DENVER – When Thursday night, Rocky Mountain Connor Joe advanced to deep center field at the seventh entrance to Coors Field. The man chasing the ball had only 11 career games in the center on his resume.
“I heard our bullpen [beyond the center-field wall] telling me as I approached the wall, it gave me some insight, “said Adam Duvall, who jumped on the fence to preserve the advantage of a single Atlanta run.” When I grabbed it, I didn’t think it was on the wall, but I ended up closer than I thought. “
The game was closer than the Braves would have wanted. But thanks to Duvall’s defense, not to mention the great success of the game (a 477-foot score in the fifth inning) and a stellar bullfighting effort, Atlanta got a 6-5 victory over a club. of the Rockies. who competed 43-22 at Coors Field.
When the Braves recaptured Duvall by trading with the Marlins on July 30, they knew he had a history of ups and downs on the plate. After all, they traded for him in 2018 from the Reds, and he scored just 7 for 53 with an extra base hit before posting a .852 OPS with 26 homers in 98 2019-20 games.
But Atlanta also knew Duvall is averaging home runs every 16.8 bats in his career. Only eight active players have a better pace than that.
The move paid dividends Thursday night.
The massive explosion on the center-left field was the longest of Duvall’s career, and he pulled off headline Touki Toussaint after the right-hander gave a big slam to Charlie Blackmon in the third inning. Toussaint gave up five runs (four wins) in six hits, walked none and finished none in 46 pitches (30 strokes) in three innings.
Jorge Soler opened the scoring with a 407-foot homer on a fast Chi Chi González ball off the beach in the first inning of his 22nd of the year. Austin Riley stayed warm, going 2-3 with a two-run double in the third that gave Atlanta a 3-0 lead.
The fourth was called up after Blackmon’s homer had the Rockies ahead, 5-3, but after Duvall’s tie, Jacob Webb, Jesse Chavez, Richard Rodriguez, Luke Jackson and Will Smith kept Colorado off the board. .
The six unscored frames of the relief corps arrived less than 24 hours after the bullring could not hold a single run at the eighth entrance of Dodger Stadium, where Atlanta was razed before traveling to Denver.
“It’s hard here to win a game like that,” manager Brian Snitker said. “Jacob came in and did a great job, I think, bridging to get two innings.”
After making only four Major League appearances over the previous three months, Webb was called up from the bullring for his first outing since being removed from Triple-A Gwinnett. He lived up to the occasion, giving the Braves a chance to return.
“The bullpen is kind of an interesting place to be,” Webb said. “It’s a fantastic experience to be able to watch the game a little bit before you come in. You can see some things, get an idea of the game.”
On Thursday, Webb was able to watch the game a bit, with an emphasis on “little”. Bringing the mound to the friendliest park of the Majors and making it to the fourth entrance was no small task, and Webb arrived. Like Chávez, Rodriguez, Jackson and Smith, who, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, teamed up to become the third group of unloaded visitors to throw six or more scoreless marks at Coors Field in the past five seasons (also the Padres on May 11 this season and the Mets on August 2, 2017).
Appropriately, while the Braves clung to two advantages over the Phillies in the Eastern National League, the protagonists of Thursday’s contest helped each other: first at Duvall’s home, then the bullpen helping Duvall make the defensive game play.
He spoke of the resilience of a team that has faced many adversities in 2021, but is in a position to secure its fourth consecutive division title.
“These guys just have a tendency in their business,” Snitker said. “They come to play and prepare and play the game that concerns us.
“They are not looking back or forward. They just focus on today. “