Joel De La Cruz waited more than a decade to make his major league debut, and when it came the assignment was a start against the hottest team in baseball. All things considered, the unheralded Braves rookie did pretty good work Wednesday, on a night when pretty good wasn’t enough.
Cleveland broke open a scoreless game on Jason Kipnis’ two-run, two-out single in the fifth inning, and the Indians blanked the Braves, 3-0, at Turner Field, completing a series sweep and extending to 12 games what was already the longest winning streak in the majors this season.
De La Cruz, called up from Triple-A Gwinnett to fill a temporary gap in an injury-plagued Braves rotation, allowed seven hits and three runs in six innings, with one walk with one strikeout. It was the third stint in the majors this season for the 27-year-old, but the first time he got in a game.
“He was aggressive and used his sinker, and the two-run single was just off of (third baseman) Adonis (Garcia’s) glove,” said Braves interim manager Brian Snitker, adding that De La Cruz will likely get a second start Monday. “I thought he was really good. He probably was better than when I had him in Gwinnett earlier in the year.”
The Braves have dropped six of eight since their season-high six-game winning streak. They were outscored 16-6 in three games by the Indians, who are 21-6 in June and one game shy of a franchise-record 13-game winning streak last accomplished in 1951.
“It’s a really, really good ball club overall,” Snitker said of the Indians. “The bullpen, starting staff and the position players just keep coming at you.
The American League Central leaders rolled out one of their aces, Danny Salazar, who held the Braves to five hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in seven innings. Salazar improved to 10-3 while trimming his ERA to 2.22 and extending his own winning streak to six starts.
“He’s disgusting,” Braves second baseman Jace Peterson said of Salazar. “I mean, 96 (mph) with movement, and a change-up and a hammer (curveball). He’s a tough pitcher. All three of those (starters) we faced, all those guys are some of the best pitchers in the league.”
And that was from the guy who had two doubles against Salazar. The rest of the Braves mustered three hits against him and all were shut down whenever there was a runner in scoring position. The Braves went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position Wednesday.
“He left a couple of pitches that I was able to get to across the plate,” said Peterson, who extended his hitting streak to a career-high 10 games. “Everybody else really didn’t get much to hit. He was good all night. Their whole staff was good. Tough series, unfortunately we didn’t get it done.”
The Braves had two runners on with two out in the eighth against reliever Bryan Shaw, who struck out Freddie Freeman to end the inning. Freeman slammed his bat to the ground, breaking it in half, then tossed his helmet.
As hot as Freeman has been — .443 with an .820 slugging percentage in his previous 15 games – he’s hit just .184 (12-for-65) with 27 strikeouts with runners in scoring position, including 0-for-3 Wednesday.
Peterson had leadoff doubles in the first and sixth innings, and each time Salazar retired the next three batters. After a balk in the first inning, Peterson’s baserunning mistake cost the Braves a scoring opportunity when he was thrown out at the plate on Ender Inciarte’s grounder to third base.
After the leadoff double in the sixth, Salazar got Inciarte on a fly-out and struck out Freeman and Nick Markakis.
Before Wednesday, the right-handed Salazar limited lefty batters to a .150 average and had held opponents to a .158 average with runners in scoring position. He twice struck out Freeman.
De La Cruz moved from the Triple-A Gwinnett bullpen to the starting rotation three weeks ago and had a 3.38 ERA in five starts, including a 2.16 ERA in his past four before the call to start for the big club.
After giving up a leadoff single to Rajai Davis to start the game, he induced a double-play grounder from Kipnis. The Indians didn’t have another hit until Tyler Naquin’s leadoff single in the third, and Davis grounded into a double play two batters later to end that inning.
“(De La Cruz) was good,” Braves catcher Tyler Flowers said. “Attacked the zone, down in the zone for the most part, threw a lot of strikes. Made some big pitches when he needed to, couple of double plays. I thought he was impressive.”
Me made his pro debut in rookie ball with the Brewers a decade ago in 2006 at age 17, and the Dominican toiled for most of nine minor league seasons in four organizations.
