Travis d’Arnaud would possibly simply be the most well liked participant in Main League Baseball in the intervening time.
After hitting three house runs on Friday night time – together with a grand slam – d’Arnaud issued the knockout blow towards the Rangers for the second consecutive night time on Saturday, slamming a two-run lengthy ball within the backside of the eighth inning.
The house run gave Atlanta a 5-2 lead that it might maintain onto for the remainder of the sport. 41,744 rowdy followers roared as Raisel Iglesias closed out the ninth inning. With the win, Atlanta took the collection and received their sixth straight sport.
The Rangers appear to be taking part in extra towards d’Arnaud than the remainder of the Braves, because the 35 year-old catcher accrued two walks and was hit by a pitch earlier than hitting Saturday’s house run. Of d’Arnaud’s eight plate appearances within the collection, he has reached base seven instances, solely being retired on a groundout within the eighth inning of Friday’s sport.
Braves starter Charlie Morton performed his half in Saturday’s win, throwing six innings of two-run ball and giving up simply 4 hits. Because it has been for a lot of the younger season, Atlanta’s bullpen was staunch in nature, with Joe Jimenez, AJ Minter and Iglesias all throwing scoreless inning whereas giving up only one hit between the three of them.
With six straight victories secured, Atlanta appears to have overcome it is uncharacteristic “sluggish” begin to the 12 months, when an 8-5 document introduced extra questions than solutions.
Nonetheless, Marcell Ozuna’s clutch house run within the ninth vs. the Marlins final Sunday has seemingly reinvigorated a Braves ballclub that has the potential to go on a tear at any second. Whatever the consequence of Sunday’s sport, Atlanta is again on observe and looking out just like the World Collection contender everybody thought they’d be.
There’s one main query going round Atlanta after Saturday’s sport, nonetheless: Who thought it would be a 35 year-old catcher who would pop off towards the defending MLB champs and propel the Braves to a collection win?
