In what became a highly entertaining back-and-forth affair on Wednesday night, things unraveled in the 8th for reliever Joe Jimenez as the Diamondbacks pulled away from the Braves, 7-5.
With the score tied at 5-5, the Diamondbacks loaded the bases with no outs. Jimenez then walked Christian Walker with a full count to bring home a run and later surrendered a sacrifice fly to give Arizona a two-run lead.
The Braves struck early in the second inning against Slade Cecconi. Marcell Ozuna ripped a single, Eddie Rosario smoked a ball over the right-center wall for a ground-rule double, and Travis d’Arnaud bopped one the other way just over the head of the right fielder for a two-run double.
The lead was shortly lived, though, as Eugenio Suarez absolutely launched a 451 footer to the upper deck of right field to tie things at 2-2.
Matt Olson promptly broke the tie in the top of the third with a deep flyout to score Ozzie Albies and make it 3-2. And the lead lasted roughly 10 minutes before Ketel Marte launched one 444 feet to tie it at three.
Both offenses cooled in the middle innings with quite a few breezy frames mixed in, but both promptly came back to life late. The Diamondbacks struck for two in the seventh as Morton departed and Pierce Johnson entered. Unfortunately, Suarez hooked a curveball down the left field line to plate the go-ahead run, and Jose Herrera singled to bring Suarez in to make it 5-3.
With the Braves down two, Austin Riley doubled off the center field wall to lead off the top of the eighth, and Marcell Ozuna cleared the center field wall to tie it at 5-5.
Unfortunately, Jimenez just didn’t have it in the eighth as the winning streak halted at four.
The four-game series in Phoenix wraps up on Thursday evening with yet another 9:40 p.m. ET start. Max Fried will take the mound against one of Arizona’s postseason heroes from a year ago, Brandon Pfaadt, who enters with a pedestrian 4.19 ERA but much stronger 3.51 xERA and 3.80 xFIP with just one run allowed over his prior two starts.
