Atlanta Braves Luke Jackson (right) scores and is congratulated by Orlando Arcia (left) for the go ahead run in the top of the tenth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco (AP News photo)

Atlanta (63-56). 021 000 000 1. 4. 10. 1

San Francisco (61-61). 011 000 010 0. 3. 7. 1. (10 innings)

Time: 2:38

Attendance: 30,468

Tuesday, August 13, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–After Monday night’s pitching duel for the ages between the aces of the Braves’ and Giants’ rotations, it was inevitable that. this Tuesday’s set-to would be a letdown. Nonetheless, it was a close and exciting battle, another extra inning affair, in which the Giants again fell to the Braves in an extra innings affair.

Raiser Iglesias, Monday night’s winning pitcher got the save, his 25th, and the win went to Dylan Lee, whose record now stands at 4-2, 1.96). It wasn’t a slugfest, but it was no pitchers’ duel either.

The Giants chose 23 year old Kyle Harrison and his 6-5, 4.08 season’s record, which included two games this month. In the first of them, at Cincinnati on the third, he yielded six earned runs in 3-2/3 innings; in the second, four days ago he gave up two earned runs in 4-2/3 innings.

Tuesday night he lasted five full innings, in which he gave up three runs, all earned, on six hits and a pair of free passes, throwing 89 pitches, 54 of which met the criteria for strikes, before giving way to Sean Hjelle, who pitched a scoreless sixth.

San Francisco also called on Landon Roupp (two hits in two innings with three strikeouts), Jordan Hicks (a shutout ninth, and Randy Rodríguez, who took the loss when Travis d’Arnaud’s weak grounder bounced off Casey Schmitt’s glove into right field allowed pinch zombie runner Luke Williams to score the winning run.

The Braves went with the Methusala of the majors, 40 year old, 15 year veteran, Charlie Morton, who came to work with a season’s record of 6-7, 4.47 after having surrendered eight earned runs in his last start, in which he lasted all of 2-2/3 innings against the Brewers.

Morton performed much better tonight. He allowed two runs, both earned, on six hits, one of them a homer, and a walk in six innings of work. 63 of his 98 offerings counted as strikes. Jesse Chávez took over for him after the crowd, which included a lot of vocal Braves fans, had sung “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

He set the orange and black down to a conga beat, 1, 2, 3. Pierce Johnson, who entered the fray in the eighth and allowed the tying (unearned) run to score on a wild pitch, Dylan Lee, the winning pitcher, and Raisel Iglesias, who earned the save, also saw action on the mound for Atlanta.

Ramos gave signs of breaking out of his post All Star Game slump, going two for five, including a first inning triple, after which he was stranded on third. The team left seven runners on bases and missed ten opportunities to get a hit with a runner in scoring position.

Ramos was the only Giant to have a multi-hit game and one of the three with an extra base hit. The others were Wade, with a double, and Tyler Fitzgerald, with a 425 foot, 105 mph blast in the third, his 13th round tripper of the season.

Patrick Bailey’s single to center in the fourth ended his hitless streak at 23.

It was the Braves major league leading ninth extra inning win. Three of their batters Riley, d’Arneau, and Laureano, with two apiece. Ex-Giant Jorge Soler, ex-Athletic Ramón Laureano, and Travis d’Arneau went the distance.

The Giants now have two chances to climb over the .500 mark and end the series where they started. They’ll try Wednesday, at 6:45 by sending Robbie Ray (2-1, 3.98) to the mound. Atlanta will counter with Max Fried ((7-6, 3.56).