The Braves had just racked up 28 hits, 15 runs and five homers in consecutive wins against the Phillies and Giants, and before Tuesday they scored 24 runs in a three-game winning streak against San Francisco dating to late May.
So if they were ever going to score runs again for Shelby Miller and help him end his career-long winless drought, maybe this would be the night, particularly with creaky Giants pitcher Jake Peavy on the mound. Or maybe not.
The Braves scored two in the seventh inning to take a 3-2 lead and put their All-Star pitcher in position for a win, but the bullpen quickly blew the lead and buried the Braves in an 8-3 loss to the Giants at Turner Field.
It was 14th consecutive winless start for Miller, despite a 3.14 ERA and nine quality starts in that 2 1/2-month span. Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said he’d never seen anything like Miller’s winless streak from a pitcher doing such good work.
“I’m going to say off the top of my head, no way,” Gonzalez said. “I’ve never seen anything this long. But he keeps his head up and he keeps battling and he knows what he has to do. And again today we had a lead for him, which probably hasn’t happened in a long time, and we just couldn’t – we had the right people in there, we just couldn’t hold it.”
David Aardsma gave up a three-run rocket of a homer to Hunter Pence in the eighth inning for his third blown save, and the Braves lost for the 10th time in 13 games and 17th in 23 games since they were 42-42.
Miller allowed only four hits and three walks and left after seven innings with the Braves trailing 2-1, with one of the runs charged to Miller perhaps preventable if not for a mental mistake by first baseman Chris Johnson in the sixth inning.
The Braves two runs in the bottom of the seventh for the lead, but the bullpen blew it and put the Braves in a three-run deficit all before recording an out in the eighth.
Left-hander Ross Detwiler gave up a leadoff double to former Brave and current Braves nemesis Gregor Blanco, and that spark became roaring flames soon after Aardsma entered. Aardsma allowed a game-tying double by Matt Duffy, then intentionally walked Buster Posey to bring up Pence, who destroyed a 1-2 fastball, sending a line-drive to the left-center seats for a three-run homer and 6-3 Giants lead. Neither Detwiler or Aardsma recorded an out.
Miller limited the Giants to four hits, two runs and three walks with three strikeouts in seven innings. He got no decision and is 0-7 since his last win May 17.
“He was great,” Gonzalez said. “He gives up a run in the first inning and then settles in the rest of the night. He had the lead in the eighth inning and we just couldn’t get through that eighth inning. That kind of unraveled on us…. (Miller) was dominant. You can’t ask for anything more from him, really. You really can’t.”
Despite mostly stellarwork from Miller, the Braves have lost 12 of his past 13 starts, after winning eight of his first nine.
“I mean, my job is to go out there and put zeroes up,” Miller said. “Whether I go five innings, seven innings, whether I have good games or bad games — it’s all going to happen. At the end of the day obviously it’s a tough loss for us. I felt like we were in a good situation to win the ballgame. Obviously the (Braves) offense coming back and getting those two runs was pretty huge.
“It just kind of fell apart for us in the eighth. And I saw the pitches (by Braves relievers) were good; some of them were good.”
The Braves scored one or no runs while Miller was in the game in 10 of those 14 starts — Tuesday he official received three support runs — and his run support of 2.57 per nine innings pitched was the worst in the majors before Tuesday. His run support has been only half that average during the winless drought.
“Yeah, I don’t know, I can’t explain it,” Johnson said of Miller’s dearth of run support. “We know it, too, as an offense. When he pitches I think we just try to do too much. We would really, really like to bust out and get the guy a lead, but, God, lately every time he pitches we can’t do it.”
Miller was 5-1 with a 1.33 ERA in his first eight starts, got selected to the National League All-Star team, and entered Tuesday with a 5-8 record despite having the league’s sixth-lowest ERA (2.44).
“For him to pitch as well as he has and not be able to come up with wins…” Johnson said. “A lot of people say ‘Oh, his ERA is good, so who cares?’ But that’s not the way he thinks. He wants to win ballgames, and we’re just not giving him the opportunity.”
After giving up a run in the first inning Miller got on a roll, retiring 16 of 17 batters before walking Blanco with one out in the sixth and the score tied at 1. Blanco, who also had the first hit and scored the first run in the first inning, entered Tuesday with a .327 career average and 1.011 OPS in in 21 games against the Braves, his highest OPS against any team.
After Blanco walked, Duffy singled and Posey walked to load the bases. That’s when Johnson turned Pence’s potential inning-ending double-play grounder into an RBI groundout when he fielded the ball behind the base, forgot how many outs there were, and ran to first for the unassisted out instead of throwing to second base.
“I screwed up,” Johnson said. “Stupid mental error.”
Gonzalez said, “I think it’s a hard double play, anyway. Either a 3-6-3 or a 3-6-1, it would’ve been a hard double-play. There’s no excuse for not knowing how many outs (there are). Everybody has mental lapses there, but I liked the way Shelby Miller reacted to that. It didn’t affect him. He went out there and got the next guy out and kept it right there.”
Blanco — who else? — scored on the Pence groundout to put the Giants ahead, 2-1, and Miller got out of the inning without further damage by striking out Brandon Belt with two in scoring position.
Peavy limited the Braves to five hits and one run in six innings, with one walk and a season-high eight strikeouts. The veteran right-hander retired 10 of the last 11 batters he faced, including six strikeouts.
Peavy entered with a modest 4.12 ERA in seven starts, and earlier he missed 2 ½ months with hip and back ailments. After A.J. Pierzynski’s two-out single in the third, the Braves didn’t get another hit until the seventh.
With the Braves trailing 1-0 in the third inning, Nick Markakis drove in the tying run on a one-out single. Daniel Castro singled to start the inning and moved into scoring position on Miller’s sacrifice. Pierzysnki singled with two out in the inning, but Johnson struck out in an 11-pitch at-bat with two on.
The Giants scored a run in the first on consecutive one-out singles from Blanco and Duffy and a sacrifice fly from Posey. Beginning with the sac fly, Miller retired 13 consecutive batters before Ehire Adrianze’s two-out double on a sinking fly ball that went in and out of the glove of left fielder Eury Perez on a diving attempt.
