The Braves’ top prospect battled through some bad batted ball luck and had a solid outing, but the Braves fell to the Yankees.

The Braves sent out a few regulars to take against a Yankees team that was essentially in the regular season. The predicted back-end starter for the Yankees, Clarke Schmidt, did not deceive the Braves’ offence, as two first-inning runs without any outs were scored by Michael Harris, Jarred Kelenic, Sean Murphy, and a walk. The game’s first out came from a strikeout by Nacho Alvarez on a full count. After Schmidt was pulled by the Yankees to close the inning due to a line drive single by Forrest Wall, Wall attempted to steal second base but was out.

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With the exception of a (very) hard-hit line shot to Juan Soto, who will do that, AJ Smith-Shawver had a really good first inning. He struck out Aaron Judge and recorded two contact outs.

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In the second, the Braves’ bottom of the order produced nothing, and Michael’s deep flyout to finish the inning flipped over the lineup. Smith-Shawver gave up a run in the second inning after taking three straight singles, albeit Stanton’s absolute missile of a line drive was the only one that was very well hit. Another run was scored via a gently hit single and a sac fly. After AJ fought back, he struck out LeMahieu and got Soto to ground out to close the inning. He was throwing his fastball at a little over 96 mph at the time of the outing, so it was mostly unfortunate that he gave up those runs in the second inning due to BABIP.

As the lone runner in Atlanta’s offensive third, Kelenic took a walk. Judge was struck out for the second time in the game on three swinging strikes by Smith-Shawver, who again diced up the opposition. Another softly hit ball resulted in a very fortunate double for the Yankees, but Smith-Shawver stopped any more baserunners from reaching base throughout the inning.

After Luke Williams’ home run and Forrest Wall’s single gave Atlanta a four-run lead again, Nacho grounded out to begin the fourth inning. A walk and a ground ball single in the bottom of the inning put a stop to AJ’s day, but even though the line won’t look spectacular, it was a good outing for the top prospect with some truly encouraging moments.

A man by the name of Patrick Halligan entered the game in relief and gave up two fast singles (one a bunt, the other a ground ball) and a grand slam by Juan Soto to give the Yankees a 7-6 lead. After walking two batters, Halligan was eventually able to end the inning with a groundout by Verdugo.

Nothing came of the Braves offence in the top five. Dylan Lee entered the game with the bases loaded and one out, extending his bad spring start with a home run and a single before generating a double play. Lee let up a single to Harris that was almost a home run and almost a fantastic play in centre field. Dylan was able to end the inning with a strikeout.

In the sixth, Forrest Wall took a walk and managed to steal second this time, but he was unable to score. Despite giving up two singles in the home sixth, Jackson Stephens prevented the Yankees from scoring. The Yankees led 8–7 going into the seventh inning when prospect Kevin Kirkpatrick hit a solo home run to pull the Braves within one run. After starting the seventh inning with a walk and a double, Stephens gave up the run and was removed with one out following the double.
.. To end the inning, Zach Logue entered the game and worked around a walk and a hit batter. Atlanta’s only runner on base of the eighth, Keshawn Ogans, singled, and Logue worked around a double and another walk to secure a scoreless eighth at home. Although Kirkpatrick scored a run with a sac fly and Cade Bunnel and Ambioris Tavarez both had hits to threaten in the ninth, the Braves were unable to get the final run required to tie the game.