By DJ Harding –
The Atlanta Braves would face the Kansas City Royals in their final game of a three game series on Sunday. Atlanta with a 5-4 win over Kansas City now makes it six wins in a row spanning back to April 10th versus the Cincinnati Reds.
The Braves have now swept two teams in a row beating the Reds and Royals three times each. This is their third sweep overall as they also swept the St.Louis Cardinals earlier this month.
Kyle Wright would get the start for the Braves pitching five and two-thirds innings allowing four hits, two runs, and three walks. Wright would also strike out six batters but would not be awarded the win.
Nick Anderson would be rewarded with the win for Atlanta and is now 1-0 on the season, pitching one inning allowing no hits, runs, or walks.
Anderson would strike out one batter during his win while closing pitcher A.J Minter would get his third save of the season.
For the Royals Zach Greinke would get the start for the Royals staying on the mound for six innings giving up four hits and four runs. Greinke would strike out six batters and avoid a loss to his record.
The loss would go to Scott Barlow who pitched in the ninth inning and would give up the game winning run while also allowing two hits.
Three of the Braves five runs would come in top of the third as a Matt Olson triple would score both Sam Hilliard and Ronald Acuna Jr who were both on base.
Austin Riley would hit a sacrifice fly in the same inning which would score Olson.
Atlanta would also score in the top of the fourth with an Ozzie Albies homerun. The fifth and final run would come in the ninth inning as mentioned earlier when Vaughn Grissom would hit a single that would score Albies.
Kansas City would see Bobby Witt Jr ground into a double play with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third which still scored a run.
The Royals down 4-1 in the bottom of the sixth would see Frankie Reyes single and score Salvador Perez to shorten the lead to two runs.
One inning later in the bottom of the seventh inning would see Vinnie Pasquantino hit a two run home run to tie the game up at four runs each.
The Atlanta Braves with this win improve to 12-4 and have the division lead on the National League East Division.
Atlanta also holds the best record in the National League and the second best record in baseball only trailing the Tampa Bay Rays (14-2).
The Kansas City Royals find themselves in the opposite position as their record of 4-12 brings them to fifth in the American League Central Division.
Kansas City’s record gives them the second worst record in the American League and the entire league as a whole only having a better record then the Oakland Athletics (3-13).
The Braves will try to keep their win streak alive versus the San Diego Padres who played Atlanta in an earlier series which the Braves lost.
Atlanta lost that previous series to San Diego 3-1. Which will give the Braves a chance to stay hot and redeem themselves against a team that has given them their only series loss this season. The Padres are responsible for three of the Braves four losses.
This series rematch will take place in San Diego on Monday April 17th.
Atlanta Sports Journal 