Reynaldo López pitches six more shutout innings in 6-2 Braves win over Astros

Reynaldo López continued to be the most consistent starting pitcher for the Atlanta Braves here in the early going of the season. His six shutout innings helped keep the Braves in control as they rode another late wave of offense to a 6-2 series win at Minute Maid Park over the Houston Astros.

Once the schedule made it apparent that the pitching matchup for tonight’s game was going to be Reynaldo López going for the Braves against Hunter Brown starting for the Astros, I’d imagine that people would’ve been more-than-willing to bet against a pitching duel breaking out. This is the sport of baseball where anything can happen, though, so naturally we ended up witnessing a pitching duel for the first two-thirds of this contest.

At first, it seemed as if Ronald Acuña Jr. was going to create another run by himself as he led off the game with a single and then stole second. He then went for third and while he was initially ruled safe, he ended up being called out on review and the scoring chance for Atlanta evaporated from there. Fortunately, the Braves wouldn’t have to wait long to get on the board in this one. Orlando Arcia returned to the lineup after starting last night on the bench and he responded to that by winning an eight-pitch battle and lifting the ball up and into the area adjacent to the Crawford Boxes for what was ruled as a home run. Arcia’s first dinger of the season was of the solo variety so the Braves had a razor-thin 1-0 lead to hang onto at that point.

As it turned out, that ended up being all Reynaldo López needed in order to exert control over the game. While López wasn’t exactly perfect (he had to deal with at least one runner in scoring position for each of the second, third and fourth innings), he continued to stay positively consistent and proved to be extremely tough for the Astros to crack while he was out there.

Once Reynaldo López was done for the night, his line went along to the tune of six innings pitched, four hits allowed, one walk, seven strikeouts and zero runs allowed. López has now gone six innings in each of his three starts so far and he still hasn’t given up a run since his first start of the season. Needless to say, he’s provided the consistency that this rotation has needed in a bumpy start to the season and here’s hoping that he can keep this going into a renaissance season of sorts.

It also has to be mentioned that Hunter Brown ended up getting the bounce-back game that he had been desperately looking for after a dismal start to his season. Atlanta was unable to really hit Brown hard while he was out there and this ended up being Brown’s best start of the season by a country mile. He finished the game with six innings under his belt and five hits and three walks to his name with three strikeouts. He was unable to keep that one run on his record, though, as he did leave the game in the top of the seventh inning with the bases loaded and nobody out after the Braves led off that frame with a double from Michael Harris II and two walks immediately afterwards.

This was a golden opportunity for the Braves to crack the game wide open and put some distance between them and the Astros and things got off to a well-enough start when Orlando Arcia hit a deep sacrifice fly ball to right-center that moved all the runners up a base and plated Atlanta’s second run of the game. The good times ended right then and there, though, as Shawn Dubin struck out Jarred Kelenic and got Luis Guillorme to ground out to end the scoring threat and keep it at just 2-0 in favor of the Braves.

Reynaldo López set the tone for the night and the Braves bullpen kept it going in the right direction once they entered the game in relief. Tyler Matzek sat down the Astros in order in the seventh inning and then Joe Jiménez came in and followed suit in the eighth inning as well, ensuring that the Braves would be heading into the ninth inning with at least a two-run lead intact.

The hope was that the Braves would get back to their current ways in the ninth inning — meaning that the ninth inning was scoring time for Atlanta. Sure enough, the Braves got a rally going in the ninth which saw Marcell Ozuna extend his hitting streak to 15 games. Ozuna’s single was followed by a single from Orlando Arcia and then another single for Jarred Kelenic loaded the bases with one out for Luis Guillorme. Guillorme then proceeded to hit a blooper the other way that bounced right off the chalk foul line and into the seats for a ground rule double that plated two and put the Braves ahead in a comfortable 4-0 lead.

Chadwick Tromp then proceeded to put the game to bed with a perfectly-placed gapper in left center that plated two more runs and made it 6-0 in favor of the Braves. The ninth inning was once again very, very good to the Atlanta Braves.

Aaron Bummer got the nod for the ninth inning and immediately fumbled the shutout, as Kyle Tucker led off the ninth with a no-doubter that put the Astros on the board for the first time since the first inning of Monday night’s game. Bummer got the next two outs but then ran into some more trouble as he gave up a double, an RBI single and a walk to his next three hitters. Just like that, it was 6-2 and Aaron Bummer was pulled from the game in favor of Raisel Iglesias being placed into a one-out save situation. Fortunately, Iglesias induced a ground ball out of pinch hitter Victor Caratini to end the game and give the Braves the series victory.

The Braves will be heading back to the Atlanta metro area tomorrow evening but before then, they’ll have a getaway day matinee matchup against the Astros at 2:10 P.M. E.T. Max Fried will be getting the ball for tomorrow afternoon’s matchup and here’s hoping that Fried can follow López’s act with a vintage performance of his own as the Braves attempt to sweep Houston on their way out of town.