Friday’s game at Truist Park presented a case of National League contrasts, and it showed in the final line — and everywhere in-between — as Atlanta hammered its way to an 8-1 win over Colorado.
The Braves looked the part of a franchise that’s made five straight playoff appearances, with a World Series title in that span and the capability to match that championship feat this fall.
The Rockies, meanwhile, looked like a franchise with no identity and no obvious sense of immediate positive direction. And Colorado is a club so riddled by a dearth of legitimate starting pitching depth that the Rockies deem it necessary to trot out a pitcher with an ERA north of 10 against perhaps the most stacked lineup in the National League.
The result was a predictable romp by the NL’s best team (Atlanta has a Senior Circuit-best 44-26 record) against one of the NL’s worst as Colorado (29-43) continues to toil in the basement of the West.
Right-hander Dinelson Lamet ran his ERA up to 11.57 as he was blasted for 1,350 feet worth of homers and eight runs in four innings, and the patchwork Colorado lineup featuring only three Opening Day-starters failed to deliver a timely hit.
Braves leadoff man Ronald Acuna Jr, whom Colorado manager Bud Black said “might be the best player in the game right now,” worked a leadoff walk in the first in what was the opening omen for Lamet’s ugly outing. Acuna then stole second, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
Another walk by Lamet to Austin Riley set up Travis d’Arnaud’s first homer, a 474-foot blast to center field for the catcher’s 100th career dinger. That made it 3-0 and put the Braves firmly in control early, just as they battered Kyle Freeland in the second inning of Thursday’s 8-3 win in the series opener.
As Braves southpaw Jared Shuster kept Colorado off the scoreboard for the first five innings, Lamet kept walking guys and serving up meatballs. Lamet’s underperformance continues a troubling trend for the injury-riddled Colorado rotation, as over the last 18 games including Friday, Rockies starters are 0-9 with a 6.93 ERA.
In the third, a two-out walk to Riley set up d’Arnaud’s second blast, this one a 433-foot blast to left that made it 5-0. Atlanta proceeded to tack on three more runs in the fourth, when a leadoff walk to Marcell Ozuna led to a two-run homer by Eddie Rosario to make it 7-0. The Braves got the two-point conversion to make it 8-0 when Acuna’s double-play groundout scored another run.
The Rockies had a chance to make it interesting in the sixth, when they scraped across one run and chased a gassed Shuster from the game. But Jorge Alfaro, making his first start at catcher with the Rockies, got K’d by right-hander Kirby Yates to end the frame with the bases loaded. Alfaro then struck out again in the eighth with two men on, epitomizing Colorado’s lack of offensive punch overall.
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