Despite the best efforts of Cristhian Martinez, the Braves lost Friday night.
They lost 5-4 in their series opener to the Philadelphia, and lost starting pitcher Brandon Beachy to a strained oblique muscle after two innings.
Martinez pitched four perfect relief innings and hit a two-run, game-tying double, but the Braves, after overcoming a 3-0 first-inning deficit, wasted several scoring chances and couldn’t hold the Phillies in the late innings.
“We had the right people up, but it just didn’t happen," said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves' last gasps came when Freddie Freeman and Dan Uggla struck out consecutively with the bases loaded in the seventh inning, and Uggla struck out with a runner at second to end the game.
"That’s the way the game is. But we really had no business being in this game, after your starter goes two innings [and leaves] with an oblique," Gonzalez said.
Beachy gave up a three-run homer to Ryan Howard in the first inning, hurt himself swinging on a strikeout in the bottom of the second, and left after throwing two warmup pitches before the third inning.
He'll be evaluated Saturday, but is almost certainly headed to the disabled list.
"I felt a tearing sensation," the rookie right-hander said, "but not having ever had anything happen like this before, I wasn’t about to take myself out of the game without trying it. And I tried. I threw the first one and it hurt, but I tried to convince myself that maybe push past that barrier. But it didn’t.”
Raul Ibanez drove in the winning run in the eighth when he singled through the right side of the infield to bring home Ryan Howard, who had doubled to start the inning. Catcher Brian McCann couldn’t come up with right fielder Joe Mather's one-hop throw on what would have been a close play.
"We outplayed ‘em for most of the game after a rough first inning," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "But it just seemed like we had opportunity after opportunity to not just get runs, but easy runs if we put the ball in play. And we couldn’t do it at the opportune time."
The Braves had bases loaded with one out in the seventh after a Martin Praado double and walks by Jones (intentional) and McCann. But Uggla and Freeman struck out, Freeman after getting ahead in the count 3-and-0.
Uggla went 0-for-5 with three strikeouts to drop his average to .199, and Gonzalez was asked if the second baseman might be pressing after signing a five-year, $62 million contract extension with the Braves during the winter.
“I don’t know, Danny’s not that type of guy," said Gonzalez, who had Uggla on his Florida Marlins teams for 3-1/2 seasons, before Gonzalez was fired in June and Uggla traded to Atlanta in November.
"Sometimes this game can really turn quickly. Come back tomorrow and he gets in those situations, he’ll bloop one in there or get a gapper, and next thing you know we’re talking about Danny Uggla in a positive manner."
Beachy injured the oblique in his left side on his last swing when he struck out to end the second inning. He gave up six hits and three runs in two innings, after posting a 1.44 ERA and .140 opponents’ average in his previous four starts.
"I’ve got a really bitter taste in my mouth," he said. "I just threw pitches over the middle of the plate at good hitters, and you can’t do that. You can’t do that to anybody in this league."
Gonzalez, pitching coach Roger McDowell and a Braves trainer went to the mound to check on him when he stopped after his second warmup pitch. Soon Beachy was headed to the dugout and Martinez summoned from the bullpen.
The Braves were expected to bring up a pitcher from Triple-A Gwinnett to replace him, from the group of Mike Minor, Rodrigo Lopez and Julio Teheran.
Martinez proceeded to retire the next 12 batters (four strikeouts) to get the Braves through the sixth inning. And that wasn’t all the slender right-hander did.
With the Braves trailing 3-1 in the fifth, Martinez hit a two-run double. Alex Gonzalez had reached on a leadoff single and Mather had doubled to put two in scoring position, and Martinez pulled the next pitch from Cole Hamels down the line to the left-field corner, to the great surprise and delight of a crowd of 36,168.
It was the first hit and first RBIs of the 29-year-old's major league career (44 relief appearances).
“It was like, I’m in the game and I’m going to win the game," Martinez said. "I wanted that game so [much]. I know he’s going to come with a fastball and I say, I’m going to swing at this first pitch he throws me. And I got it. And I got the double and got the team back in to give us a chance to win."
Mather said, "Cristhian came in and did amazing. That’s got to be one of the first things said. ... We battled back. We were down 3-nothing before we even hit. As disappointing as it is to lose, I think we feel good that we at least battled.
"One of these days, one of these weeks, we’ll start picking up those things that are bouncing the other way.”
The Braves had a chance to inflict more damage in the inning after Prado reached on an error and both runners moved into scoring position on a Nate McLouth sacrifice. But after Hamels intentionally walked Jones to load the bases, McCann grounded into an inning-ending double play.
After consecutive two-out hits by Gonzalez and Mather (ground-rule double) in the sixth, Gonzalez scored on a wild pitch for a 4-3 lead that was short-lived.
Jimmy Rollins hit a two-out double off rookie reliever Cory Gearrin in the seventh inning, and lefty Eric O’Flaherty was brought in to face switch-hitting Shane Victorino, who had been 0-for-9 against him.
Victorino hit a tying double, after O’Flaherty and catcher Brian McCann thought they struck out Victorino looking at a two-strike pitch that was called a ball but appeared otherwise on replays.
"We had tons of opportunities," Jones said. "It just seemed like after Victorino took strike three right down the middle and we didn’t get [the call], and then he got the base hit, it was just deflating. But again, after that we still had bases loaded and one out, and couldn’t get it done.”
Before Beachy was injured, he was hurt by Howard, a Braves nemesis. He crushed a three-run homer to straightaway center in the first inning, raising his majors-leading total to 35 RBIs and his career homer total against the Braves to 36, his most against any team.
Beachy was the second Braves rookie taken deep in the past week by Howard, who homered off Teheran in the 20-year-old phenom’s major league debut at Philadelphia.
Friday’s mammoth shot came on a 2-1 pitch with one out, and gave Howard 17 homers and 58 RBIs in 55 games at Turner Field, his personal bests at any ballpark outside Philadelphia.
Beachy threw 40 pitches in the first inning and gave up five consecutive one-out hits. That was more hits than he allowed in any of his past four starts.
He had allowed just 12 hits and four walks with 28 strikeouts in 25 innings over that stretch, but was 1-0 in those games in part because of scant run support.
