Infante's two-run triple leads Braves

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By CARROLL ROGERS

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Miami —  By now, the Braves have to figure they can roll Kenshin Kawakami out of bed, throw him against an opponent’s best pitcher and that he’ll hold his own.

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Alan Diaz, AP Braves starter Kenshin Kawakami pitched six innings, allowing one run off six hits while striking out five.

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Alan Diaz, AP Omar Infante slides safely on a two-run triple in the seventh that gave the Braves the lead and eventual win.

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He has done it against Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels, Johan Santana, Clayton Kershaw and on Monday, he did it again. Kawakami beat Florida ace Josh Johnson and the rest of the Marlins 5-2 and he did it on a evening he was expecting to be kicking back, watching from the dugout.

Kawakami found out at 4:45 p.m. Sunday in Philadelphia instead of getting skipped for a breather and making way for Tim Hudson’s return from elbow surgery, he’d be pitching to open the Marlins series. Hudson’s debut was pushed back to Tuesday so the Braves could wait for rosters to expand, and Kawakami hopped a plane.

Less then 24 hours after he landed in Florida, Kawakami held the Marlins to one run on six hits in six innings, without allowing a walk.

“I’d like to know when I’m pitching a little earlier but the results were good,” Kawakami said through his interpreter.

Good enough to beat Johnson (13-4), whom manager Bobby Cox called one of the top five pitchers in baseball afterward.

“The kid is that good,” Cox said. “We beat [Cliff] Lee in Philadelphia and now we beat Johnson in Florida. That’s pretty darn good. It says something about our pitchers and being able to scramble around, get some runs.”

Kawakami was the one who loosened the screws in what had been a lock-down performance by Johnson. The Braves didn’t get a hit off him until Matt Diaz singled with two outs in the sixth. In the previous at-bat, Kawakami worked Johnson for 10 pitches before grounding out.

“That’s just luck,” Kawakami said, but his manager and teammates knew better.

“I commented to the guys in the dugout, best at-bat of the night off JJ was Kawakami’s,” said Chipper Jones, who started a three-run seventh with a leadoff single off Johnson. “It looked like it took a little bit of something out of him, even though he ended up getting [Kawakami] out. It was a lot of pitches spent on the pitcher ... and we were able to jump on him the next inning.”

The Braves won the opening game of a series of three games or more for the first time since July 24. The Braves moved a game ahead of the Marlins in both the NL East and the NL wild card race and pulled within three games of the wild card-leading Rockies and Giants.

“It’s a huge win,” Jones said. “Probably the biggest win of the year, especially sitting back and watching how the first six innings went. To come back, get off the mat, put enough runs on the board to win and then some off of that guy is a tremendous boost for us. Now we’ve got to carry it through the last three games.”

With two outs in the seventh, Yunel Escobar, Omar Infante and David Ross rapped consecutive two-out run-scoring hits off Johnson — the big blow a two-run triple by Infante.

As hard as Johnson was on Braves hitters, he conjured up bad memories for Kawakami too. Johnson had hit a three-run homer off Kawakami on July 29. He singled off Kawakami in the third inning Monday. But this time, Kawakami (7-10) worked out of the two-runner jam and got revenge with his 10-pitch at-bat.

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