When Manny Banuelos gave up a homer to the second batter and labored through a 29-pitch first inning, it looked as if the Braves rookie might not be around long in his second major league start Tuesday night.
But with some support – verbal and otherwise — from veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski, Banuelos settled down and won his first big-league decision, working into the sixth inning of a 4-3 win against the Milwaukee Brewers that gave the Braves their third consecutive series win.
Hot-hitting Pierzynski had three hits including a homer and an RBI single, and Cameron Maybin came through again with a two-out, run-scoring triple for the third-place Braves, who’ve won six of seven and trail National League East leader Washington by four games.
Banuelos (1-0) gave up five hits, one run and three walks with one strikeout in 5 1/3 innings, and the left-hander has a 0.82 ERA after his first two major league starts.
“I was pretty excited,” said Banuelos, who got the lineup cards from Braves manager Freid Gonzalez aferward. “Getting my first ‘W’ was pretty fun.”
Banuelos, who came from the Yankees in a January trade for relievers David Carpenter and Chasen Shreve, was called up from Triple-A Gwinnett last week after rookie starter Williams Perez went on the 15-day disabled list with a bruised foot.
“Everything our Triple-A staff and our development staff said, is true,” Gonzalez said. “This guy (Banuelos) can do a lot of good things. He’s a good athlete, he can handle a bat, he’s got poise, he’s got composure, he competes. So far in the two outings, we’ve seen all that.”
The Brewers trailed 4-1 before scoring a run apiece in the seventh and eighth innings off relievers Mike Foltynewicz and David Aardsma, who gave up a home run to Adam Lind before retiring the last two batters in the eighth.
Jason Grilli, pitching in a third consecutive game for the first time all season, struck out all three batters he faced in the ninth inning for his 24th save in 26 opportunities.
Grilli has pitched five innings in give July appearances and retired all 15 batters he’s faced including nine strikeouts.
Before facing the Braves, the Brewers were the hottest team in baseball, batting .353 while averaging more than seven runs during an eight-game winning streak. They’ve totaled six runs in two nights at home against the Braves, including four runs in 11 innings against rookie starters Matt Wisler, in his fourth major league game, and Banuelos.
The Brewers had a chance to cut into the Braves’ 3-1 lead in the sixth inning, after Banuelos surrendered a one-out double to Carlos Gomez and walked Lind.
Banuelos was replaced by Arodys Vizcaino, just back from an 80-game suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs. With the potential tying run on base, Vizcaino induced an inning-ending double play grounder from Aramis Ramirez with his second pitch. “Might have been the biggest play of the game,” Gonzales said.
The Brewers also threatened in the seventh, when Foltynewicz, recalled from Triple-A on Tuesday, made his first relief appearance for the Braves and gave up a run on two hits and a walk before leaving with two on and Ryan Braun up.
Enter David Carpenter — the other David Carpenter — yet another reliever making his Braves debut. He struck out Braun on a nasty slider to end the inning and keep the lead at 4-2.
Banuelos held the Nationals to two hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings of his debut last week, but left with dehydration and cramping and didn’t get a decision in the 2-1 Braves win. Heat and humidity weren’t an issue beneath the closed roof of Miller Park, where the Braves, for the second night in a row, quieted a crowd that had been excited for a Brewers team coming off its 7-0 road trip.
Banuelos allowed two hits and one walk in the first inning, but limited the damage to one run on Jonathan Lucroy’s second homer of the season, a one-out solo shot on a 2-2 changeup.
He said the message from Pierzynski after that inning was straightforward. Use all his pitches and work quicker.
“He was like, ‘You took a lot of time between pitches. Just throw the ball and get ready for the next pitch,’” Banuelos said. “And I did it. It worked well.”
After seeing that Milwaukee hitters were aggressive and ready for Banuelos’ fastball in fastball counts, Pierzynski called for other pitches to keep them off-balance.
“We talked about needing to get more than one or two pitches over, so we started throwing some curveballs and some sliders,” Pierzynski said. “And he’d throw them for strikes, so they kind of had to change their gameplan. Because they were going up there looking for first-pitch fastballs and swinging, so we changed it up a little bit.”
After Pierzynski’s game-tying two-out homer in the second inning, Banuelos pitched a perfect second, then caught Jean Segura stealing after a leadoff single in the third. Segura left too early, Banuelos threw to first baseman Kelly Johnson, and Segura was thrown out easily at second. As a result, Braun’s two-out double later in the inning didn’t do any damage.
Pierzynski collected another two-out RBI in the fourth inning, this time on a bloop single. The 38-year-old catcher had three hits to make him 10-for-13 in his past three games, including a four-hit game in Monday’s series opener. He’s batting .289 with six homers, 29 RBIs and a .455 slugging percentage in 57 games — the second-highest highest slugging percentage on the team behind injured Freddie Freeman (.520).
“I’m upset that we play a day game tomorrow and we’re going to give (Pierzynski) a day off,” Gonzalez said, “because he’s swinging as hot a bat as you (can). But you’ve got to remember he’s 38 years old and we’ve got to take care of him.”
The Braves extended the lead to 3-1 an inning later the when Eury Perez hit a leadoff single and scored on Maybin’s opposite-field triple to the right-field corner.
Maybin ranks fifth in the National League with a .402 average with runners in scoring position, including .400 (10-for-25) with two outs.
The Braves pushed the lead to 4-1 on Nick Markakis’ two-out single in the seventh inning, which Jonny Gomes started with a line-drive double to the left-center gap.
