The Braves rallied from an early 4-0 deficit, sat through a rain delay of more than two hours and tied the score in the eighth inning, but in the end they ran out of fuel, at least the high-octane bullpen variety.
Adrian Beltre’s 10th-inning single off reliever Scott Proctor gave the Texas Rangers a 5-4 win Saturday night over the Braves, who have lost five of their past six and will try to avoid a sweep by the Rangers on Sunday.
Dan Uggla had a pair of RBI doubles, and Brian McCann hit his sixth homer in his past 11 home games as the injury-plagued Braves came back from a 4-0 deficit and forced extra innings for the 12th time in their past 34 games.
But after using top relievers Jonny Venters and Craig Kimbrel in the eighth and ninth, and with left-hander Eric O’Flaherty out with a sore back, the Braves turned to Proctor in the 10th inning. He gave up a leadoff double to Ian Kinsler and walked Josh Hamilton intentionally with one out.
Beltre followed with a single to center that drove in the winning run.
The Braves totaled four hits and made three errors for the second game in a row. They had two errors before recording an out in the two-run first inning
“That kind of put us behind the eight-ball,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of the miscues by right fielder Jason Heyward and first baseman Freddie Freeman, which led to an unearned run against Derek Lowe.
“I thought it was one of Derek’s better outings, the way he went after guys. It’s just too bad we didn’t play particularly well behind him.”
Uggla’s eighth-inning hit bounced off the yellow line at the top of the padded center-field fence and back onto the field, an RBI double that missed being a go-ahead two-run homer by the narrowest of margins.
“We just came up a little short, just inches short,” Uggla said after the Braves slipped to 5 1/2 games behind first-place Philadelphia in the National League East standings, pending the outcome of the Phillies’ late game at Seattle.
Lowe allowed four runs (three earned) and seven hits in five innings. He was replaced after the fifth-inning delay, which lasted two hours and 16 minutes, and got no decision as his winless streak was extended to eight starts.
He blamed no one but himself.
“They scored four runs; that’s the bottom line,” Lowe said. “It doesn’t matter. I had chances to get out of some jams. ... I wish I was 25 like [Rangers starter Matt Harrison] and had been able to come back.”
Harrison, a former Braves prospect, surprised just about everyone in the ballpark when he returned to continue pitching after the delay. He pitched 6 1/3 innings and was charged with three runs (one earned) and three hits, with one walk and six strikeouts.
“I’ve never seen anybody come back after that long a rain delay,” Uggla said. “He showed a little of what he’s made of.”
The left-hander was replaced after striking out Freeman to start the seventh, on the 102nd pitch that Harrison threw over a four-hour span.
Freeman went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts, the second time he has done that in a week. The rookie is 3-for-24 with 15 strikeouts in his past six games.
McCann’s sixth-inning homer off Harrison cut the lead to 4-3. It was his 11th of the season and sixth in his past 11 home games.
The Braves scored two unearned runs in the third after Nelson Cruz dropped Jordan Schafer’s two-out fly ball at the warning track. That play scored Lowe, whose two-out double was the first hit of the game for the Braves.
Uggla followed the Cruz misplay by doubling down the left-field line to drive in the second run.
The game began in dubious fashion for the Braves. The second batter, Elvis Andrus, hit a single to right that rolled under Heyward’s glove for his third error in four games.
The speedy Andrus raced to third on the play as Kinsler scored. Hamilton followed with a grounder that Freeman misplayed, and Andrus scored.
The Rangers pushed the lead to 4-0 in the third inning when Andrus scored on a double steal and Michael Young singled home Hamilton. Andrus, another former Braves prospect, had two steals Saturday and has 21 for the season — two more than the entire Braves team.
Hamilton had reached on a fielder’s choice when backup third baseman Diory Hernandez’s throw to second was too late to get Andrus.
The Braves traded five prospects — Andrus, Harrison, current Rangers closer Neftali Feliz, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia and pitcher Beau Jones — to Texas in exchange for Mark Teixeira in 2007.
