The Atlanta Braves are not a good baseball team. Actually, entering this game they were the worst team in baseball with a 4-17 record. The Red Sox owned Atlanta for the first three games of the series, with David Price striking out 14 batters and Dustin Pedroia homering twice in the same game. Even before the series started the expectations were for the Red Sox to sweep the Braves, but with Clay Buchholz pitching the last game we all knew that the outcome wasn’t as predictable.
Nick Markakis hit a double to center field to start the first inning, so the bar was set for Buchholz to have another inconsistent start.