Atlanta Braves tie Miami Marlins 2-2 in Spring Training encounter - MLB Update
Carlos Zambrano makes up for his last game poor outing by helping Miami Marlins tie Atlanta Braves 2-2 in a match played at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, Florida on March 13, 2012 during their Spring Training Grapefruit League contest.
Batters from both sides found it hard to get easy runs and extent of dominance of pitchers was such that play went scoreless even after the completion of three innings. Going by the run-drought coming along from previous three innings, by the time Braves
added one run their expectations that their lead will stay until the end were not entirely misplaced.
However this held least significance for Marlins as they moved on to post two runs in seventh and attained one run lead as a result. The fact Braves were later able to tie the score 2-2 took the game into the 10th inning. Nonetheless, the game
was called after the 10th as no result seemed imminent.
Marlins will be happy to see Carlos Zambrano striking-out five in four innings he spent on the mound while giving up one run.
"Thank God I'm back with kind of the form I had back in the days that I used to be very good. I'm very pleased with the outing," Zambrano said.
It is more the pace at which Zambrano pitched that impressed everyone than his strike-outs. The batters were having trouble while facing his 97 mph balls was easily visible and even Braves’ Brian McCann seemed impressed with his fastballs after the game.
"The last couple of years, I think he has been sitting at 88, 92. Today he threw a bunch of 96s, 97. His arm looked really good today," McCann said.
Braves’ catcher Brian McCann though was not at his best did manage to bring an RBI single while hitting one out of three at bats he faced. While Martin Prado must be disappointed after managing only a dead rubber hit at the consumption of four at bats, it
is Christian Bethancourt who made the most of his single at bat, which he brought an RBI and also scoring a run.
At the end of the day, Braves can take lot of positives from today’s game as their pitchers did a better job and certainly these are the kind of performances they need to shine during the regular season.
Tags: