On a night when Shelby Miller pitched a three-hit shutout in the first complete game of the season for the Braves and continued to assert himself as the true ace of the staff so far this season, he shared at least a little of the stage with another, far-less heralded offseason acquisition.
Kelly Johnson, who arrived at spring training as a 33-year-old non-roster invitee coming off his worst season, continued his improbable resurgence Tuesday when he collected his team-high sixth homer and his 1,000th career hit during the Braves’ 9-0 victory against the Philadelphia Phillies at Turner Field.
Miller (4-1) allowed one walk with eight strikeouts in nine innings, throwing 74 strikes in 99 pitches in the third shutout of his career and the first by a Braves pitcher in nearly a year, since Julio Teheran’s six-hitter vs. Milwaukee on May 20.
“Three hits, and one was a bunt,” Braves veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski said of Miller’s performance. “He threw the ball, commanded every pitch, and was just in complete control of the game.”
Freddie Freeman added three hits including a two-run homer in the first inning for the Braves, who climbed back to within a game of .500 (13-14) with their third win in five games since a three-game skid.
“You dream about going out there and trying to throw a complete game,” said Miller, who trimmed his ERA to 1.66 and has allowed two earned runs or fewer in every start. “You dream about going out there and trying to throw a complete game, especially against a team with Philly — obviously they’ve got some guys in that lineup that have got some power like (Ryan) Howard. A lot of tough outs….
“A.J. called a great game. Defense made a lot of great plays that were the key to going deeper in the game, and the offense obviously did a great job of putting up runs.”
The principle piece from the Cardinals in the November trade that sent Jason Heyward to St. Louis, Miller is 6-1 with a 1.67 ERA in his past 12 starts, a stretch that began soon after he began honing a two-seam fastball (sinker) in the second half of the 2014 season with the Cardinals.
“It just gives him another weapon,” said Pierzysnki, who caught some of Miller’s starts in St. Louis last season. “He’s always been good at throwing the four-seamer elevated, and now he has a weapon where he can sink it away to lefties and sink it in on righties, just to back them up a little bit. He’s also added a slider along with the curveball and change-up. So he just has more weapons now. You can see his confidence on the mound is good. That’s a sign of maturity, a sign of him growing up and becoming the pitcher that people have thought he could be for a long time.”
Johnson was asked about the Heyward trade and how it looked good considering Miller, 24, is under contractual control for three more seasons after this one.
“All due respect to any hitter, in baseball, pitching wins,” Johnson said. “Consistency in the starting rotation and the bullpen, that’s what generally wins. We’ve seen it time and time again, and we’re always talking about it October, it seems like. When you get those last four, eight teams in the playoffs.
“Good guy to build around. And we’ve got some other guys who are capable of doing the same thing…. I had some ABs against (Miller when he was with the Cardinals). He brings it. And he’s still so young, he’s going to continue to grow. He’s got special talent.”
Johnson’s three-run homer in a four-run fourth inning pushed the lead to 6-0 and came in just his 63rd at-bat of the season. Three of his past four hits to that point had been home runs, and his sixth homer of the season left him one homer from matching his season total of seven in 265 at-bats last year with the Yankees, Red Sox and Orioles.
He added a bases-loaded walk in the seventh inning to give him 14 RBIs in his past 11 games and a team-high 17 in 22 games.
Of the five National League hitters with more than six homers before Tuesday, four had 93 or more at-bats including co-leaders Adrian Gonzalez of the Dodgers and Todd Frazier of the Reds, each with eight homers. Freeman’s homer was his fifth and came in his 100th at-bat.
Johnson’s leadoff single in the sixth inning was the 1,000th career hit for the former “Baby Brave,” who had 439 hits during his first four major league seasons with the Braves during 2005-2009.
Both Braves homers Tuesday came against right-hander Chad Billingsley, who made his first start in more than two years after a long recovery from Tommy John and flexor-tendon surgeries on his pitching arm. Billingsley, a 2009 All-Star for the Dodgers, lasted five innings and was charged with eight hits, six runs (five earned) and one walk.
The first 10 pitches he threw were 90-93 mph fastballs, and Andrelton Simmons hit a one-out single to right field on his eighth pitch in the first inning. Next up was Freeman, who took a first-pitch called strike, then pulled a line-drive homer to right when Billingsley made the mistake of trying to get another 91-mph fastball by him and left it over the plate.
Miller recorded 12 outs in 12 batters through four innings before Howard’s leadoff double in the fifth.
“He pounded the strike zone, just what you wanted,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “Today was a great example of a lot of great stuff: first-pitch strike, every time they scored a run he had a shutdown inning, and also pitching with a big lead. There was one time, I think it was the seventh inning, where it was a (lot of) time until he got back out there, and I’m thinking, OK, this is where it’s going to get him because these guys are not used to sitting around for a long time. But he didn’t. He went right back out there and got the first two guys on his first two pitches.”
The Braves won each of Miller’s first four starts before losing Thursday against the Reds when he was charged with six hits (two homers) and three runs (two earned) in seven innings, with three walks and a season-high nine strikeouts. That was Miller’s only loss in seven decisions over 14 starts going back to mid-August.
In his past 12 starts, his Cardinals and Braves teams scored no runs while he was in five of the six games in which he didn’t get a win.
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