“Ready to leave” Cleveland Guardians first baseman ready to end his contract as part of contract extension.

Takeaways from Atlanta’s extra-innings loss to the Cleveland Guardians.

The Atlanta Braves had multiple opportunities to score runs late in this game, but they were unable to get enough runners in.

On Saturday night, the Atlanta Braves lost 4-2 in extra innings against the Cleveland Guardians.

Here’s what you should know about the contest.

Both starts were excellent.

The Braves’ pitchers had pitched 29.1 shutout innings on the home stand before tonight, and Charlie Morton did not break the trend. “Uncle Charlie” pitched seven scoreless innings, allowing only four hits and one walk while striking out six on 91 pitches (63 strikes). Morton recorded 16 whiffs (five on the changeup) and a 32% CSW, demonstrating that, while he isn’t as excellent as he once was, he can be as good as he ever was.

Not to be outdone, Guardians starter Tanner Bibee showed why he was the runner-up for AL Rookie of the Year last season, going seven scoreless innings as well. His line was even more impressive than Morton’s, with only two hits (and no walks) allowed, striking out nine. Braves hitters particularly struggled to pick up his slider, with ten of his sixteen whiffs coming on the slide piece.

Things got weird in the 8th inning

After seven innings of a good old-fashioned pitching duel, it’s only fitting that things went sideways in the 8th inning.

The Guardians loaded the bases against Joe Jiménez despite not getting a ball out of the infield; the hardest of the three singles, all to the left side of the infield, was 31.1 mph off the bat. The Braves eventually got the ground ball needed for an inning-ending double play, but Jose Ramirez beat the ball to first, allowing Cleveland to score. They added another run on a double steal, which was more unfortunate for Atlanta – the throw beat Ramirez to the bag, but he swam around Orlando Arcia’s attempted tag and got in, giving Steven Kwan time to score from third.

Not to be deterred, Atlanta stormed right back and tied it up with some soft contact of their own – Jarred Kelenic dropped a bloop single in no man’s land in center field, scoring Michael Harris II from 3rd for the 2nd run. (Travis d’Arnaud doubled in Marcell Ozuna for the first run on the 8th).