Merrill Kelly was just too much for Atlanta’s lineup to deal with in this one. Kelly pitched seven shutout innings as Chris Sale’s strong start went down in vain. The Atlanta Braves had their chances (especially late) but they were unable to capitalize and ended up falling to the Diamondbacks in an uninspiring 2-1 defeat.

Chris Sale got off to a slow start in this one, as the Diamondbacks showed plenty of patience on their way to coaxing a pair of walks out of Sale in the first inning. Fortunately, Sale ended up getting out of the situation without giving up a single run but a walk would be how Sale got into trouble later on.

While this was going on, the Braves were busy doing a whole bunch of nothing at the plate against Merrill Kelly. The first 12 batters for the Braves came and went without a single one of them reaching base. Needless to say, tat’s not an ideal for a lineup to start any given game — much less a Braves team that has seemingly fallen into another rough patch at the plate lately.

Now it’s time to talk about that fateful walk that ended up serving as Chris Sale’s only real blemish on the night. In the top of the third, Sale walked Geraldo Perdomo to lead off the frame and after Ketel Marte moved Perdomo over to second base with a productive out, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. ended up being the one to break the deadlock in the contest. Gurriel looped one out into shallow right-center and Perdomo easily scored in order to put the Diamondbacks on the board first. Sale ended up striking out ten batters on the night but knowing how he is, that walk and eventual RBI is probably going to keep him up at night.

While the good news is that Chris Sale got the final out in order to avoid taking any more damage on the scoreboard, the bad news is that Merrill Kelly went right back out there for the bottom of the third inning and continued to mystify Atlanta’s lineup on this one. As a matter of fact, the Braves wouldn’t get their first baserunner until the fifth inning (naturally from Marcell Ozuna getting on with a walk) and they wouldn’t get their first hit until the sixth (naturally from Ronald Acuña Jr. being Ronald Acuña Jr.). Kelly was eventually finished after seven shutout innings where he only gave up the aforementioned hit to Acuña and the aforementioned walk to Ozuna. That was it for Atlanta at this point of this one, folks!

The top of the eighth inning was notable because it saw Daysbel Hernández end his appearance earlier than he would’ve liked due to an apparent finger injury. Hernández fired in a slider that went wayward and into the dirt. Ozzie Albies noticed something was wrong with Daysbel and motioned to the dugout for Brian Snitker and the training staff to come out. They obliged, checked him out and sure enough, whatever was bothering Hernández was bad enough to take him out of the game. Aaron Bummer deserves props for coming in on a 3-2 count with two outs and two runners in scoring position and finishing Daysbel’s out for him but it was still a bummer to see yet another Braves player suffer an apparent injury out there.

Once Merrill Kelly left the game, the Braves showed some life and in a hurry. Alex Verdugo led off the eighth against Ryan Thompson and looped one into center for a leadoff single. Sean Murphy then followed that one up by dropping one into right field and just like that, the Braves were in business with two men in scoring position (after pinch runner Luke Williams stole second base), nobody out and pinch-hitter Drake Baldwin at the plate. Eventually, this came down to the Diamondbacks choosing to face Austin Riley with the bases loaded and two outs instead of Ronald Acuña Jr. with a base open. It got to a full count but Riley struck out swinging and the golden chance went by the boards.

The baseball gods immediately punished the Braves for wasting the opportunity once it was Arizona’s turn at bat. Raisel Iglesias entered the game for the ninth inning and gave up a one-out walk to Tim Tawa. Iglesias got Geraldo Perdomo out with the next at-bat but Ketel Marte didn’t let him off the hook, as he reached out and poked one into right field in order to bring home Tawa and give the Diamondbacks some breathing room that looked pretty comfortable considering how the Braves had performed at the plate to that point.

The Braves were forced to get a rally of some sort going if they wanted to keep the game going and to his credit, Matt Olson got Atlanta going in the right direction to start the inning as he got on with a leadoff walk and then got into scoring position with a wild pitch. In the good ol’ days when this offense was regularly dangerous, that was usually the sign of an impending rally. Ozzie Albies coaxed a walk out of Justin Martinez with one out and eventually the bases were loaded once again after Martinez hit Luke Williams with a pitch to fill up the basepaths. Drake Baldwin was given another opportunity at the plate with the bases loaded and no more outs to play with and he was patient enough to get Martinez to walk in Atlanta’s first (and only) run of the game.

It was up to Michael Harris II to keep the game going after Baldwin’s walk but he ended up getting fooled by Martinez’s split-finger and that was the end of that. While the Braves can hang their hat on the fact that they avoided getting shut out, that’s now the second time in this homestand that they’ve been held to just one run and are now one loss away from being back in the same seven-games-under-.500 hole that they started out the season in.

Folks, I can’t lie to you: This is bleak! Nonetheless, the Braves have no choice but to keep on trying to figure out a way to get out of this ugly run of form that they’re currently in and it’ll be a quick turnaround too as the Braves and Diamondbacks will get things going at 12:15 p.m. ET. Hopefully they’re awake and alert for tomorrow’s contest!