April 29, 2022 - Game 20
W - Ian Anderson (2-1)
L - Garrett Richards (0-1)
S - Kenley Jansen (6)
HR: TEX: García (4), Seager (3) ATL: Riley (4), Demerrite ISTP (2), Contreras 2 (2)
Time of Game: 3:23
Game Recap
The crowd got excited before the game for a few reasons, including Braves country infesting Globe Life Field with Atlanta's first visit since 2014. Then, it was former Rangers manager Ron Washington's seventieth birthday. Finally, right at game time, Washington received loud applause when Chuck Morgan introduced him as the Braves' third-base coach.
The night started with an Austin Riley two-run home run off the Rangers' opener, Garrett Richards. Like Sunday, Chris Woodward goes with Garrett Richards, followed by Spencer Howard. Texas answered back with a solo home run by Adolis García in the second inning. After Howard struck out the side in the second, he ran into issues in the third. Travis Demeritte hit a line drive to center field, but García got turned around, and the ball kicked off his glove. It rolled toward the left-center warning track when it kicked off Adolis' glove. Demeritte hustled down and scored on an inside-the-park home run. Howard walked two and allowed a hit in the third after that, which ended the night for Spencer. Brett Martin came into strikeout Guillermo Heredia to end the threat. "[I] gave up a couple of hard hit balls that second inning and tried to do too much and try to make perfect pitches where I should have dropped back and let it eat," Spencer Howard said after the game. "It happens."
Brock Burke came into pitch in the fourth and allowed the first home run by William Contreras. Later, an errant throw by Marcus Semien trying to nab Dansby Swanson at third base aided Swanson in scoring the Braves' second run in the fourth. Burke finished the night pitching two innings, allowed three hits, one earned run (one unearned), and four strikeouts. In Contreras' next at-bat, he launched a ball to left-center off of Albert Abreu to pad the Atlanta lead to 6-1. Texas got a run back in the bottom of the sixth on García's RBI groundout scoring Marcus Semien, who led off the inning with a double.
Abreu's command struggled through the last three outings. Although he pitched an inning and a third Friday, he walked four along with six in his previous two outings. Kolby Allard had to come in to finish the seventh inning and struck out one batter. "I know they're coming to town late April [and] it'll be fun throwing against [the Braves]," Kolby Allard told me back in Spring Training as the Braves drafted him fourteenth overall back in 2015. The Rangers racked up a couple of singles off former Ranger Jesse Chavez but couldn't cash in in the bottom of the seventh. In the eighth, Corey Seager snuck a ball just over the left field wall for a solo home run off of Will Smith (insert joke here). Texas couldn't do anything more in the eighth and got shut down by Braves closer, Kenley Jansen. They've dropped four straight for the second time in 2022. "We got to get back to playing baseball," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. "We had a blast in Spring Training, we had a blast coming out of camp. You see the energy we were playing in Toronto. Guys are little tight. That comes with some of the inexperience that we have because guys are fighting for their lives."
Postgame Notes
Travis Demeritte's inside the park homer was the first inside the park home run at Globe Life Field.
Austin Riley's homer in the first was his second career home run at Globe Life Field. He hit the go-ahead homer in Game 1 of the 2020 NLCS against the Dodgers.
Oppositions have outscored the Rangers 22-4 in the first inning this season. The four runs scored by Texas came on Opening Day.
Albert Abreu has walked ten batters in his last three outings. In his previous twenty outings, he walked eleven hitters.
The Braves snapped a four-game losing streak in Arlington against the Rangers. They also snapped a three-game losing streak at Globe Life Field when they led the Dodgers 3-1 in the 2020 NLCS.
Andy Ibáñez has hits in six of his last seven games. Friday was his first multi-hit game of that seven-game stretch.
Corey Seager’s homer in the eighth marks his fifteenth career home run against the Atlanta Braves (includes Postseason).
Adolis García extends his lead for the all-time Home Run list at Globe Life Field with two more than Joey Gallo and twelve more than Corey Seager. García has hit twenty-two career homers at Globe Life Field.
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