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Braves vs. Marlins: Atlanta Blows Countless Opportunities In 5-4 Loss

This is frustrating. Really, really, really frustrating.

Despite having multiple runners on base in nearly every inning, the Braves went 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position on Monday night and ended up falling to the Marlins 5-4 in the 12th inning. The worst part may have been the competition; nearly every starter for Florida was either resting or injured for the game, but somehow, someway, Atlanta figured out a way to lose the game.

Fourteen hits, one walk, two runners reaching on an error, and all we could muster was four runs. It was, in a nutshell, everything the Braves had done for the last two weeks.

Alex Gonzalez came up with a huge hit in the eighth inning as he drove in the game-tying run with two outs and Atlanta trailing 4-3. Instead of going over each scenario that we had in the final four innings, we'll set it up like this:

9th inning: bases loaded, one out. Brian McCann strikes out, Martin Prado grounds out weakly on the first pitch.

10th inning: Jason Heyward on second, one out. David Ross grounds out, Michael Bourn grounds out.

11th inning: runners on first and second, one out. Brian McCann strikes out, Martin Prado grounds out.

12th inning: Jason Heyward on second, one out. J. C. Boscan strikes out, Michael Bourn grounds out.

Is there an echo in here?

As for the Marlins, Mike Stanton -- strained quad and all -- came up with runners on first and third and lined a ball up the middle to score the winning run. Fun stuff.

Four wins out of our last 13 games.

At least the Cardinals lost.

Photographs by coka_koehler used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.