SAN DIEGO – It's been a rough week for Braves reliever Cristhian Martinez.
He gave up an exra-innings walkoff homer for the second time in five days, this a two-run shot by Ryan Ludwick in the 13th inning to give the San Diego Padres a 5-3 win at Petco Park to snap the Braves' three-game winning streak.
"Pitch over the plate to the last guy, so we lost," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of Martinez, whose hanging slider was hit for the second homer of the game by Ludwick and third homer off the slender reliever in his past three appearances.
The Dodgers' Matt Kemp hit a two-run walkoff homer off Martinez in the 12th inning Friday in Los Angeles, another 5-3 loss. Martinez gave up a homer to the Dodgers' Andre Ethier in the fourth inning Thursday in Derek Lowe's previous start.
Lowe was the starter Monday, this time lasting six innings and allowing two runs, five hits and three walks with eight strikeouts. Perhaps most notable was his RBI single, the first hit this season in 40 at-bats by Braves pitchers.
Rookie reliever Cory Gearrin had an impressive debut for the Braves, striking out two and retiring all six batters in the ninth and 10th innings. The sidearmer from Chattanooga was called up Friday from Triple-A.
“Any time you play 13 innings, it’s always tough to lose," Lowe said after the Braves slipped to 4-4 on a 10-game trip. "We’ve got two more days of a long road trip. Two wins here -- it’s not the greatest road trip in the world, but if you win the next two it’s not the worst, either.”
After winning in extra innings against the World Series champions on Sunday, the Braves couldn’t do it against the last-place Padres.
The Braves played 13 innings without drawing a walk, and their leadoff hits in the 12th and 13th innings – including Chipper Jones’ 500th double – went for naught in their third extra-innings game in five days.
“I hope it changes soon, I don’t know if my gut can take another extra-inning game,” said Gonzalez, whose Braves blew a 3-2 lead in the seventh. “Maybe one of those 10-run games may be easier for the ol’ ulcer.”
After Nick Hundley drew a one-out walk in the 13th, Ludwick's second homer of the night snapped the Padres’ four-game losing skid. He came in batting .184 with two homers in 20 games this season, but homered off Lowe and Martinez.
"It was a bad pitch, a slider I left up," said Martinez, who had already pitched two perfect innings in the 11th and 12th before things came unraveled in the 13th.
The Padres scored five runs Monday, after totaling three runs in four games while being swept in a home series against the Philadelphia Phillies that ended Sunday.
When Jones led off 12th inning with his double, the Braves had a runner in scoring position for the first time since the fifth inning. But only for a couple of minutes.
Brandon Hicks, pinch-running for Jones, was thrown out trying to advance to third on Brian McCann’s grounder to pitcher Cory Luebke. That proved particularly untimely when Dan Uggla followed McCann with a single.
You can’t fault him; the [Luebke] made a heck of a play," Jones said of the throw to nail Hicks. "You see that ball to the right side and our first instinct is to take off. The guy just made a great play.”
Luebke struck out Freddie Freeman and Alex Gonzalez to end the inning.
The Braves had another chance in the 13th after Nate McLouth’s leadoff single. But Martinez’s bunt was too hard and McLouth was thrown out at second base.
Then when right fielder Chris Denorfia made a diving catch of Martin Prado’s fly ball near the right-field line, Denorfia hopped up and threw to first base to double up Martinez, who was a step late getting back.
"I tried to get back to the base," said Martinez, who waited too long.
“The worst thing that can happen, happened: he got on base,” said Gonzalez, who left in Martinez to bunt after pitching the previous two innings. “It’s a double-edged sword, because if you use Rossy [backup catcher David Ross] there, your last position player, in an extra-inning game to bunt, to do the same thing [Martinez was supposed to do] … like I said, the worst thing that can happen, happened.
“He got on base, didn’t get a good read on the ball to right field, and got doubled up. We’ll learn from that and go forward.”
After scoring first in all three games in their weekend sweep of the Giants, the Braves got on the board first again Monday when Jason Heyward homered on the first pitch Dustin Moseley threw him in the first inning.
Heyward’s team-high sixth homer was a bases-empty, opposite-field drive to left, a day after he belted a three-run homer at San Francisco.
Moseley allowed only one homer and four earned runs in four starts before Monday, when he gave up three earned in six innings. The right-hander came in with a 1.40 ERA, but was 0-3 owing mainly to the fact the Padres didn’t score a single run while he was in his four previous starts.
Lowe worked out of first-inning trouble by striking out Nick Hundley and Ryan Ludwick, after the Padres put runners on the corners with one out. The first two batters reached on a Jones error and a single.
"We didn’t play very well tonight in any phase," Jones said. "We didn’t stink the joint up, but we didn’t play the kind of baseball that got us three wins in San Francisco."
Again in the second inning, the first two Padres reached base -- Orlando Hudson singled and Brad Hawpe doubled. This time they scratched out a run on Will Venable’s RBI groundout before Lowe averted further damage.
San Diego took a 2-1 lead on Ludwick’s two-out homer in the third inning, which made him 9-for-16 with four homers and nine RBIs in his career against Lowe.
It was the first homer in five games for the Padres.
Their lead lasted one inning before the Braves scored two in the fifth on three hits, including a Freddie Freeman double and RBI singles by Alex Gonzalez and Lowe, who hit a ground-ball bleeder up the middle.
That lead lasted until Scott Linebrink entered the game in the bottom of the seventh with a runner on second and one out. Eric O’Flaherty started the inning for the Braves and gave up a leadoff walk before a sacrifice bunt and a strikeout.
With a runner at second base and two out, Linebrink fell behind in the count 2-and-0 against the first batter he faced, Hundley. The next pitch was driven off the center-field wall for a tying double.
"It’s kind of a deflator when you lose a game like that," said Linebrink, who has allowed a .500 opponents' average (5-for-10), two runs and a homer while recording five outs over his past four appearances.
"For me personally, it’s a little bit extra sting on me tonight. Because I know if I go out there and do my job in the seventh, we’ve got Jonny [Venters] and Craig [Kimbrel for the eighth and ninth innings], and they’re going to do their job and we’re going to get out of here a whole lot earlier. To put five extra innings on the bullpen, I just feel responsibility for all that. In a game like this, every pitch counts, every hitter counts.”
Peter Moylan is the Braves' usual seventh-inning reliever, but the Aussie sidearmer has been on the disabled list for the past week with a bulging disc that could keep him out for another 10 days or so. Jones said his absence has had quite an impact.
“There’s no doubt," Jones said. "I was saying tonight, the most important inning in every single ballgame that we play this year is the seventh. The seventh inning. If we get through the seventh, we’re fine. If we don’t get through the seventh, we’re going to get beat.
"It changes the whole outlook of the game. O’Flaherty pitched great yesterday for a couple of innings, comes in [tonight] and walks the leadoff hitter. Liney [Linebrink] is kind of struggling with his location right now. They get the game tied up and don’t allow us to shut the door in the eighth and ninth with Venters and Kimbrel.”
