© Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
SAN FRANCISCO – Monday was Game Of Thrones Night at Oracle Park. House Giants of San Francisco took on House Braves of Atlanta in the first game of a three-game series. Andrew Suarez was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento to face Mike Soroka and the Braves.
The Braves wasted absolutely no time jumping out to an early lead. Suarez’s very first pitch of the game was crushed over the left field wall by Ronald Acuña Jr., giving the Braves a 1-0 advantage.
Soroka has been dominant for the Braves this season. Coming into Monday night’s game, the 21-year-old righty was 4-1 with an 0.98 ERA, allowing only four earned runs over 36.2 innings pitched. He carried his 2019 dominance into his start Monday, holding the Giants hitless through five innings.
Following the leadoff homer to Acuña Jr. in the first, Suarez settled in nicely before running into trouble in the sixth. With two outs in the inning, Nick Markakis walked, before Austin Riley smashed a two-run homer to left-center, extending the Braves lead to 3-0.
History would not be made Monday night in San Francisco as Soroka’s no-hit bid abruptly ended in the bottom of the sixth. Brandon Crawford led off the bottom half of the inning with a solo homer to center field, putting the Giants on the board.
Crawfords homer snapped a 61 inning homer-less streak by Mark Soroka
— Taylor Wirth (@WirthTM) May 21, 2019
Suarez’s night would end after six solid innings of work in his first start of the season. Nick Vincent came in to replace Suarez in the seventh as Giants pitching once again fell victim to Acuña Jr. Going deep once again, Acuña Jr. launched his second homer of the game, extending the Braves lead to 4-1 in the seventh.
Both the eighth and ninth innings came and went quietly. Offensively, the Giants only had two hits on the night, both from Crawford. Nobody else in the Giants lineup was able to figure out Atlanta’s pitching and just like that the Giants went down without a fight.
The Giants bats froze over Monday night against Soroka and the Braves. Suarez made a productive spot-start but ultimately fell victim to a couple of big home runs from the Braves.
The winning pitcher was Soroka, who improves to 5-1 on the season. The losing pitcher is Suarez who drops to 0-1 after his first start. Giants rookie Shaun Anderson makes his second career start tomorrow against the Braves and ace Julio Teheran. Final from Oracle Park: Braves 4, Giants 1.
