After five innings Wednesday, the Braves looked poised to become the first team in major league history to win their next five games after starting at season with an 0-9 or worse record.
But then came a pitching change in the sixth inning, a two-run, game-tying homer off no-longer-effective reliever Eric O’Flaherty, then a two-run 10th inning by the Dodgers which turned on a would-be diving catch by rookie Mallex Smith that instead bounced out of his glove and went for an RBI double.
The Dodgers scored two runs in the 10th for a 5-3 win at Turner Field that snapped the Braves’ four-game winning streak and evened the series at a game apiece with Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw awaiting in Thursday’s noon finale.
“Oh, man, it hurt,” Smith said of the Justin Turner fly ball that he dropped. “I thought I had got up under it. When I saw it roll, I knew that was trouble. Then I lost my footing and I looked up and (Chase Utley) is turning the corner, so it’s just a terrible feeling altogether.”
Jason Grilli recorded one out in the 10th and was charged with two hits, two runs and two walks (one intentional). Grilli gave up a leadoff single to Utley, who stole second before Grilli walked Corey Seager to bring Turner up.
“I’m not going to make excuses,” Grilli said. “I’m not going to make them. I’m just a little bit rusty, that’s all I can say.”
Smith, after not getting a good read on Turner’s fly ball initially, raced over toward the left-center gap and dove for it, catching it in the webbing of his glove before it came out when he hit the ground.
“Mallex breaks back on that ball, fly ball to center field, he breaks back,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “But I can live with a young guy’s mistakes, a young guy’s inexperience. I can live with that. We can fix that. That’s not a big deal. But at this stage of the game, those mistakes and those errors, you lose ballgames on that kind of stuff.”
Smith acknowledged that his first step were back when the ball was hit, but he used his great speed to cover a lot of ground and still get to it towards the left-center gap, albeit requiring the diving attempt.
“My read could have been a little bit better,” he said. “But at the end of the day, I thought I could get up under it. Fell short a little bit. I thought he (hit) it a little better than he did. But I think it hung up in the air long enough where I should’ve been able to get up under it. But I dropped the ball right there.”
The last run scored on a single off reliever Alexi Ogando, who entered with bases loaded and one out.
Still, the swing that changed everything was Adrian Gonzalez’s sixth-inning homer off O’Flaherty.
With the Braves ahead 3-1, starter Julio Teheran was pulled after giving up a one-out single in the sixth inning as manager Fredi Gonzalez elected to have left-hander O’Flaherty face lefty slugger Adrian Gonzalez.
Adrian G did Fredi G no favors, greeting O’Flaherty by decimating a 1-and-0 sinker, thigh-high and over the inside part of the plate, driving it over the center-field fence for a game-tying two-run homer.
Teheran pitched 5 1/3 innings and was charged with six hits and two runs. He had three strikeouts, and most of his fastballs were only in the 88-89 mph range, with a few topping out at 90-91.
He was scratched from his originally scheduled start Tuesday due to sickness, and said his strength was down as a result.
A reluctance to let Teheran face Gonzalez a third time was understandable, especially with the way lefties have whacked the Braves opening-day starter: Before Wednesday, lefties hit .306 with three homers and a .731 slugging percentage in 26 at-bats against Teheran, including Bryce Harper’s third-inning grand slam Thursday.
But O’Flaherty no longer seems a good option in a close game, regardless of matchups. He no longer resembles the shutdown lefty he was in his first tour with the Braves before Tommy John elbow surgery.
O’Flaherty has a 13.50 ERA and .364 opponents’ average in eight appearances this season, with four hits, four runs (three earned) and two homers allowed in two innings. Left-handers are 3-for-9 with three extra-base hits against him.
Over the past two seasons, O’Flaherty has an 8.44 ERA and .345 opponents’ average in 49 appearances, with 51 hits and 30 earned runs allowed in 32 innings.
