Takeaways: Braves lose game two to Houston 6-3

One bad inning for Kyle Wright proved costly as the Astros won their second game of the series

Dan Strickland | Apr 22, 2023

The Braves lost the game and the series tonight in a 6-3 defeat to the Astros. After winning eight in a row, the Braves have lost their last three games. The Braves will look to Max Fried to shut down the Astros in game three tomorrow.

One Bad Inning for Wright

Kyle Wright had some runners on base through the first five innings but got out of trouble in each of those innings. However, the sixth inning was not as forgiving. The first five batters in the inning reached, and four of those runners scored.

Alex Bregman opened the inning with a single. Yordan Alverez came up next and hit his second home run of the series to give the Astros a 2-0 lead.

Jose Abreu reached on an error by Vaughn Grissom, followed by a two-run home run by Kyle Tucker to give the Astros a 4-1 lead.

This was Wright’s third start of the season after beginning the season on the IL. He is now 0-1 on the season with a 5.93 ERA.

Valdez Gets Redemption

Framber Valdez came into tonight having struggled against the Braves. In the 2021 World Series, he started two games. He only pitched 4.2 total innings in those starts and gave up twelve hits (four of those were home runs) and ten earned runs. His World Series ERA was 19.28.

He looked much better tonight. Valdez went seven innings, giving up eight hits and three runs. The three runs came on home runs from Olson and Albies. His sinker was an effective pitch, and he struck out nine Braves hitters tonight.

Errors Prove Costly

The Braves made three uncharacteristic errors tonight, two by Vaughn Grissom and one by Ozzie Albies. Two of those errors led to runs being scored by the Astros.

Grissom had a rough game on his first day being called up earlier this season against the Royals. However, he has settled in and played solid defense since that game. Hopefully, tonight was simply an outlier and not indicative of things to come with his defense in the days ahead.

What's Next?

Tomorrow's series finale is scheduled for 1:35 ET and is being broadcast by Bally Sports South. The radio call, with Ben Ingram, is available locally on 680 AM/93.7 FM The Fan or outside the Atlanta market on the Atlanta Braves Radio Network or MLB.com.

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