WASHINGTON – The Nationals, their fans, and surely pitcher Stephen Strasburg keep thinking this is the game, this is the series, when the tables will be turned against the Braves.
But even after Craig Kimbrel gave up a two-run, game-tying homer by Anthony Rendon in the ninth inning to blow a save Friday, the Braves ratcheted up the Nationals’ frustrations some more by pulling out a 6-4 win in 13 innings to clinch at least a split of the four-game series.
Ryan Buchter pitched the 12th inning and got the win in his major league debut after arriving from Triple-A Gwinnett 15 minutes before pregame stretching. Jordan Walden pitched a perfect 13th inning for his second save.
Evan Gattis had a go-ahead single in the 13th and the Braves added another run on a fielder’s choice groundout by Andrelton Simmons to improve to 7-1 against the Nationals this season and move back ahead of them by a ½ game in the National League East standings.
“We’re struggling a little bit (lately), but we know we play well against them,” Simmons said. “We came with some confidence, and you could see it. Guys were grinding out at-bats and coming up with big hits. Pitchers kept us in the game. And we ended up winning.”
This NL East rivalry for 22 months has been entirely one-sided in favor of the the Braves, who won for the 24th time in 31 games against the Nationals since late August 2012.
The Braves won for the first time in four extra-inning games over two weeks including a rather remarkable three 13-inning games in the past week.
“It doesn’t matter how long it is as long as we win,” said Freddie Freeman, who had three hits including a first-inning home run off Strasburg. “We’ve played some long games the last week, so it’s definitely taxing our bullpen. But a win’s a win, and if it had taken 20 innings we would have done it.”
Mike Minor struck out 11 in seven innings and outpitched Strasburg, who gave up a season-high nine hits and four runs and is winless against the Braves in seven starts over two season. Minor was in position for his first win since May 19 before Kimbrel entered with a 4-2 lead and gave up the two-out homer by Rendon, after walking pinch-hitter Nate McLouth to start the inning.
Braves reliever Juan Jaime made an auspicious major league debut, striking out two in the 11th inning including Rendon with two out and runner on. Jaime consistently pumped 97-98 mph fastballs, and froze Sandy Leon and Rendon with 76- and 73-mph curveballs for called third strikes.
That worked so well the Braves did it again in the 12th, when left-hander Buchter got three outs in three batters. He struck out Jayson Werth on three pitches to start the inning, walked lefty Adam LaRoche on four pitches, then got Ryan Zimmerman to ground into an inning-ending double play.
“Of course it feels good,” said Buchter, a well-traveled 27-year-old who spent nearly a decade in the minors, but insisted he wasn’t too amped up during or after his big-league debut. “Not really. It’s baseball. Once you get out there — the experience in spring training helps.
“I didn’t get the September callup last year, but the last two spring trainings I was there facing all those guys. Every time I faced the Nationals I faced 3, 4 and 5 (in their lineup) every time. Every time I faced the Marlins I faced 3, 4 and 5. So, just that experience – it’s the same game, you’ve just got to go out there and throw.”
In an odd coincidence, both Buchter and Jaime, 26, began their professional careers in the Nationals organization. Buchter was a 33rd-round draft pick in 2005 and Jaime signed as an undrafted free agent in 2004.
Both pitchers were thrust in pressurized situations Friday because the Braves rested rookies Shae Simmons and David Hale due to recent heavy workloads.
“Those are big innings,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “We always talk when we bring them up about how you’re going to use them, what situation. Today was extra-inning games against your division rival, in a tough ballgame.
“You’re going to have to use them sooner or later. Get them in their as soon as you can so they don’t have to sit around thinking about it. And both of those kids did a nice job. Jaime, that big arm coming out of the bullpen – that’s nice to see. And Buck (Buchter) did a nice job. They did a terrific job.”
Nationals relievers retired 18 consecutive batters following Tommy La Stella’s leadoff double in the seventh inning. But the Braves finally broke through in the 13th against lefty Jerry Blevins. B.J. Upton drew a leadoff walk before Freeman singled and Gattis drove in the go-ahead run with a single to left field that drew applause from a contingent of Braves fans seated in the left-field bleachers.
Jason Heyward had a two-run, two-out double in the fifth inning for the Braves, and Gattis extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a two-out single in the fifth before Heyward’s double.
Minor pitched seven strong innings, allowing seven hits and two runs with two walks while coming within one strikeout of his career-best 12. Anthony Varvaro gave up two hits in a scoreless eighth inning before giving a two-run lead to Kimbrel.
Walks, and particularly leadoff walks, have been a problem for Kimbrel this season, and this time wasn’t able to blow ever hitter away who followed. Two batters later, Rendon squared up a 98-mph fastball on a 2-and-1 count, driving it over the left-center fence on what was initially an RBI double.
The Nationals challenged the call and the replay clearly showed the ball cleared the outfield fence, giving him a game-tying homer and giving Kimbrel his third blown save in 25 chances.
“Anytime you pitch from behind (in the count) it’s tough,” Kimbrel said. “In that situation I was behind, so I was going to challenge him with my best fastball. And he beat me. That’s a good piece of hitting. Obviously you don’t want to start the inning with a leadoff walk. But in that situation I just challenged (Rendon) and he hit it out.”
Kimbrel has a loss and two blown saves in 12 appearances over the past three weeks.
Before Friday, the Braves were 23-7 with a 1.98 ERA against the Nationals since late August 2012, and Atlanta pitchers have limited them to one or no runs in 11 of those games including. Gavin Floyd and three relievers combined on a three-hit shutout in a 3-0 Braves win in Thursday’s series opener.
Strasburg got no decision to remain a career-worst 3-5 with a 4.04 ERA in 14 starts against the Braves. The only other team he has more than two losses against is the Marlins, and he’s 7-4 in 16 career starts against them.
Minor recorded the fourth double-digit strikeout game of his career and his second this month, following a 10-strikeout game June 4 in which he allowed only one run in seven innings of a 2-0 Braves loss. He got knocked around for a combined 22 hits and 11 runs in nine innings over his next two starts, but the lefty was sharp from the outset of Friday’s game.
“I think it was one of my best, feeling-wise,” Minor said. “Just mechanically, I felt like everything was mechanically sound and I could throw pretty much any pitch any time.”
He struck out two in a perfect first inning, gave up three hits including a mammoth solo homer to Ian Desmond in the second, then struck out two in every inning from the third through the sixth. The Nationals didn’t score again until Denard Span’s two-out RBI triple in the seventh inning, after the Braves had built a 4-1 lead.
The Braves had been 8-14 with a 4.76 ERA in their past 22 games before coming to Washington, while the Nationals had won seven of eight home games during a 12-6 run that gave them first place before the Braves came calling. And yet,the Braves again have taken the first two games in a four-game series.
After two-out singles in the fifth by Freeman and Gattis, Heyward drove in both runners with a double over the head of right fielder Werth to expand the Braves’ lead to 4-1. Heyward also singled in the fourth inning and has hit .318 with 17 RBIs and 14 runs in his past 21 games.
Heyward’s two-run double was the season-high ninth allowed by Strasburg, surpassing the eight he gave up in three games including his April 5 loss to the Braves, when he lasted only 4 1/3 innings and was charged with six runs (three earned) in his first home start of 2014.
In seven home starts since then, Strasburg had gone 5-0 with a 1.72 ERA before Friday, with 62 strikeouts and only eight walks in only 47 innings. He didn’t walk any Friday, but he allowed multiple hits in the second, fourth and fifth innings, after giving up the homer to Freeman in the first.
The Braves could have done more damage early against Strasburg, but Jordan Schafer hit fielder’s choice grounders with two runners on and one out in both the second and fourth innings. The Braves got a run in the fourth with three consecutive one-out singles, the third by Simmons for a 2-1 lead.
“Somehow we always put up good at-bats against the Nationals,” Simmons said after the Braves forced Strasburg to throw 107 pitches in six innings. “I don’t know why, but we get locked in a little bit. And hopefully we keep doing it whenever we’re playing division teams.”
