The Braves did not fear The Beard. They beat him. Again.
Freddie Freeman's two-run, two-out single in the ninth inning gave the Braves a 5-4 walk-off winover the San Francisco Giants and Brian “The Beard” Wilson before a charged-up crowd at Turner Field on Monday night.
They scored three in the ninth, capped by a hit that Freeman, a rookie, said was the biggest moment of his young career.
"Especially when you’re in a playoff race and you’re playing a team right behind you in the wild-card [race]," he said. “It's huge. That’s a two-game swing. ... To win the first game of the series is always great. We’ve got some momentum going into tomorrow.”
The Braves collected three hits and two walks in the ninth off Wilson (6-4), the All-Star closer who blew his fifth save in 40 chances and lost for the second time in as many appearances against Atlanta this season.
Jose Constanza started the rally by beating out an infield single to lead off the inning, the third hit of the game for the 27-year-old rookie, including two that didn't leave the infield.
“That’s a wow," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. of the win. "That’s a helluva comeback there, especially the first game of the series. These guys, we battled the whole game."
The last time the Braves faced San Francisco at Turner Field, Brian McCann hit a solo homer off Madison Bumgarner, but the Giants won 3-2 in game 4 to clinch the division series in October.
Ten months later, McCann hit a solo homer off Bumgarner in what was sharping up to beanother Braves loss, in the opener of an important four-game series.
After blowing a 4-0 lead in a 6-5 loss to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday, the Braves blew a 2-0 lead after three innings Monday night and trailed 4-2 after eight, but rallied to win and push their their wild-card lead to five games over the Giants.
The Braves are 8-1/2 behind National League East leader Philadelphia, which didn’t play Monday.
With the Braves trailing 3-2 in the sixth, Gonzalez’s decision to let pitcher Tim Hudson hit, with runners on first and third and one out, backfired when Hudson popped out to first base on a bunt attempt. Michael Bourn grounded out to end the inning.
“I’m glad we were able to win the game for the team and also for Huddy not to get the loss," Gonzalez said. "Because he really pitched well. Here it is first and third in the sixth, with one out and you let him hit."
Why did he let him?
"First of all, for me, he may be the only guy on the staff that you feel comfortable handling the bat," Gonzalez said of his pitchers. "That’s No. 1. No. 2, Number two, he’s pitching so well, he had like 83 pitches to that [point]. He didn’t get the RBI, but we got the win.”
The Braves, trailing 4-2 entering the ninth, mounted their rally quickly against Wilson, beginning with a single from Constanza and an Eric Hinske walk.
“You can’t say enough about Constanza," Hinske said. "The guy gets on base every time he’s up. It seems like he’s able to manipulate the ball wherever he wants to. He just takes that slap swing, and he’s so fast he puts so much pressure on the defense.”
After a Bourne sacrifice bunt, Martin Prado singled through the left side to cut the lead to 4-3 with one out.
McCann walked to load the bases for Dan Uggla, who struck out. It was up to Freeman, who had struck out twice Monday, and four times in two days. After falling behind 1-2 in the count, he worked it full before singling up the middle to drive in two runs. That touched off a celebration that had the Braves came pouring out of the dugout to mob him on the basepath, with McCann circling back to get to him first.
“I know when I hit it that we were scoring both runs," Freeman said. "He [center fielder] was playing a little bit deeper, in case we hit a [fly] ball he could still catch it. Right when I got halfway, I knew we were scoring. Seeing Mac’s face at second was pretty cool, and him jumping on me was pretty special.”
Wilson gave up three runs against the Braves for the second time this season. They got three runs against him in the 10th inning of a 9-6 Atlanta win at San Francisco on April 24, Wilson's first loss of the season.
He's allowed six earned runs in 2-1/3 innings (23.14 ERA) of two appearances against the Braves this season, and only 13 earned runs in 51-1/3 innings (2.28 ERA) against everyone else.
Freeman and Hinske said they went to the plate looking for fastballs.
“That’s all he throws," Freeman said. "It’s either a two-seamer or a cutter, so I know I was going to get one of them. Just stay up the middle.... You know he’s got to throw a strike [with the count full], because he can’t walk in the tying run right there.
"You know you’re going to get a pitch to hit, just a matter of whether it’s going to be 91 or 96 [mph], a cutter or a two-seamer. He threw me a two-seamer right there and I was able to get the barrel on the ball up the middle.”
Hudson was charged with five hits and four runs (two earned) in eight innings, with a walk and two hit batters.
The Giants scored two unearned runs in the fourth inning following an error on Bourn, when the center fielder misplayed Aubrey Huff’s leadoff liner after misreading the ball off the bat. One walk and one hit batter later, the Giants got a pair of sacrifice flies to make the score 2-2.
Nate Schierholz put the Giants ahead with his leadoff homer in the sixth inning, and Mike Fontenot pushed the lead to 4-2 with a leadoff homer in the eighth. Fontenot replaced third baseman Pablo Sandoval in the bottom of the first inning after Sandoval fouled a pitch off his foot.
McCann’s two-out homer was good for a 1-0 lead in the first inning. It was his 19th home run of the season and first since returning Sunday from a stint on the disabled list for a strained oblique.
The Braves pushed the lead to 2-0 with three singles in the second inning, the run scoring on Constanza’s hit to left field. Constanza raced to second on left fielder Brandon Belt’s error on the play. But with two runners in scoring position and one out, Hudson struck out and Bourn grounded out to first base to end the inning.
It was a rough night most of the way for Bourn, who also grounded out with two on in the fourth and again in the sixth, giving him six runners left on base including four in scoring position.
Bumgarner allowed two runs, eight hits and two walks in seven innings. The lefty was charged with four runs (three earned) in just 2-2/3 innings of his first regular-season start against the Braves in April, when Atlanta swept a three-game series at San Francisco.
The Braves have won their past six regular-season games against the Giants.
