After a five-run outburst early Tuesday night, the Braves’ bats have gone quiet again. They didn’t have much to offer Wednesday afternoon against Hisashi Iwakuma, Seattle’s latest Japanese sensation, and dropped their second in a row to the Mariners, 2-0.
The Braves managed six hits – all singles - in seven innings off the 2013 All-Star and were shut out for the seventh time this season.
Jason Heyward was the only Braves with multi-hits, going 2-for-4, and Freddie Freeman struck out three times for the third time in his past eight games. The Braves struck out 22 times in the two-game series.
These two losses coupled with four losses to the Red Sox last week drop the Braves to 0-6 this season in interleague play. They’ll get a week reprieve from the American League with their upcoming trip to Arizona and Colorado before the Angels come to town over Father’s Day weekend.
Mike Minor allowed only one run on five hits through seven innings and struck out a season-high 10 batters and still had to take the loss. He left trailing 1-0 before the Mariners added a run off Luis Avilan in the eighth.
The only run Minor allowed came in the fourth inning after Cole Gillespie singled on a two-out 3-2 fastball to drive in Robinson Cano from third base. Minor had given up back-to-back singles before coming a strike away from escaping further damage.
Minor had worked out of a fifth inning jam the hard way after he walked the pitcher Iwakuma to bring up the top of the Mariners order with nobody out. But Minor struck out both Willie Bloomquist and Robinson Cano, in and around a failed bunt attempt by Endy Chavez.
Those were the two biggest strikeouts of his 10 in the game. Minor reached double digits in strikeouts for the third time in his career and first since he struck out 10 last May 25 in New York against the Mets.
Stefen Romero, who hit the three-run game-tying home run in Tuesday night’s come-from-behind win for Seattle, tripled with one out in the seventh off Avilan. He scored on a Kyle Seager single to make it 2-0 Mariners.
For updated game story with postgame quotes on myajc.com, click here.
