Matt Olson owns them enough to start calling the cities Mary Kate and Ashley.
Home runs are good.
It didn’t take long for the Atlanta Braves to get on the board, and they seemingly put the game away quickly. Matt Olson started it with a two-run shot in the first, Austin Riley singled home a run in the second, and Drake Baldwin hit a two-run shot to left in the third to put Atlanta up 5-0. The Twins never really got close from there.
Grant Holmes looked really good to start the game, striking out the first two batters and retiring the first six total. It helped that he was so efficient there because it got a little dicier after that.
In the top of the third, he gave up a hit and a walk, and he ultimately had to strike out Byron Buxton to end the inning with both of those runners in scoring position.
It got worse in the fourth inning, where he gave up two hits before he hit Ryan Jeffers to load the bases. At this point, his command of his breaking balls had abandoned him a bit (though he hit Jeffers with a fastball), and he ended up throwing a 50-foot curveball that Baldwin couldn’t block (not Baldwin’s fault) and brought home a run to make it 5-1.
He got out of it, but he walked two more the following inning along with a single to load the bases again. Holmes ended up striking out Trevor Larnach before getting an inning-ending groundball to keep the Twins at 5-1.
Marcell Ozuna followed all of this by depositing a 400-foot shot to left to make it 6-1. With a five-run lead, Brian Snitker let Grant Holmes head out to the mound for the sixth with nearly 90 pitches under his belt. I liked the decision as it let Holmes feel what it’s like to pitch a bit deeper, pitch a little tired, and do all of that with the comfort of a five-run lead. Holmes struck out a batter before walking one, and his outing ended with a strikeout, with Snitker pulling him at 105 pitches. Holmes finished the day with 7 strikeouts and 4 walks (eek), but he battled through the rough spots. On a day like today, that’s an added victory.
The other run came an inning later when Byron Buxton turned Enyel de los Santos around with a towering shot to left-center to start the 7th, but the Twins went down quietly after that, not reaching base for the rest of the game as Pierce Johnson looked good over the final two innings.
Joe Ryan looked fine from a control standpoint, throwing 65 of 93 pitches for strikes. But he paid dearly for his mistakes and allowed all 3 home runs in this one. Louis Varland, Jhoan Duran, and Daniel Coulombe would retire the Braves in order as the last 3 innings whizzed by to complete the Braves’ first sweep of the season.
Atlanta now welcomes the 9-12 St. Louis Cardinals to town for a three-game series starting tomorrow at 7:15.