By: OutOfSightSports

6/23/22

Twitter: @OOSSports

Braves walk-off Giants, moving to 17-3 in their last 20 games

The Braves somehow were able to top off Orlando Arcia’s walk-off single just two nights later. Braves Starter Charlie Morton allowed 2 solo home runs off the bats Mike Yastrzemski and Darin Ruf in seven innings pitched. The Giants scored another run off A.J. Minter in the ninth before the Braves’ best inning of the entire season.

Charlie Morton must have felt rejuvenated to say the least, after the Braves’ second walk-off win in three days.

“I guess it was the energy and the sense that the guys could smell blood in the water right there,” Morton told a reporter who asked what he felt as he watched the final inning unfold.

Dansby Swanson’s homer, Marcell Ozuna’s smart baserunning, and Adam Duvall’s walk-off single gave the Braves a 4-3 win over the Giants on Wednesday night at Truist Park.

Atlanta was 2-24 when trailing after six innings, and 0-26 when trailing after seven or eight until tonight. They took advantage of a start that suggested Morton might be rolling like he did last year.

The Braves are looking like the defending World Series champions once again, thanks to their recent play. The club has won 17 of their last 20 games and are only a slim 4 1/2 games behind the Mets in the NL East with a lot of baseball to be played still

San Fransisco Giants reliever, Jake McGee, had Swanson down in the count 0-2 but Dansby was able to fight back into a full count, and then proceed to launch a fastball over the center-field wall. Ozuna then hit a clutch opposite-field single. Thanks to some heads up baserunning, Ozuna was able to tag up and advance on Matt Olson’s long fly ball to centerfield. Catcher William Contreras then went on to tie it with an RBI single.

“[Ozuna’s] play was one of the biggest ones because it got him in scoring position,” Dansby Swanson said after the game.

Morton must feel so much better than when he had a 6.85 ERA after his first five horrid starts. His early struggles may have been caused by the leg fracture he sustained in Game 1 of the World Series last year,

Morton wasn’t missing bats and his curveball wasn’t too effective early on. With that being said, he was able to complete the game by creatively mixing up pitches, a strategy he has been using to get to where he is now, with double-digit strikeouts in two of his last three starts.

In 20 innings pitched over his last three starts, Morton has struck out 32 batters and only issued one walk. In his last two starts, the righty went seven innings both times.

Swing-and-miss? Morton has induced more than 10 whiffs twice before June. In all four June starts, he’s struck out at least 10 batters.

Morton had this to say about the club and their recent play,

“I think the guys are in a really good spot, no matter of who we are playing,” Morton said. “There’s good momentum right now in the clubhouse.”

The defending champs are rolling without Freeman now, slowing climbing their way up everyone’s power rankings and don’t look like they plan on