It had been more than 13 months since Brandon Beachy pitched in the major leagues. And much longer since the Braves right-hander had given up seven runs in a game. As in, never in his big-league career.
While Beachy’s first game back since Tommy John elbow surgery was hardly a rousing success Monday night, his teammates picked him up, twice erasing Colorado leads — including an early five-run deficit — and taking leads of their own.
It still was wasn’t enough until the 10th inning, when Andrelton Simmons hit a walk-off triple to give the Braves a stirring 9-8 win for a four-game winning streak before a delighted crowd at Turner Field.
“It was pretty sweet,” said Braves rookie Joey Terdoslavich, who had a couple of key hits. “Dan (Uggla) had an awesome at-bat and Simmons came up with a huge hit there at the end. He’s clutch. He’s the man.”
Uggla drew a nine-pitch leadoff walk in the 10th against hard-throwing Edgmer Escalona, then hustled to score from first base on Simmons’ drive to the left-center gap on an 0-2 fastball, the shortstop’s third hit and second RBI of the night.
“He likes that stage,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of Simmons, a second-year major leaguer who already has earned a reptuation for coming through in pressure situations. “He just doesn’t panic, and I think he’s going to be one of those guys that, the more he matures and grows, the better he’s going to be in those situations. Not only the offensive stuff, but how about the double-play ball in the eighth inning?”
Chris Johnson and Uggla drove in two runs apiece and the Braves moved to 4-0 on a seven-game homestand, improving their majors-best home record to 35-15 and pushing their NL East lead to nine games over the Nationals.
It’s been quite a three-day stretch for Simmons, who had a two-out, two-run double in the eighth inning of Saturday’s 2-0 win against St. Louis, a pair of two-out hits and two sensational defensive plays in Sunday’s 5-2 win against the Cardinals, and his career-high third triple of the season to beat the Rockies.
“I like the big moments,” Simmons said. “Everybody likes the big moments. I feel like I had opportunities before in the season. I’m definitely making the most of them lately, and hoping to continue that.”
Terdoslavich’s two hits included a leadoff doubled in the six-run third inning and a single to drive in the go-ahead run in the two-run fifth, after Uggla’s tying double.
Jordan Walden gave up the tying run in the ninth on a one-out walk to Atlanta native Dexter Fowler and consecutive singles by DJ LeMahieu and Carlos Gonzalez, whose fifth hit of the night tied the score, 8-8. The Braves didn’t use closer Craig Kimbrel after he collected saves in all three games in a weekend sweep against the Cardinals.
Braves newcomer Scott Downs, acquired in a Monday trade from the Angels, arrived after the game had already started and ending up getting the win after recording the last four outs. The veteran lefty entered with bases loaded and two out in the ninth and got Todd Helton on a first-pitch line-out back to the pitcher.
Downs gave up a leadoff single in the 10th but retired the next three batters, striking out Fowler with a runner on third.
“Boy, he made a really big impact to our club,” Gonzalez said of Downs, who found out he’d been traded about 12 hours before the game, flew to Atlanta, and arrived at the stadium at 7:20 p.m. “That was an impressive outing for Scott.”
The Braves fell behind 5-0 before ripping off a six-run third that was one run shy of their season-high for an inning. They did it against left-hander Jorge De La Rosa (10-6), who came in with a 2.97 ERA and was 8-2 with a 2.53 ERA in his past 15 starts.
Beachy was charged with eight hits, a career-high seven runs and one walk with five strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings, piling up 84 pitches (58 strikes) quickly in his first major league game since June 16, 2012.
“First outing, it’s tough to even evaluate it,” Gonzalez said. “I’m not even going to evaluate it. His first outing, it’s (like) coming out of spring training for him, maybe even worse – Tommy John – so we’ll see how he feels tomorrow, throw him a side and go get ‘em in five days.”
Beachy was disappointed in his performance, even if it his first major league start since surgery.
“It still stings,” he said. “I’m not going to just chalk this up to part of the process. No, I’m not going to do that. I pitched poorly, really let the guys down after they came back and got me that lead. It’s not acceptable, no matter what the circumstances are.”
When he tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow in his 13th start last season, Beachy led major league starters with a .171 opponents’ average and had a 2.00 ERA that was tied for the lead. He went 3-4 with a 2.93 ERA in nine rehab starts this year, including a 2.50 ERA in four Triple-A starts.
But against a potent Colorado lineup, he got in trouble in a hurry. After Beachy threw a 92-mph fastball to Fowler for a called strike to start the game, the Milton High graduate doubled to right on his second pitch, a 93-mph fastball. LeMahieu followed with a sacrifice bunt on the next pitch and Gonzalez singled to left on first-pitch slider for a 1-0 lead.
Gonzalez matched a career-high for hits and stole two bases, giving him his fourth consecutive season with at least 20 homers and 20 steals.
Beachy got ahead in the count 0-2 against Wilin Rosario in the second inning, then threw three consecutive balls before Rosario fouled off a fastball and homered on a slider for a 2-0 lead.
“I thought I commanded my fastball pretty well,” Beachy said. “I got in trouble with hanging some breaking balls. It seemed like every one I hung, they crushed it. They didn’t miss those mistakes.”
Asked if there were positives he could take from the performance, Beachy said, “I feel good physically, I just need to refine — refine the off-speed, especially. I felt like I was ahead in a lot of counts and I was this close to getting out of some situations, and they were fouling pitches off. And when I made a mistake, they capitalized.”
The Rockies threatened to turn it into a rout with three runs in the third on Michael Cuddyer’s two-run triple and Helton’s sacrifice fly.
But Braves hitters went to work on De La Rosa in the bottom of the third. Their five hits in the six-run inning included a leadoff double by Terdoslavich, a two-run double by NL batting leader Johnson and an RBI double by Simmons.
Jason Heyward singled to drive in the first run of the inning. Groundouts by Evan Gattis and Uggla drove in the other two, with third baseman Nolan Arenado’s error on the bases-loaded Gattis grounder causing half of the six runs in the inning to be unearned.
After the Braves sent 11 batters to the plate in that inning and turned an five-run deficit into a 6-5 lead, Beachy gave it back before recording an out when Arenado led off the Rockies’ fourth with a homer.
Beachy had trouble putting away hitters after getting ahead in counts. To the last batter he faced, LeMahieu in the fourth, he threw only fastballs – eight of them, all 91-92 mph. LeMahieu hit the last one for a two-out single.
Beachy gave way to reliever David Carpenter, who allowed a Gonzalez single to put runners on the corners. Carpenter’s wild pitch let in the seventh and final run charged to Beachy, surpassing his previous career-high of six runs in a road game against the Rockies on July 19, 2011.
