Here’s what I had to say about this series back in April:
Thanks to a nasty weather system rolling through the Southeast and hitting the Atlanta metro area on Sunday afternoon, this ended up only being a quick two-game affair between the Atlanta Braves and the Miami Marlins, with Sunday’s game being set to be completed as part of a double-header that suddenly turns a four-game series in August into a five-game series.
With that being said, we’re a long way away from August and it’s still up in the air as to whether or not that could serve as a potential Summer oasis series for the Braves or a situation where two scuffling teams decide to scuffle right along with each other.
Well, here we are in August and here is what August 2025 Me has to say to April 2025 Me:
Well, it certainly turned out to be the latter, though I highly doubt that anybody figured that things would get so bad around here to where the Marlins would be entering this series with the better record. Still, regardless of whether or not this would serve as a potential boost to a Postseason run or a rockfight between two bad teams, the games still had to be played. As it turned out, this series did end up being a bit of an oasis for the Braves and their fans, so let’s get right into it, y’all.
If you’ve bought stock in Drake Baldwin winning the NL Rookie of the Year Award here in 2025, then boy, your stock is certainly booming right now after what he did on Thursday night. He started off the game with a homer in the first inning and he was nowhere near done. Marcell Ozuna joined him on the home run tally for the inning, so the Braves took a 2-0 lead heading into the second inning.
That’s when things went sideways for Carlos Carrasco. Cookie went out and got lit up for five runs in the second inning as the Marlins acted as if they took offense (for lack of a better term) with what happened in the first. The two-run homer from Graham Pauley in this frame was the big blow that gave the Fish some breathing room. Carrasco ended up being responsible for all six runs that Miami scored on the night, so the Braves had to work out of a hole if they wanted to have any hope of pulling off the comeback.
Fortunately, Drake Baldwin was, in fact, not done after his homer in the first inning. Once the sixth inning rolled around and Atlanta had two men on the plate, Baldwin got a fastball he liked from Eury Pérez and absolutely mashed it for a three-run shot that put a jolt into both the team and the stadium, alike. Baldwin continued his rampage with a game-tying single in the seventh inning an then Marcell Ozuna delivered the go-ahead knock that put Atlanta in front for good. They tacked on another run after a wild pitch in the eighth inning and Raisel Iglesias locked down the save in order to give Atlanta a rare one-run win!
This was The Edward Cabrera Show. The 27-year-old hurler completely and utterly dominated the Braves in this one, as he went eight innings while striking out 11 batters and only giving up two hits, a walk and a single run. Sometimes it just isn’t your night and this was certainly the case for the Braves as they had absolutely no answers for Cabrera in this one.
Well, one person had an idea and it was a bit of a gift. Cabrera’s only mistake of the night was a hanger that he left right down the middle for Jurickson Profar to send to the daggone moon. Profar continued what’s been a very good week for him (more on that later) after crushing that dinger but that’s about all I’ve got for y’all from this one.
Saturday, August 9 – Game 1
You can’t say that this was anybody’s game in particular like you could say Thursday’s game belonged to Drake Baldwin and Friday’s game belonged to Edward Cabrera. I can say that the closest one who came to dominate in in this one was Hurston Waldrep. After delivering a creditable performance during last week’s Speedway Classic, Waldrep essentially picked up where he left off from Bristol. Waldrep finished with six innings and struck out six Marlins batters while only giving up one run on four hits and a walk.
Waldrep’s performance was matched by a great day at the plate from his teammates in the lineup. Drake Baldwin, Michael Harris II and Matt Olson each had two hits in this one, with Baldwin adding another RBI to his tally across this series and Harris delivering a huge three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to break the game open in favor of Atlanta. Money Mike’s homer made it 7-1 and that’s how it ended as the Braves made it two wins out of three against the Marlins. Jurickson Profar continued to make his presence felt in this series, as he made a fantastic play with the glove (!!!) in order to rob Miami of a homer. Anyways, usually that’s a series win but folks, we still had two more games left to go.
Also, shout out to umpire Jen Pawol for officially making history by becoming the first woman to serve as an umpire during a regular season Major League Baseball game. It was nice to hear the cheers she received in during umpire introductions, which will probably be one of the first and last times you see an ovation like that for an umpire.
Saturday, August 9 – Game 2
After the two divisional rivals traded three scoreless innings to start the nightcap, things got lively in the fourth inning. That was when Erick Fedde had one of those innings that explains why he’s been on three teams in two seasons since returning from the KBO. Four of the first five batters that Fedde faced in this frame reached safely and although Fedde was an out away from escaping the jam with just a two-run deficit, Xavier Edwards came up with a knock that made it 4-0.
To Atlanta’s credit, they took the haymaker and came back with a powerful one-two punch of their own in response. Marcell Ozuna delivered the opening run for Atlanta in the very next frame with yet another dinger against Miami in order to put the Braves on the board and then it was Atlanta’s turn to deliver a four-spot of their own once the fifth inning rolled around. Jurickson Profar picked up a one-out single and that was the start of four straight Braves reaching base safely. All of them eventually scored — Drake Baldwin picked up another RBI single and then Marcell Ozuna made it a two-homer night in order to complete the turnaround.
The Braves delivered the knockout shot with three more runs in the sixth. This bases loaded opportunity didn’t go awry for Atlanta, as Matt Olson cashed in a run with a single and then Drake Baldwin (again!) brought in two more with another RBI knock. The Marlins added a couple of runs to their tally against Daysbel Hernández and Aaron Bummer but it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Braves on this night. Atlanta locked up the actual series win with Raisel Iglesias collecting his second save of the series.
Once again, the Miami Marlins got out in front early. Once again, the Braves eventually started stomping them as the game went on. Joey Wentz gave up one run in the second inning off of a Liam Hicks single and that was it for both Wentz and Miami’s scoring on the day. Wentz made another solid performance as he pitched into the sixth inning while limiting Miami to just the single run. Folks, we will absolutely take that.
Matt Olson evened things up in the fourth inning when he crushed one into the bullpen for a solo shot and then Jurickson Profar put a cherry on top of the ice cream sundae that has been this week for him, as he delivered an RBI double that eluded Heriberto Hernández’s glove and stayed out there in the outfield long enough for Nacho Alvarez Jr. to score. Tyler Phillips uncorked a wild pitch later on that made it a 3-1 game.
We wouldn’t get any more scoring until the seventh, which is when two familiar faces delivered the crushing blow to the Marlins. Fish Angler Marcell Ozuna hit a three-run bomb to break it open for the Braves and then Michael Harris II continued his resurgence at the plate with a solo homer that made it back-to-back homers and four runs in two swings in one inning for the Braves. We were back to that familiar scoreline of 7-1 and that’s how it ended with the Braves taking four out of five against the Fish.
Truist Park remains a house of horrors for the Miami Marlins. Despite the fact that the Braves are still a whopping six games behind the Marlins for third place in the NL East, Atlanta is still an incredibly tough place for the Marlins to win. The Braves finished the home portion of their season series with the Marlins at 5-2 and are now 21-6 against Miami over their past 27 home games since 2023 against their divisional rivals from South Beach. I’m not going to say that the Braves own the Marlins here in Atlanta since Miami has had their fair share of dominant moments here but at the same time, that success is usually fleeting for them.
Which is why it’s a bit of a bummer that the Braves are already out of it, because this did turn out to be a boost of a series for the Braves. This would’ve been a lovely opportunity for the Braves to pick up some ground on any of the actual contenders in the NL East but instead, it’s just a little (but lovely) reminder of what this team is capable of when it’s actually clicking — and it also helps to be playing a team that yo’ve historically beat up on time-and-time again in the past. Drake Baldwin is cooking, Michael Harris II continues to heat up and Marcell Ozuna remembered that he really enjoys hitting against this team. All in all, it was a solid way to salvage what could’ve been a disastrous homestand following the sweep against Milwaukee and hopefully it’ll give them confidence to go up to New York and extend their misery as well. Let’s see what happens.