The Braves had six runs in a four-game losing streak, didn’t have a hit until the fifth inning Saturday night against a pitcher with an ERA over 9.00, and hadn’t scored in 20 innings as they entered the seventh inning trailing 2-0 on the road against the Phillies.
But then they fought back. Which was a telling sign in the view of the Braves, who got a leadoff homer from Andrelton Simmons and a crucial pinch-hit, two-out single from Chris Johnson during a three-run seventh inning that propelled them to a 5-2 win at Citizens Bank Park.
“We’ve got a pretty good group,” said Johnson, who has not been pleased by reduced playing time in a third-base platoon, but hasn’t let it affect his performance or preparation. “Everybody came in today and everybody was pretty upbeat. I don’t see this team as being a team that’s going to get down on itself or quit. We’ve got too many guys that are out there fighting – fighting to get in there every day, fighting to prove something, or fighting to stay up here, all that kind of stuff.
“So we’ve got a lot of guys who are not going to give up.”
Shelby Miller (3-0) pitched six strong innings for the Braves, allowing three hits, two runs – on a Ryan Howard homer — and two walks with three strikeouts in an efficient 71 pitches. He left for a pinch-hitter with two in scoring position and two out in the seventh, when the Braves had already scored three runs in the inning to take the lead and tried to add to it.
“I felt strong,” said Miller, who is 5-0 with a 2.07 ERA in 11 starts going back to mid-August with the Cardinals. “You always want to go as deep as possible, but at the same time we’re trying to get runs. I completely understand that. Do I want to go longer? Of course. Every pitcher would say that. But at the same time, we’re trying to win a ballgame here. That was a huge inning for us, getting those three runs, and then they tacked on some more at the end, which was great.”
Braves setup man Jim Johnson worked around consecutive singles to pitch a scoreless eighth inning and Jason Grilli pitched a perfect ninth for his seventh save in as many chances.
After two-out walks by Jonny Gomes and Kelly Johnson chased Phillies starter David Buchanan (0-4) from the game in the seventh, Johnson hit a game-tying, two-strike single against one of the National League’s hardest-throwing lefties, Jake Diekman.
Eric Young followed with an RBI double for a 3-2 lead, and the Braves added two runs in the eighth on left-handed hitting A.J. Pierzynski’s two-out single off Diekman followed by consecutive singles from Gomes and Kelly Johnson against reliever Luis Garcia, Johnson’s hit driving in the fifth run.
“I liked the way we battled,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves (9-8) bounced back from their first shutout loss and avoided falling below .500 for the first time. “Buchanan had a no-hitter going. He was giving us a hard time. All of a sudden we get on the board. But then the at-bats became …. man, oh man, great at-bats.
“Jonny Gomes’ two-out walk got us going. Some great at-bats against Diekman …. C.J. coming off the bench and facing him, getting a big knock there. I just like the way we battled against a tough reliever and got the win.”
Miller hasn’t lost in his past 12 starts going back to early August with the Cardinals, while Buchanan saw his winless streak pushed to 14 games despite an impressive performance.
Howard, a shell of the hitter he was but still a Braves nemesis, gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning with his line-drive homer to center. He’s 3-for-7 with six RBIs in his career against Miller.
Buchanan came in 0-3 with an unsightly 9.22 ERA in three starts. But against the Braves, he got 18 outs in 19 batters through the sixth, including a double-play grounder by Simmons after Nick Markakis’ leadoff walk in the fourth.
The Braves didn’t get a runner to second base until Gomes’ one-out double in the fifth, and didn’t advance him.
Simmons left nothing to chance in the seventh, however. He jumped on Buchanan’s first pitch of the inning, driving it over the fence in left-center for his first homer to cut the lead in half, 2-1.
“I’m just glad it got the inning started, and the guys did a great job keeping the inning alive,” Simmons said. “Big hits all around, big at-bats. C.J. with a pinch hit, that was huge. Everybody did a great job today, picking up after the fifth, sixth inning. They really turned it around.”
Simmons homer served to wake the Braves’ offense, and two fly-outs later — including a long one to the center-field warning track by Freddie Freeman — Buchanan issued consecutive walks to Gomes and Kelly Johnson.
Buchanan was replaced by Diekman, and Gonzalez countered with lefty-killer Chris Johnson to pinch-hit for Jace Peterson. Johnson lined a tying single up the middle to make him 5-for-12 against lefties.
“I’m fired up about that,” Gomes said of Chris Johnson’s hit. “Obviously I have a soft spot in my heart for pinch-hitting. I think as a club we’ve been doing a great job with that, and that’s a tough situation. Pinch-hitting against velocity is really tough, That guys throws hard, big wash-out slider, and C.J. put together a heck of an at-bat.”
Young doubled to the left-field corner for a 3-2 lead before Phil Gosselin, pinch-hitting for Miller, struck out with two in scoring position.
The Braves didn’t wait long to tack on a couple of insurance runs, though, getting two in the eighth to push the lead to 5-2. Markakis led off with an infield single, advanced on a Freeman groundout, and scored from second on a two-out single by Pierzysnki, who extended his hitting streak to all nine games he’s played.
