Braves left-hander Jaime Garcia has been the most effective and consistent pitcher of the three veteran starters acquired by the team for this season. One bad inning against the Marlins doesn’t change that, and Braves hitters made sure it didn’t cost the team the game Saturday at SunTrust Park.
Braves outfielder Nick Markakis tied the score with an RBI double in the bottom of the ninth inning against Marlins closer A.J. Ramos. Brandon Phillips won it with a game-ending RBI single in the 10th for an 8-7 victory.
The Marlins scored five runs in the fifth inning against Garcia to erase a 3-0 deficit and then added two more runs in the sixth. The Braves (30-37) responded with two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning and another in the seventh before Markakis evened the tally and Phillips delivered his seventh career game-ending RBI.
Phillips, a native of Stone Mountain in his first season with the Braves, last produced a game-ending RBI in 2013 while playing for the Reds.
“My first walk-off (hit) as a Brave, it really means a lot playing in front of my family and my friends,” he said. “It just shows our grind as a team. We are never out of any game. We never take anything for granted, and we really showed that today.”
Phillips nearly delivered the winning hit in the ninth inning, too.
Leading off the bottom of the inning, Phillips smacked Ramos’ pitch to left-center as fans roared in anticipation of a game-ending homer. But the ball bounced off the wall for a double.
Markakis followed with a ground ball that bounced over first baseman Tyler Moore’s head and rolled down the line for the double that scored Phillips.
“After this, I’m going to do some push-ups because I thought that ball was gone,” Phillips said. “But I’ll take the double, and I ended up scoring, so it feels good.”
Adams had three extra-base hits and four RBIs. He hit an RBI double for a 1-0 lead in the first, knocked a two-run homer to extend the lead in the third and added another RBI in the seventh to pull the Braves within 7-6.
The Braves eventually earned their fourth walk-off victory of the season.
“I just love the way the guys kept fighting,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “They just kept battling. We had a rough stretch there in the middle of the ballgame, and they just kept coming back.”
The Braves overcame Garcia’s least effective start in two months. He allowed a season-high six earned runs over 5 2/3 innings after he pitched at least 6 2/3 innings with no more than three earned runs over his past five starts.
Garcia faced one more than the minimum 12 batters through four innings with two hits allowed. Moore, a Braves minor leaguer in 2016, broke through with a two-run home run on an 0-2 count in the fifth.
Christian Colon hit a one-out single, went to second on a balk call against Garcia and moved to third on a passed ball charged to catcher Tyler Flowers. Pinch hitter Ichiro Suzuki tied the score with an RBI single to shallow right.
After Garcia retired Dee Gordon with a ground out, Snitker opted to intentionally walk right-handed slugger Giancarlo Stanton so Garcia could instead face lefty hitter Christian Yelich. He smashed Garcia’s first pitch, an inside fastball, to right field for a two-run double and 5-3 lead.
“I made pitches when I needed to early in the game, and I just let it get away from me,” Garcia said. “But that’s baseball. Stuff is going to happen. The biggest thing is we won the game.”
The Marlins added two runs charged to Garcia in the sixth inning. Both came after second baseman Phillips missed the tag on a potential double-play ball to end the inning.
Phillips fielded Riddle’s ground ball, swiped at Moore as he ran from first base to second and threw out Riddle at first. The umpires huddled before reversing the call that Phillips tagged out Moore, and the Braves subsequently lost a replay challenge.
Left-hander Ian Krol replaced Garcia and walked Colon before pinch hitter Justin Bour’s RBI single that was charged to Garcia. Gordon followed with another single that scored Colon.
Flowers started the Braves’ comeback attempt with a lead-off homer in the sixth inning against reliever Brad Ziegler. Three consecutive one-out singles in the inning, capped by Johan Camargo’s RBI, trimmed the deficit to 7-5.
Markakis completed the comeback with his game-tying RBI double. Phillips ended the game with a sharp single to center field on 2-2 pitch after he was down 0-2 in the count.
“It’s a great feeling, I’ll tell you that,” Phillips said. “But this was a team win, it wasn’t just me.”
