Atlanta Braves vs. Marlins series recap: One step forward, one step back

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. Either way, I’m just happy that we’ll finally have a win to talk about during one of these things. Let’s hop right into it.

Friday, April 4Braves 10, Marlins 0

At first glance, it sure appeared that simply returning home was the tonic to cure the Braves because this was just an old-fashioned vintage beatdown of the Marlins. It took a couple of innings for the Braves to get going but once they did, they grabbed hold of the lead and didn’t look close to relinquishing it from that point forward. Marcell Ozuna’s two-RBI double got the Braves on the board and then Austin Riley delivered his first RBI of the season in order to make it 3-0 Braves in the early going.

The scoring stopped until the latter portion of the game, which is when Atlanta took complete control of the contest. Ozuna hit a home run in the seventh inning that went over the fence in extremely bizarre fashion and then Olson followed that one up by smacking one out to left center to make it 5-0. Then the hit parade began in the eighth inning as Atlanta batted around and put up five runs to bring their tally to double digits in the inning.

While this was going on, Spencer Schwellenbach was fantastic. In his second-straight successful start to begin the season, Schwellenbach absolutely dominated the Marlins and threw eight shutout innings with 10 strikeouts, to boot. While it’s still early, Schwellenbach has come out of the gates absolutely cooking and if he can continue to perform at anywhere near this level going forward, he’s going to start to turn even more heads across baseball as a whole.

Anyways, this was an extremely satisfying game to watch and the obvious hope was that this was only the starting point for the Braves as they finally picked up their first win of 2025.

Saturday, April 5Marlins 4, Braves 0

Nearly all of the good vibes that came along with winning the home opener had evaporated once the end of Saturday night’s game rolled around. For the first time since last June, Cal Quantrill left a game having shut out his opposition, as he clamped down on Atlanta’s offense over the course of six strong innings. It was more of the same ol’ story from Atlanta’s lineup — especially with runners in scoring position.

We should’ve known from the start that this was going to be yet another one of those days, as Michael Harris II was left stranded at second to start the game. Later on in the fifth inning, Drake Baldwin was left stuck at second after a two-out double. The eighth inning was egregious, as Stuart Fairchild came in as a pinch hitter and led off the eighth with a double that jolted the Truist Park crowd out of its doldrums as he ended the play at third base. Sure enough, the top of the order (Michael Harris II, Ozzie Albies and Marcell Ozuna) went down in order and the golden chance to get something going was completely wasted.

Meanwhile, AJ Smith-Shawver had another up-and-down outing that might’ve been good enough if Atlanta’s offense had shown any signs of sustained life in this one. Instead, the Braves were stuck playing from behind once again after the Marlins came out with a clear plan to ambush him. Xavier Edwards led off the game with a first-pitch double that deflected off of Bryan De La Cruz’s foot but then De La Cruz made up for it by doubling up Edwards after he caught a fly ball. Unfortunately, AJSS walked Otto Lopez on five pitches immediately afterwards and then Matt Mervis took him to the Chop House on the first pitch he saw (the first of two dingers he’d hit on the night) to put the Marlins ahead — ultimately for good.

Frustration, thy name is the Atlanta Braves.

So yeah, while it was lovely to see the Braves finally join the rest of Major League Baseball’s list of teams that have won at least one (1) game, it was incredibly frustrating to see them immediately return to the form that got them stuck in this hole in the first place. Depending on how you look at it, Sunday’s rainout was either a missed opportunity to get right before facing the Phillies or it was a merciful way to avoid seeing Sandy Alcantara do his best to dig the Braves into an even deeper hole.

Either way, this wasn’t the satisfying return home that the Atlanta Braves wanted. They’ll have a whale of their task dealing with a Phillies team that has looked pretty serious to start their season so far. The Braves will have the home crowd behind them for this upcoming series but they’ll have to bring the noise with their bats if they expect to even stand a chance. It’s clear that this offense has to get going (and soon) or else they’re in danger of exacerbating what’s already a bad situation here in the early goings of the season.