Kyle Taylor, Valdosta Today Sports
CINCINNATI – The MLB Midsummer Classic will take place at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati this July along with the Home Run Derby. Many balls will be flying out of the park that is well-known as one of the better hitting parks in the league.
Instead, Monday night brought us a great pitching matchup between Shelby Miller (4-1) of the Braves (14-17) and Mike Leake (2-1) of the Reds (15-16), as the two teams opened up the three game series.
The Braves split the first series of four games with the Reds that started April 30th at Turner Field. Mike Leake got the best of Shelby Miller in the opening game of that series.
The stage Monday night was set for two teams coming off weekends of tough walk-off losses to make up ground in their divisions on a nationally televised game.
That is until the rain came and caused a 1 hour and 40 minute rain delay. The game, however, did not disappoint fans that turned over from the basketball game right as the tarp was being removed from the field.
The Braves came out on top by a score of 2-1 to take game one after dropping three in a row to the Nationals.
Fredi Gonzalez is finally beginning to find some consistency in the lineup. Andrelton Simmons seems comfortable in the two hole as he knocked two more hits Monday night, including a game-tying home run to left field in the fourth inning.
The game remained tied heading into the sixth inning when A.J. Pierzynski was thrown out on a controversial call at the plate. The call was challenged by the Braves, as the new plate blocking rule came into play. MLB replay officials later confirmed that not only was it a legal play by Reds’ catcher, Tucker Barnhart, but that Pierzynski was also tagged out on the play.
With the game still tied going into the ninth inning, the Reds decided to bring in their phenom closer, Aroldis Chapman, to assure the Reds a chance to win it in the bottom half of the inning, or send the game to extras.
The Braves were able to do what they have done all season long by putting the bat on the ball. Phil Gosselin lead it off with a single and eventually got into scoring position. With great awareness on the basepaths, Gosselin stole third base and scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch to give the Braves a 2-1 lead. Jim Johnson, not Jason Grilli, converted the save to give the Braves the win.
Fredi Gonzalez commented on the health of Grilli after the game during the SportsSouth broadcast, “Jason is good. We just wanted to give him one more day.”
Shelby Miller continues his dominance on the mound for the Braves in a hitter friendly ballpark. Miller talked about the performance with David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution,
“This is obviously a tough ballpark to pitch in. They’re a team that hits pretty good at home. They hit a lot of home runs throughout the lineup. I was just trying to keep the ball on the ground as much as possible.”
First pitch for Tuesday night will be scheduled for 7:10, should weather permit. Mike Foltynewicz (2-0) will look to win his third straight, with Cincinnati sending Anthony DeSclafani (2-3) to the bump as his counterpart, a 25 year old right-handed pitcher that was acquired by the Reds from the Marlins in the deal that sent Mat Latos to Miami in the offseason.
Atlanta defeated Cincinnati the last time these pitchers matched up on May 1st.
