For the Braves to beat good teams without Martin Prado or Chipper Jones in the lineup, they need strong pitching and others besides Brian McCann to pick up the offensive slack. A lucky break here and there would help, too.
They got all of the above Sunday, when Freddie Freeman had three hits and Jason Heyward had a two-run single in a 4-2 win against the Texas Rangers as the Braves avoided a three-game sweep at Turner Field.
Jair Jurrjens (9-3) allowed seven hits and two walks in 5 1/3 innings, but worked out of jams and limited the Rangers to one run on a steamy afternoon when pitch counts and temperatures were high.
It was only the Braves’ second win in seven games.
“We’re doing the best we can right now until we get everybody back,” said Freeman, who snapped out of his strikeout-plagued slump with two singles and a ground-rule double that pushed the lead to 4-2 in the seventh inning. “The way our pitching staff is, four runs seems to be enough these days.”
Coupled with Philadelphia’s 2-0 loss at Seattle, it left the second-place Braves five games behind the Phillies in the National League East standings.
“It’s a big win for us,” said Jurrjens, whose ninth win moved him into a tie for the National League lead. “Now we’ve got to try to start the next series with a bang.”
The Braves host another interleague series with Toronto beginning Monday at Turner Field. It’s the first time they’ll face them since trading Yunel Escobar to the Blue Jays during the 2010 All-Star break, a deal that brought shortstop Alex Gonzalez to Atlanta.
Former Braves left-hander Jo-Jo Reyes is scheduled to start Wednesday’s series finale for Toronto.
The Texas series was the second in a row for the Braves in which they had to win the series finale to avoid being swept. They beat the New York Mets on Thursday to avoid a sweep at Turner Field.
“It’s hard for us right now,” Jurrjens said. “We just need to keep our heads up and keep playing.”
The Braves batted .182 in their past six games before Sunday, scoring fewer than four runs in four of five losses and totaling six hits or fewer in each loss.
They got seven hits Sunday, but took advantage of two mistakes by catcher Yorvit Torrealba and a wild pitch in a three-run third inning.
Jordan Schafer reached base on a catcher’s interference call with one out, and Dan Uggla followed with a single.
Both runners advanced on a wild pitch by Alexi Ogando (7-2). Heyward drove them in with an opposite-field flare single just beyond the outstretched glove of shortstop Elvis Andrus as he dove past the back edge of the infield.
It was the first multi-RBI game for Heyward since his three-run homer at San Francisco on April 24, which was 27 games -- and a three-week stint on the disabled list -- ago for the big right fielder.
Heyward is 4-for-18 with a double and three RBIs in five games since returning from the DL.
The Rangers stranded five runners in the first two innings against Jurrjens. He got Andrus on a bases-loaded groundout to end the second inning, after a pair of two-out singles by Torrealba and pitcher Ogando, and the first of two errors by backup third baseman Diory Hernandez.
Jurrjens has lasted 5-1/3 innings in each of his past two starts, and needed 116 pitches – tied for third-most of his career – to get 16 outs Sunday.
“I feel like my control’s not where it was my first couple of starts,” he said. “They were fouling pitches. They really didn’t make it easy on me
.”
The Rangers got a run in the fourth after Nelson Cruz’s leadoff double, and a run in the seventh after reliever Scott Proctor gave up a leadoff single by Ian Kinsler. He stole second, advanced on a flyout and scored on Josh Hamilton’s groundout.
Jonny Venters got the last two outs of the seventh and worked around a one-out Cruz double to pitch a scoreless eighth. Craig Kimbrel pitched a hitless ninth for his 19th save, getting Hamilton on a groundout after Andrus reached on Hernandez’s two-out throwing error.
