Braves Fall 4-0 to Y-D Despite Garrett Horn’s Solid Outing

By Mojo Hill

The Bourne Braves, who have climbed from the bottom to emerge as one of the best offenses on the Cape, couldn’t get anything going at the plate Thursday evening. They recorded just two hits in a 4-0 loss to the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox at Red Wilson Field, dropping their record to 8-8-1.

“Terrible. We had a bad day,” Braves manager Scott Landers said. “Hats off to the Y-D pitchers. Both of them threw well, threw strikes, kept us off balance.”

The first of those Y-D pitchers was Smith Pinson, who set down the first 11 Braves he saw while striking out five. Derek Bender broke the perfect game with a single. Two batters later for Bourne, Sam Petersen singled to lead off the fifth, and that was the extent of Bourne’s offensive production on Thursday.

“[Pinson] tunneled his pitches well and used a lot of breaking stuff, which we knew,” Landers said. “He’s got a good change, split, whatever he throws.”

On Bourne’s side, left-hander Garrett Horn made his third start of the season and gave his best effort yet to try to give the Braves a chance to come back. He had a rocky second inning, giving up a couple soft singles and a walk to allow the game’s first run, but he shut the Red Sox down 1-2-3 in the first and third.

“Don’t be scared,” Horn said of what he told himself. “I was throwing a lot of offspeed, wasn’t really locating it. I just had to make sure I went out there and threw a fastball. It’s my best pitch.”

Horn walked two in the fourth inning, but struck out two in the frame to keep the deficit at 1-0. He allowed a pair of two-out baserunners in the fifth, then finished his outing with his third strikeout.

He limited the Red Sox to one run in five innings overall, working around four walks and three hits.

“Every outing for me is getting better and better,” Horn said. “It’s just easy to go out there with this team behind me. The guys are awesome. We’re all really close, and even having that defense behind me is just amazing.”

The game crawled out of reach once the bullpen took over, and with the offense stymied by reliever Hector Garcia after Pinson went the first six innings.

Ryan Free, who just signed with the Braves, pitched a scoreless sixth but allowed a walk and a double without getting any outs in the seventh. Doug Kirkland retired the first two batters he faced, but allowed two more runs to score on a single just out of Pete Ciuffreda’s grasp, along with multiple wild pitches and a throwing error by catcher Hugh Pinckney.

The Braves trailed 4-0 after an ugly three-run seventh. Kirkland also had to abruptly leave the game on a 3-0 count after injuring his foot.

Gabe Driscoll kept things under control in the eighth despite a missed catch error by Bender at first base, but the offense had no response. The Braves wound up striking out 12 times, including three by leadoff hitter Gage Harrelson and two by Josh Kuroda-Grauer in his return to the lineup.

The loss ended a three-game winning streak, halting an offensive group that had been clicking in recent days.

“We live to see another day all the time,” Landers said. “The good thing about being out here is we got a game tomorrow. We’ll come back and hopefully right the ship. But it is baseball. You have some of those days, and we had one.”

The Braves will be back in action at Doran Park against Hyannis at 6 p.m. on Friday, looking to get back in the win column.