Folty Implodes, Braves fall 14-5
Folty #Folty
The Braves dropped a heartbreaker to the Rays on Monday night, 14-5.
Mike Foltynewicz, who worked 3 ⅓ innings before getting chased by the robust Rays offense, created more questions than he answered. As his average fastball velocity sat at an alarming 89.3 MPH – topping out at 92.9 – there appears there could be real reason for concern. The truncated nature of this season is well-documented, so if Folty is ailing, there is little time to waste for the Braves.
Despite a few homers, the Braves’ offense wasn’t much to write home about either. They were only able to muster four hits and logged an eye-popping 19 Ks. Tyler Glasnow was a buzzsaw early, striking out nine over four innings and striking out the side twice. His bullpen followed suit with 10 of their own.
It wasn’t all bad for the Braves, though, as Dansby Swanson – whose bat has been the Braves’ best this season – mashed a second inning home run with copious amounts of Tropicana Field-aided echo:
According to Sarah Langs, Dansby’s homer came off a 98.8 MPH fastball from Glasnow – it was the fastest Glasnow pitch to ever be hit for a home run.
At this point, the Braves were up 1-0, and everyone was feeling happy. Alas, it was short-lived.
Even with his decreased velocity, Folty kept his head above water for the first three innings, with the only blemish being a hanging slider to Mike Zunino that traveled 425 feet. Things completely unraveled in the fourth inning, as consecutive walks gave way to a three-run home run by Hunter Renfroe. On the next pitch, Joey Wendle took Folty deep to right, staking the Rays to a 5-1 lead. Folty stuck around long enough to walk Willy Adames, then Brian Snitker gave him the hook in favor of Touki Toussaint.
Things didn’t get too much better for Touki, as he allowed Adames to score, then allowed three runs of his own before the inning ended – aided in part by Ender Inciarte either a) losing a ball against the backdrop of Tropicana’s roof, b) completely mistracking the ball, or c) a combination of both. By the end of the fourth, the Rays had rattled off eight runs. Renfroe went deep again in the fifth, stretching the lead to 10-1.
The Braves got four runs back in the sixth. After Ronald Acuña reached on a missed strikeout, and Ozzie Albies reached on an error, Freddie singled Ronald home. Following a Marcell Ozuna strikeout, Matt Adams took Jalen Beeks – a lefty! – deep. 10-5. Striking distance!
But once again, the fun was temporary, as Touki’s six strikeouts were interspersed with a string of base hits that pushed the Rays’ lead to 12-5.
AJ Minter and Grant Dayton joined the carnage later in the game, each surrendering runs in their respective innings. When it was all said and done, the Braves participated in their second consecutive game in which the winning team scored 14 runs. Come to find out, it is much more fun when the Braves score 14 than when another team does it.
These two teams will meet again tomorrow night, with first pitch slated for 6:40pm ET.