The Braves took the first game of three against the Marlins last night in 8 1/2 innings. R.A Dickey made his first start at home in over two weeks, just where he likes to be, and he looked like he was comfortable out there once again. The Braves won this one 5-3 after a couple of big home runs by both teams in a back and forth game.
R.A Dickey limited the Marlins to three hits and three runs in six innings of work, which ended up being just enough for the Braves to win. The Braves bullpen finished the rest with a clean 7th, 8th and 9th. It was a game featuring a guy that took over the MLB lead with 2 big blasts, against a guy hitting a home run to win the game that rarely hits any.
It all started off in the first inning when the Braves took the lead on a Dee Gordon fielding error and a heads up play on the base path by Brandon Phillips. In the 4th It was Giancarlo Stanton, who hit a first-pitch bomb, that was his longest of the year and the farthest home run that SunTrust Park has seen. In the 6th, he did the same thing, hitting another rocket to grab his team the lead 3-1 and take over as the home run king. In the bottom of the 6th the Braves responded. After singles by Brandon Phillips and Tyler Flowers, Nick Markakis delivered on a full count with a ball in tight, pulled his hands in and drove one into the Chop House giving the Braves a 4-3 lead. The last run of the game came in the 7th from the Braves off of a Brandon Phillips single to bring across Lane Adams, who hit a pinch-hit lead off double.
R.A Dickey improved to 7-7 with the win last night and the pitcher for the Marlins, Adam Conley, fell to 4-4 after getting pulled with one out in the 5th. Arodys Vizcaino got his 2nd save in three days, giving hime four on the season. The Marlins didn’t help out their pitchers with two costly fielding errors by Miguel Rojas and Dee Gordon. The Braves improved to 38-6 when taking a lead into the 8th inning. Atlanta only got 9 men on base, but they still managed to leave four of them on and were 2-6 with runners in scoring position. For the Marlins, they only got one guy into scoring position and failed to score him while they left five on base. The biggest hit of the night was from Giancarlo Stanton, who hit a ball that was projected at 477 feet by Stat cast. Just under 36,000 fans showed up the game last night, grabbing a John Schuerholtz poster at the gate, saw fireworks after the game and a Braves win made it much more thrilling.
The Marlins are now 3-48 in games where they are trailing after the 7th inning, and the Braves look to add a number to that loss column tonight when Mike Foltynewicz takes on Dan Straily. Both pitchers have been arguably the most solid pitcher for their respective team, but are also both coming off of bad starts earlier this week.
Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks have signed Luke Babbit
— SportsTalkATL.com (@SportsTalkATL) August 4, 2017
Babbit is not a sexy name, but he is one of the best three-point shooters in the entire NBA. A one-trick pony, Babbit will bring a spot up shooter to a team that really lacks shooting. It was not long ago, the Hawks were among the NBAs best at three-point shooting. That is were Coach Budenholzer wants to return to, and while Babbit is not a long-term solution, he resembles the type of player Coach Budenholzer is looking for to run his offense.