Tuesday's Braves Report: Swanson, Gausman big as Braves win; Nats give up; minors update; Urena skips appeal
Braves pitch and power past Pittsburgh
Dansby Swanson popped a pair of homers – his first multi-homer game – and Kevin Gausman was dazzling in Atlanta’s 6-1 win over Pittsburgh.
Swanson’s two-run homer in the fifth got the Braves on the board, and they added three in the seventh, Swanson bringing in Ozzie Albies and Kurt Suzuki with his 12th homer of the year.
Meanwhile, Gausman improved to 8-9 by going eight shutout innings, allowing four hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Chad Sobotka finished things off.
Suzuki added two hits for the Braves.
Next 5
Wednesday, 7:05 p.m., at Pittsburgh, FSSE
Thursday, 7:10 p.m., at Miami, FSSO
Friday, 7:10 p.m., at Miami, FSSO
Saturday, 7:10 p.m., at Miami, FS1
Sunday, 1:10 p.m., at Miami, FSSO
From beat writers Gabe Burns/Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mark Bowman/MLB.com, and David O’Brien/The Athletic on Twitter (and others when notable)
Once the rain delay is complete, the Braves will enter tonight without both Minter and Winkler, who has pitched each of the past three days. Brach threw 22 pitches Sunday and 12 more last night. Biddle made a 4-pitch appearance Sunday another last night./MB
Gausman has allowed one hit through three scoreless (37 pitches). One of the primary reasons he ditched the windup is the belief his slider will be more consistent because he won't fly open as often. He's thrown four sliders tonight -- two whiffs, one called strike, one foul/MB
Dansby Swanson homers AGAIN on first pitch. He's got four homers in his past nine games, two of which came tonight. Braves up 5-0 in seventh./GB
Gausman escapes a bases-loaded threat and exits his sixth scoreless inning having thrown 79 pitches. He threw nine additional pitches after the potential inning-ending DP was thwarted by Albies bumping Swanson. Could prove significant as the Braves work w/ a thin pen./MB
Swanson's first career multi-homer game. He said he made adjustments a couple of weeks ago, and it certainly appears they took./DOB
That's all for Gausman, who scattered four hits across eight shutout innings. He was exceptional. The Braves appear to have done well in that trade./GB
I was among those who thought the #Braves should've traded for Archer instead of Gausman. I was among those who were very, very wrong. And that's not even taking into account how little they gave up to get him./DOB
Braves win, 6-1. Swanson found his power stroke. Gausman is already better than he was three weeks ago. Turns out, the season didn't end with the Rockies sweep. They'll go for a sweep of their own tomorrow. 70-55./GB