Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki corrected a reporter Saturday when it was suggested the veteran seemed more comfortable lately catching knuckleball pitcher R.A. Dickey.
“It’s a new adventure every time he goes out there,” Suzuki said. “Like (Dickey) said, he can find it in one inning, then lose it, and find it again. It’s pitch to pitch. I always say hopefully it’s nasty enough where they can’t hit it, and not nasty enough where I can’t catch it.”
On Sunday, Dickey didn’t find it, at least not consistently, until it was too late.
The San Francisco Giants scored six runs in the first two innings and cruised to a 7-1 victory in a series finale at AT&T Park, handing the Braves their fourth loss in five games and snapping their streak of five series without a series loss.
The Braves also watched Brandon Phillips exit after four innings with a bruised right kneecap from a foul tip. He's questionable for Monday's series opener at Anaheim.
Dickey retired the last 12 batters faced in a six-inning stint, but that was after giving up seven runs (six earned) on six hits and five walks in the first three innings, with much of the damage coming in a four-run second inning when the Giants batted around.
“A lot of it is finding the right speed out of my hand,” Dickey said of the knuckleball. “But the last three innings I just backed off of it a little bit and was getting consistent movement in the strike zone rather than erratic movement outside the strike zone. But I didn’t give us a chance. I’ve got to be able to make that adjustment a lot sooner than the third inning. I’d already given up six runs or whatever it was.
“I didn’t give our offense much of an opportunity to do what they need to do, because they were in a hole right out of the gate.”
In their past five series the Braves had won three and split two. After dropping two of three games at San Francisco, they'll continue a nine-game trip with a three-game series against the Angels in Anaheim beginning Monday night.
Giants starter Johnny Cueto came in with a 4.64 ERA, but against the Braves he looked like the guy who was 18-5 with a 2.79 ERA and 198 strikeouts last season. Cueto (5-4) allowed six hits, one run and one walk with eight strikeouts in six innings.
The Braves failed to break through against him until the sixth inning when they got hits from Nick Markakis and Matt Kemp before Suzuki’s run-scoring groundout.
They went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position including two strikeouts by Matt Adams with runners on the corners to end the first inning and with two on and none out in the sixth inning.
“It was a tough day for all of us,” Kemp said. “We didn’t hit with runners in scoring position. We had some chances to score some runs and we didn’t. I think this series we didn’t do too good of a job of scoring runs or hitting guys in with runners in scoring position. We can do a better job. But tomorrow’s a new day.
“We’ve just got to get it done, plain and simple. Got to hit with guys in scoring position. Got to score runs.”
If there was any silver lining whatsoever, it was Dickey settling in and getting through six innings. Braves manager Brian Snitker said Dickey told him after three that he could at least eat some innings and save the bullpen, and the manager was thankful he was able to do that.
“At the very least that’s what I can offer,” Dickey said. “I hate to take any consolation after an outing like that … I was able to give us six, but at the same time we were out of the game early against a guy who’s a perennial All-Star.”
Dickey (3-4) began Sunday with a 4.17 ERA that was the second-best in an underperforming rotation. The 42-year-old saw that climb to 4.65, giving the Braves four starters with ERAs of 4.44 or above, including both over-40 veterans they signed to one-year contracts totaling $20.5 million (Bartolo Colon got $12.5 million and is 2-5 with a 6.96 ERA).
It was also a rough day for Suzuki, charged with a bases-loaded passed ball in the first inning that let in the first run, and an error in the second inning when he failed to catch Kemp’s one-bounce throw to the plate on a Brandon Crawford single. Crawford was awarded two RBIs, but the second runner likely would’ve been out if Suzuki caught it.
Dickey was also charged with a wild pitch in the second inning that could have just as easily been ruled a passed ball.
Still, the hole the Braves were put in after those first couple of innings was dug almost entirely by Dickey, who walked the third and fourth batters of the game and also made a throwing error on a pickoff play in the first inning. He issued two walks in the second inning, an inning that began with Dickey giving up a leadoff triple to No. 7 hitter Joe Panik followed immediately by an RBI single from Gorkys Hernandez.
“In the beginning it was like there was no in-between — it was either just an unbelievable knuckleball or something that was really flat,” Snitker said.
Before Dickey made the adjustment and got into a rhythm in the third inning, he first gave up a leadoff walk in the inning to Panik, then another single to No. 8 hitter Hernandez, and a sacrifice fly by Cueto that pushed the lead to 7-0.
