game but ultimately it was all for naught and as Alex Verdugo and Austin Riley both hit lasers directly into gloves. The Twins, meanwhile, saw their missiles from Carlos Correa and Ryan Jeffers in the second inning both find green. The double from Ryan Jeffers plated Carlos Correa from second base and the Twins were the first team to put something in the run column.
Jeffers was brought home, himself, by MLB debutant Luke Keaschall, who hit a blooper out into shallow right field for his first hit and first RBI in one fell swoop. Once the smoke was clear in that frame, the Twins were up 2-0 and it was looking this was about to be another one of those nights at the ballpark.
Sure enough, we were well and truly on track for another one of those nights because we got the Bryce Elder Special in the third inning. With two outs in the frame, Elder threw a change-up that was 85-mph and right in the heart of the zone. Trevor Larnach has been scuffling but once again, Elder gave the opposing hitter something to feast on with a big tasty meatball. Once it landed, it was 3-0 Twins and they weren’t done after that, either.
The fourth inning rolled around and Elder once again found himself in trouble as he gave up a double to Luke Keaschall that put runners on second and third with nobody out. Eventually, Keaschall made it home to score his first career run after Edouard Julien brought him in with a sacrifice fly. So now it was 4-0 Twins and at this point, the Braves didn’t have a hit as, naturally, the Braves were unable to figure out Chris Paddack in the early portion of this contest.
That first hit finally came in the form of the infield single, as Ozzie Albies finally gave the fans in attendance in Cobb County something to applaud from this lineup on the evening. Sean Murphy followed that up with a single of his own to move Ozzie into scoring position but (say it with me, now) the Braves failed to get a hit with a runner in scoring position once again. They went 0-for-9 in those scenarios during that woeful series finale against the Blue Jays and this was certainly an inauspicious start in that regard as this now made them 0-for-2 on the night in that situation.
It wasn’t until the fifth inning that we saw the Braves show some actual, tangible life at the plate against Chris Paddack. It came with one out in the frame, which is when it was Paddack’s turn to leave a change-up right in the heart of the zone to get crushed. The beneficiary was Jarred Kelenic, who drove one all the way out into the home bullpen in right center for a solo shot that got the Braves on the board. Atlanta was unable to get anything else going for the rest of that frame, so it remained 4-1 heading into the sixth inning.
Bryce Elder was done after five innings and this ended up being another one of those cases where the best thing you could say about Elder is that he covered five innings. Other than that, it was another one of those starts that featured him getting lit up with an inevitable hanger and giving up solid contact otherwise. If you had questions about why Elder was starting this game instead of AJ Smith-Shawver (who himself wasn’t exactly spectacular during his start in Triple-A Gwinnett tonight), I understand and you definitely wouldn’t be alone in that regard. Either way, the Braves had some work to do once Elder was gone and Aaron Bummer at least did a good job of delivering the first 1-2-3 inning of the night for Braves pitchers in this one.
Perhaps feeling like they didn’t want to press their luck any further, the Twins decided that they were happy with five innings of just one run allowed and five strikeouts over 88 pitches from Chris Paddack and called upon their formidable bullpen to finish off the rest of the contest. Louis Varland was the first man out of Minnesota’s ‘pen and outside of walking Ozzie Albies with one out, the sixth came and went with little as far as incident was concerned. The same happened during the seventh inning — Danny Coulombe entered the game and gave up a single to Michael Harris II but that was the extent of the damage that the Braves did in that frame as well.
Following Aaron Bummer’s exit from the game in the seventh, Enyel De Los Santos came on and held the Twins at four runs through the eighth inning as well. At this point, the onus was on Atlanta’s lineup to figure out something against Minnesota’s bullpen. That’s a lot easier said than done considering that Griffin Jax was yet another tough customer that this bullpen has to offer. However, the Braves got something going with one out when Marcell Ozuna walked and then Matt Olson followed that up with a single to right. Ozzie Albies then hit a grounder that the Twins didn’t exactly field in the most efficient way and that allowed Ozzie to make it to first and Ozuna to make it home. Suddenly, both the tying and go-ahead runs were on the basepaths with Sean Murphy at the plate. Murphy walked, which meant that the Braves had a golden opportunity with the bases loaded and one out.
Michael Harris II got the first crack at it against new pitcher Cole Sands and he didn’t disappoint, as he scalded one towards first base. This time, the ball did not end up directly inside the mitt of a defender’s glove — instead, it bounced off of Edouard Julien’s glove and into the outfield for a game-tying RBI single. After spending most of this game wandering in the wilderness in front of a dead crowd, the Braves had tied it up and the crowd was jumping.
Drake Baldwin entered the game as a pinch hitter for Nick Baldwin and suddenly it turned into another golden opportunity after Michael Harris II stole second with basically no resistance. That ended up being crucial, as Baldwin shot one right up the middle for a go-ahead two-RBI single and what had been an incredibly dull night for this team suddenly transformed into one of those vintage eighth-inning comebacks that we had grown used to seeing in recent times. The Braves were not only alive in this game, they were alive and well with the lead in hand — and actually had some insurance as well once Raisel Iglesias entered the game for the ninth inning.
Raisel Iglesias proceeded to sit down the Twins in order and in what felt like the blink of an eye, a dull loss turned into an exhilarating win for the Braves. This was a prime example of just how quickly any given game can change and fortunately, this was one of those instances where fortune ended up favoring the Braves in this one.
We’ll see if the Braves will be able to keep the good vibes going in the right direction as Chris Sale will look to make it happen and finally find his groove, starting at 7:15 p.m. ET.