Braves vs. Tigers series recap: April ends on a high note

For everybody who’s been waiting to see Ronald Acuña Jr. really get going this season, this game was proof that he’s still got it in him to make a significant impact on any given game. Both of the hits that he had in this one were doubles — he had both of those by the third inning and his second one plated Mike Yastrzemski to put the Braves up in the third inning. Matt Olson brought Acuña home with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 and then later on in the fourth inning, Acuña made a jumping catch at the wall to ensure that Kevin McGonigle didn’t at least extend the inning with an extra-base hit.

Once the final three innings of the game rolled around, the Braves were still in control thanks to Martín Pérez delivering five scoreless innings while only giving up two hits. He did walk four batters but he struck out five batters as well, so Pérez was once again able to deliver positive value from his spot in the rotation. That was a good thing, since Yaz was able to provide some insurance with an RBI single in the seventh inning and then Ozzie Albies crushed a two-run dinger to make it a 5-0 game. Aaron Bummer gave up a dinger to Wenceel Pérez in the ninth to ruin the shutout but it didn’t ruin the result as the Braves picked up a pretty solid win to get the series going.

This one essentially came down to the Braves bookending this game with two big flies. The first one gave the Braves a 2-0 lead in the first inning when Ozzie Albies continued his hot run by hitting a dinger at the expense of All-World pitcher Tarik Skubal. Sadly for the Braves, the lead didn’t last too long.

Detroit tied it up on their first attempt in the top of the second after Kevin McGonigle delivered an RBI single on a looping liner and then JR Ritchie made a rookie mistake by throwing away a pickoff attempt on an 0-2 count with two outs. The error brought in another run and just like that, the game was tied. The tie was eventualy broken in the third inning after Riley Greene hit a long ball that put Detroit in front. Tarik Skubal had a lead to work with and eventually cruised his way through seven innings of work. Fortunately, Ritchie went 5.1 innings and Atlanta’s bullpen was able to hold the Tigers at just three runs. That was crucial since the game really got going again once Detroit’s beleaguered bullpen got involved. It took a lot of effort on Kyle Finnegan’s part to keep the Braves from tying it in the eighth inning but Kenley Jansen wouldn’t be as fortunate. In fact, Jansen failed to get just one out — Ozzie Albies coaxed a walk out of him (which should’ve been the first sign that Jansen was in real trouble) and then Matt Olson took what he saw from that plate appearance and waited until he got a cutter that was middle-middle and sent it flying into the night sky. By the time it landed, the Braves were winners and Truist Park was in complete bedlam.

This one got off to an encouraging enough start, as the Braves got off to an early lead after pushing across one run in both the second and third innings. Eli White delivered the first RBI knock and then Maurcio Dubón followed it up with an RBI single of his own to give the Braves an early 2-0 edge. Bryce Elder delivered another strong six innings of work where he only gave up one run on his way out. He did have to deal with a bunch of traffic as he gave up six hits and three walks but he escaped most of the jams he found himself in and managed to make sure that the Braves held the lead while he was out there.

Framber Valdez was able to match Elder’s six innings and he kept the Tigers in the game. This time, it was Atlanta’s bullpen that eventually stumbled. Joel Payamps got the ball for the eighth inning and the Tigers jumped on him immediately with a Kerry Carpenter triple and an RBI double from Matt Vierling that tied the game up at two. While Payamps was able to strike out Dillon Dingler to get his first out, he left the game right after that with two men on and one out for Aaron Bummer to work with. Bummer walked the bases loaded and then surrendered a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2 Detroit. Bummer actually didn’t do too badly keeping it at 3-2 but unfortunately, José Suarez had another rough outing which put the game to bed. Suarez got the first two outs but walked Wenceel Pérez (who had come into this game with a wRC+ of 25 (twenty-five), mind you), who ended up scoring on an RBI single that was exacerbated after Mike Yastrzemski booted the ball in the outfield while attempting to field it. Dillon Dingler delivered the finishing blow with an RBI double and the three-run deficit proved to be too much for the Braves on this particular day. You can’t win ‘em all! As far as this series goes, it was certainly huge for the Braves to get the series win out of the way with the first two wins — the win during the Skubal game was particularly big as well, as it’s always a bonus to pick up a win with that dynamo on the mound for the Tigers. Aside from the mistake pitch to Ozzie Albies, Skubal was very tough on the Braves. Fortunately, Atlanta was able to take advantage of Detroit’s bullpen in both of the first two games of the series and that ended up giving them the edge. The Braves are now done with the month of April and they’re 12 games over .500. Again, this is a reminder that Atlanta spent a grand total of one (1) day over .500 during the entire 2025 season and the last time the Braves had reached these heights was back in late-September when they were busy fighting and clawing for a Wild Card spot. Needless to say, things have gotten a lot better for the Braves and the fact that they were able to keep this up for a whole month and also able to do it with a few key players still on the inured list or struggling a is a very good indicator for the future. The team isn’t perfect and there’s still some shoring up that needs to be done as the pitching starts to slow down a bit but at the same time, they’ve done this while banking in 22 wins in their first 32 games. The gap between them and the rest of the NL East is still there and as long as the Braves can at least maintain a decent type of form, Atlanta’s going to be A-OK going forward as the season progresses. They will now be embarking on another gauntlet of sorts — nine games on the road against West division clubs. A trip to Coors Field is always tricky and unpredictable, the Mariners could also provide a tough test in Seattle and the Dodgers are the Dodgers. For now, it’s good to know that the Braves will embarking on that long trip with plenty of confidence and wins under their belt so far. Long may it continue!