Alex Gonzalez's homer lifts Braves to series win

By David O'Brien

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For most of the season, Alex Gonzalez was the last guy the Braves wanted at the plate with two runners on base and two out in the late innings of a close game.

But the shortstop swung a hot bat all series against Florida, and completed his work by hitting a three-run homer in the seventh inning of a 4-1 win Wednesday afternoon at Turner Field.

“Put a good swing on it,” said Gonzalez, whose homer capped a four-run inning that lifted the Braves to their second win in a row after a four-game skid. “We’ve got to keep it going, try to win series. Forget about that four-game losing streak, focus on last night and today.”

Wins Tuesday and Wednesday gave the Braves the series and reduced their magic number to nine to clinch the National League wild card over St. Louis.

The Cardinals won again Wednesday to remain 4 1/2 games behind the Braves, who have 12 games left on their schedule. Any combination of Braves wins and Cardinals losses totaling nine would clinch the Braves’ second consecutive wild-card playoff berth.

“These guys are professionals,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said of his Braves, who are off Thursday before hosting a three-game weekend series against the New York Mets. “There are some guys here who’ve been through a lot of playoff runs and pennant races. So you feel confident they’ll be fine.”

Perhaps, but before rebounding with a series win against Florida, the Braves caused some consternation while losing nine of 12 games, including sweeps at Philadelphia and St. Louis last week on a 2-6 trip.

They bounced back to beat a Florida team that had been on a 7-2 roll.

Alex Gonzalez and Martin Prado, who hail from the same area of Venezuela, had two hits apiece for the Braves, who had only one other hit all day. Prado’s squeeze bunt tied the score in the seventh, two batters before Gonzalez pushed the lead to three runs with his 13th homer.

After missing a weekend series at St. Louis with a sore back, Gonzalez went 8-for-11 with three doubles, a homer and five RBIs in three games against Florida, his original team. He struggled mightily before the series, batting .191 with just six extra-base hits his previous 27 games.

For a player whose contributions have generally been confined to spectacular defense this season, he came through with the bat this week.

“His RBIs and his home runs are in the glove,” Fredi Gonzalez said, “but it’s nice to be able to get both [offense and defense].”

After Braves rookie Randall Delgado pitched five strong innings (four hits, one run), relievers Cristhian Martinez, Eric O’Flaherty (2-4), Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel pitched a perfect inning apiece as the Braves improved to 10-4 against Florida. They are 10-2 with a 1.97 ERA in their past 12 games against the Marlins.

Kimbrel collected two more strikeouts and his majors-leading 44th save.

“We turned it over to O’Ventbrel and they did a hell of a job,” Gonzalez said, using the nickname for his workhorse trio of O’Flaherty, Venters and Kimbrel, who have ERAs from 1.05 to 1.73. “You’ve got to be happy with the pitching today.”

The Marlins were happy with their pitching for six innings — Ricky Nolasco (10-11) took a two-hit shutout and 1-0 lead to the seventh. But after Dan Uggla’s one-out walk and Brian McCann’s single, Prado put down a squeeze bunt that scored Uggla with the tying run.

One out later, Alex Gonzalez hit an 0-2 curveball to the left-field seats, and a crowd of 22,245 cheered a turnaround that was rapid and complete.

“Nolasco just made one bad pitch,” Fredi Gonzalez said. “He kept us off-balance and he threw a pitch to Gonzo, who’s been smoking hot since we gave him those three days off in St. Louis.”

With runners in scoring position and two outs, Alex Gonzalez ranked near the bottom of the league for most of the season. He was 8-for-59 (.136) with one homer in those situations before Wednesday, and was also worst among Braves regulars with a .184 average in the seventh inning or later of close games.

In the same inning where Gonzalez came through in a situation where he had struggled, so did Prado, laying down a perfect bunt that went for an RBI single when Nolasco couldn’t get to it in time.

“We get a great at-bat by Uggla that inning and Mac came through with a base hit, and I put the bunt down finally and Alex got a big knock,” Prado said. “It’s been a while since I got the bunt down…. I always got tough pitches to bunt, like a slider or something. Finally I got a fastball and got it down.”

He got it down, and two batters later, Gonzalez got it out. And the Braves had restored some order.