If they were going to wait out a rain delay of more than three hours Tuesday night and beyond, the Braves figured they might as well come back and win. And they did, with “Big City” coming through again to walk off the Burgh.
After Jim Johnson blew a lead in the the ninth on Jordy Mercer’s two-out, two-run single that put the Pittsburgh Pirates back ahead, the Braves pulled out a 6-5 win in the bottom of the ninth when Nick Markakis hit a two-out, game-tying double and newcomer Matt “Big City” Adams hit a walk-off single at 1:52 a.m.
“Like I said the last couple of days, it’s just a fun group of guys to play with,” said Adams, who doubled and scored in the fourth inning and homered to start the sixth inning before his game-ending hit in the ninth brought his new teammates pouring from the dugout to celebrate with the man who’s taking this Freddie Freeman fill-in role quite literally.
“They go about their business the right way and you saw that tonight. We fought till the end,” Adams said of the Braves. “It’s fun to be a part of. There’s not much else to say but it’s fun to be a part of. It was fun to watch from the other side, how they go about their business, how they keep fighting till the end. Now, being a part of it, it’s something special.”
The Braves refused to go quietly into that good morning and won for the ninth time in 12 games.
They scored two runs in the seventh inning on RBI singles by Brandon Phillips and Matt Kemp to take a 4-3 lead, but Johnson gave up three hits and a walk in the ninth and saw the one-run lead turn to a one-run deficit when Mercer got his hit after two difficult two-strike foul tips got away from catcher Kurt Suzuki to extend the at-bat.
Still, the Braves weren’t through. Ender Inciarte, who had singled and scored the tying run on Phillips’ single in the seventh inning, got his third hit of the night and eighth hit in the first two games of the series when he singled with one out in the ninth.
After Phillips lined out, Markakis doubled in the tying run, Kemp was walked intentionally, and Adams won the game.
“That’s why were so excited when we got him,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He’s come up big so far.”
Adams is 5-for-13 with two home runs and four RBis in three games since the Braves got him from St. Louis in a trade.
“I’m getting some good balls to hit right now, balls out over the plate,” Adams said, “and I’m not missing them.”
Perhaps 200 fans from an announced crowd of 25,040 remained in the ballpark when play resumed following a rain delay of 3 hours, 12 minutes before the seventh inning, and those who stuck it out saw were thrilled when the Braves came out rejuvenated in the seventh and win for the ninth time in 12 games.
“We’ve been here this long so we might as well win the game,” said Phillips, who’ll be 36 next month. “This is the longest I’ve ever been at the field, 2 o’clock in the morning, starting the game at 12:45. (Actually, play resumed at 12:51 a.m. after the rain delay.) That’s crazy. But that’s what baseball is like. I’m just happy we got the W.”
Defying all predictions, the Braves have won four of six games since losing marquee slugger Freeman to a fractured wrist.
“We stay hungry,” Phillips said. “I just feel like as a team, as a unit we go out here and try to win for the city. We are starting to get along with each other. We’re starting to know what certain guys can do. Everybody’s stepping their games up, it’s a lot of fun. I know y’all are enjoying it, too.”
Inciarte started the seventh-inning rally with a single off reliever Wade LeBlanc, advanced on a wild pitch and scored the tying run on Phillips’ one-out single. Phillips moved up on passed ball and scored the go-ahead run on Kemp’s single.
Adams, Freeman’s replacement for the next 10 weeks or so, launched a home run to the Chop House above the right-field seats for the second night in a row in the sixth.
Braves starter R.A. Dickey allowed 11 hits, three runs and three walks in six innings while pitching on short (three days’) rest, after the Braves shuffled their rotation in order to have the veteran knuckleballer separate their two hardest-throwing right-handed starters, Mike Foltynewicz and Julio Teheran.
Pittsburgh scored a run against Dickey in the first inning and never trailed before play was halted at 9:39 p.m. before the first pitch of the seventh inning.
But things changed quickly in the quiet, wet stadium when play finally resumed. The team with several 30-somethings in its lineup came out looking energetic.
Snitker had thought “it might take us a while to crank these guys back up. But, to a man, all they were talking about during the delay was getting back out there and playing regardless of how long it took.”
Adams made his presence felt before and after the delay. The big first baseman doubled to start the fourth and scored on Suzuki’s single to cut the Pirates’ lead to 2-1. Suzuki was 3-for-4 and has hit .317 with 11 RBIs in his past 12 starts.
The Pirates pushed the margin back to two on Mercer’s homer in the sixth inning before Adams answered in the bottom of the inning with a long homer to right. The pulled shot landed in front of the Chop House restaurant above the right-field seats, in the same area where his first Braves home landed in Monday’s 5-2 win.
Adams also hit a homer at SunTrust in his last start for the Cardinals on May 6 off Teheran. Adams’ three homers at SunTrust are tied with Inciarte and St. Louis’ Matt Carpenter and Tommy Pham for second-most at the new ballpark, behind Freeman’s five.
Inciarte had a first-inning walk and third-inning single to extend his streak to eight plate appearances with a hit or walk before he flied out in the fourth inning. The streak began with his eighth-inning single Sunday and included a 5-for-5 game Monday.
After the epic rain delay, the Braves bullpen’s franchise-record hitless streak ended at 51 at-bats and 56 batters when Alen Hanson, the third batter after play resumed, hit a two-out single off Sam Freeman in the seventh inning.
The bullpen’s scoreless streak ended at 23 innings on Mercer’s two-run hit against Johnson.
The game ended more than six hours after Clint Hurdle was ejected for second night in a row. This time he made it through only half an inning. Hurdle was tossed by home-plate ump Nic Lentz after Hurdle argued that Josh Bell shouldn’t have been called out on a plate at the plate for the final out of the first inning when Bell went out of the baseline to avoid Suzuki’s tag.
