The Atlanta Braves Get Swept Their First Series of the Season
The Atlanta Braves took on the San Diego Padres this weekend for their first four-game series of the season. With them losing all four games, this puts them at a bad start to their season. This would’ve been the Braves' way of exacting a pointless retaliation after they snuck themselves into the postseason the previous season. Also, following the Padres' 4-3 victory in the season series and their two-game sweep of Atlanta in the Wild Card Series last season.
The Braves lost 7–4 to the Padres at Petco Park on March 27th, the first day of the 2025 season. The Padres' late-inning comeback ended the Braves' lead and defined the game. In the first inning, Ozzie Albies grounded into a fielder's choice to give the Braves an early lead and let Jurickson Profar score. The Padres took a 2-1 lead as Jackson Merrill of the Padres tripled to center in the bottom of the first, driving in Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. Atlanta regained the lead at 4-3 after Albies hit a two-run homer in the third inning and Austin Riley blasted a single shot in the fourth. In the seventh, the Padres rallied for a decisive four-run victory. Gavin Sheets, a pinch hitter, hit a single home run to tie the score. The win was secured for San Diego by further RBIs from Merrill, Machado, and Luis Arraez. Chris Sale recorded seven strikeouts in five innings of work while giving up six hits and three earned runs which was not enough for the Braves.
The Padres defeated the Braves by a slim margin of 4-3 on March 28th, 2025. It was Tatis Jr.'s 12th career leadoff home run off Reynaldo Lopez that started the scoring. With an RBI single, Martín Maldonado increased the Padres' lead to 2-0. The Braves' Marcell Ozuna singled home two runs to tie the score at 2-2, but Xander Bogaerts' RBI double gave the Padres the lead again in a flash. The Braves tied the game at three with a solo home run from Jarred Kelenic. With a solo home run off Dylan Lee, Jake Cronenworth broke the tie and gave the Padres a 4-3 lead, from which the Braves were unable to recover. López pitched five innings while giving up three runs on seven hits, which was again insufficient given the team's defensive capabilities.
The Padres won the third game of the four-game series by a slim margin of 1-0. Cronenworth scored the game's lone run in the bottom of the seventh inning when pinch-hitter Yuli Gurriel of the Padres hit a two-out RBI single. Cronenworth's remarkable ground-rule double had brought him to base. Spencer Schwellenbach pitched six scoreless innings in his season debut, giving up just two hits and recording four strikeouts. This was a pretty quiet game out of the four.
To take the sweep, the Padres won the last game of the series 5-0. After Machado doubled off Braves pitcher AJ Smith-Shawver in the bottom of the first inning, the Padres took a 1-0 lead. Kelenic made an amazing catch in right field colliding with the wall. Bogaerts got an RBI double for the Padres giving them a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Forwarding to the top of the eighth inning of the game, the Braves got caught in a double play, still having yet to score. To seal the win for the Padres, Tatis gets an RBI single making it 5-0.
The Braves will play tomorrow in Los Angeles against the Dodgers to start their three-game series. It will certainly be a tough matchup against last year’s World Series champions. Hopefully, this is just a little bump in their start, and they finally get their first win of the season. There is lots more baseball to come.
