Braves 8, Rockies 6: Atlanta wakes up late after Colorado’s hot start

Quintana kept the night under control

For a while, Quintana made it stand. Quintana did not overpower Atlanta, because that was never the assignment. He did something more important for this version of the Rockies: he kept the night under control. The veteran lefty worked six innings, his longest start of the season, allowing one run on five hits with no walks and three strikeouts. He did it with the full veteran-lefty toolbox, mixing 31 four-seamers, 18 curveballs, 15 changeups, 12 slurves, and nine sinkers over 85 pitches. The only real damage was Matt Olson’s solo homer in the fourth. Olson is having the kind of season where pretending he will stay quiet for nine innings feels like bad writing, and he got Quintana for one. Fine. Against this lineup, the Rockies could live with one swing. Quintana made sure it did not become an inning. It was more than Colorado could have reasonably expected entering the night. Quintana limited damage, avoided free passes, and continued a run of excellent starts from Rockies pitchers. View Link Holmes’ final line was not pretty — five innings, seven hits, six runs, five earned, three walks, four strikeouts, and one home run — but after Colorado’s early burst, he still absorbed five innings for Atlanta. That mattered later.

The lead stopped growing

The Rockies’ offense quieted after Moniak’s homer. Former Rockie Anthony Molina, cut loose by Colorado this offseason, threw clean sixth and seventh innings for Atlanta, helping the Braves keep the game close enough for their lineup to matter late. The Rockies did enough early. Every starting position player reached base at least once except Willi Castro, who still drove in a run with a first-inning groundout. Contributions were not hard to find. But the game never became a full Coors Field avalanche. And against Atlanta, that left the door open.

Then the monster woke up

Zach Agnos made the seventh interesting, but not dangerous. Atlanta scratched across a manufactured run after an Austin Riley single and a Jake McCarthy error, but Agnos kept the damage there. He got Jorge Mateo to roll over softly for the final out, then bounced off the mound with a little extra juice as the Rockies carried a 6-2 lead into the eighth. For seven innings, the Rockies had subdued the monster In the eighth, it came looking for a fight. Agnos returned for a second inning of work and ran into traffic, putting two on with one out and Olson coming to the plate. The Rockies went to Jaden Hill, asking him to face the hitter who had already provided Atlanta’s only real damage. Hill walked him. Then came the swing Colorado had spent the night avoiding: an opposite-field triple that cleared the bases and cut the lead to 6-5. View Link One batter later, a sacrifice fly brought home the tying run. 6-6 Just like that, the comfortable version of the game was gone. Hill struck out the final batter to keep the inning from getting worse, but the damage had already changed the night. Colorado had a chance to answer right away against Didier Fuentes in the bottom of the eighth when Tyler Freeman was hit by a pitch to open the inning, but the response never came. Troy Johnston hit the ball hard, only to ground into a double play, and Castro popped out to send the game to the ninth still tied. The Rockies had absorbed the punch. They had not answered it yet.

The ninth broke it

Juan Mejía started the inning with a leadoff walk, and from there Atlanta’s contact got loud in a hurry. Michael Harris II followed with the swing that made it feel fatal, launching a two-run homer to give the Braves an 8-6 lead. View Link After seven innings of clean, controlled baseball, the Rockies gave the Braves the one thing they had mostly avoided all night. Free traffic. Atlanta turned it into the lead and didn’t give it back. Fuentes picked up the win, improving to 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA. Mejía took the loss, falling to 0-3 with a 5.87 ERA. Robert Suarez handled the ninth for Atlanta, working around a Brenton Doyle single to finish the comeback.

Seven innings were not enough

That is the hard part. There was plenty worth liking. Quintana was excellent. The first inning was the kind of pressure inning this team has struggled to create in recent years. Moniak’s homer was loud enough to make the night feel real. For seven innings, the Rockies had the Braves where they wanted them. Then Atlanta woke up.

Up next

The Rockies continue their three-game series with the Braves on Saturday night at Coors Field. Atlanta will send Chris Sale to the mound, while Colorado’s starter has not yet been officially announced. It should be Chase Dollander. If that holds, it will be a fascinating test. Sale enters 5-1 with a 2.31 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and 38 strikeouts in six starts. Dollander has been excellent in his own right, entering 3-2 with a 2.25 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, and 39 strikeouts over 32 innings across seven games. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m. MT.

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