After the Giants roughed up starting pitcher Mike Foltynewicz for four home runs it looked as if the Braves were headed for another listless, deflating loss in the aftermath of trades made for the future.
But the bullpen held the Giants down until the Braves uncharacteristically started bashing homers themselves. Catcher A.J. Pierzynski smashed a two-out, two-run home run off Giants closer Santiago Casilla in the bottom of the ninth to send the game to extra innings before Adonis Garcia won the game 9-8 with a walk-off, two-run homer in the 12th.
The Braves’ rally from a 6-0 deficit after four innings was their largest since they came back to beat the Phillies after training 7-1 in the fifth inning on Sept. 2, 2012.
“This team doesn’t quit, this team doesn’t go away,” Pierzynski said. “It’s not going to stop. We’ve lost a lot of guys (through trades). We’re a different team than we were at the beginning. But this team still goes about it the right way, which is the thing we should be most proud of. This team comes every day to play and fight and scrap and do everything we can to win the game that night.”
The Giants went ahead 8-7 on Buster Posey’s RBI single in the top of the 12th. Braves second baseman Jace Peterson started the winning sequence when reached base on an errant throw by shortstop Brandon Crawford to lead off the bottom of the inning.
Garcia then smacked Ryan Vogelsong’s pitch out for his third home run since the Braves called him up from Triple-A Gwinnett on July 25 in the wake of the trades of Juan Uribe and Kelly Johnson. All of Garcia’s home runs have been go-ahead shots.
His homer provided the winning margin for the Braves in their 3-2 victory at St. Louis on July 26, he hit one to put the Braves ahead in the top of the ninth at Baltimore the next day before they lost in extra innings and he topped those two with hit his first walk-off home run.
Garcia, a right-handed hitter, has hit all of his home runs to the opposite field.
“There haven’t been any cheap ones,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
The Braves rank last in the majors in home runs by a wide margin. But they overcame a 6-0 deficit against the Giants with the help of home runs by Jace Peterson in the sixth, Chris Johnson in the seventh and Pierzynski’s game-tying shot in the ninth.
The four home runs hit by the Braves were a season-high. They also hit three at Toronto on April 18 and at Arizona on June 3 but lost both of those games by one-run margins.
In the sixth inning on Monday Peterson’s three-run home run got the Braves within 6-3. Garcia followed with a double that chased Giants starter Matt Cain. Braves right fielder Nick Markakis singled against reliever George Kontos with two outs to score Garcia.
Chris Johnson, who had replaced injured Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, led off the seventh with a home run against Hunter Strickland to trim the lead to 6-5. The Giants added Nori Aoki’s RBI single in the top of the ninth for a 7-5 lead before Pierzynski tied the game in the bottom of the inning.
“It was incredible,” Foltynewicz said. “With the crappy night I had, to see them battle back, they saved me tonight.”
The Giants powered to a 6-0 lead with the four home runs against Foltynewicz. He took a big step back after he pitched six effective innings against the Orioles in his last start while working around two solo homers allowed.
The four home runs Foltynewicz allowed to the Giants tied Julio Teheran for the most by a Braves pitcher this season.
“I just totally missed them,” Foltynewicz said. “I wanted to go inside a lot and just left it right over the middle of the plate. It happens… . In Baltimore I was in command of my fastball pretty well and tonight I didn’t have it. It’s a big learning experience for me because, especially a lineup this, they can hurt you real quick.”
The Giants scored two runs in each of the second, third and fourth innings against Foltynewicz—all via home runs. Three of the homers followed the same pattern: Giants left-handed batters sent high fly balls to left field that just cleared the wall as Perez made leaping attempts to catch them.
That’s what happened on Brandon Belt’s solo home run in the second inning. The next batter, Brandon Crawford, hit a similar home run. Crawford’s second home run, in the fourth inning, was nearly a copy.
In between those long balls, Buster Posey provided some variety when his two-run homer in the third inning went well over the wall in right-centerfield. Crawford’s second home run put the Giants ahead 6-0 but Gonzalez left Foltynewicz in the game and he went six innings.
“I like the way he competed,” Gonzalez said. “If we didn’t have to pinch-hit for him in the sixth, I would have run him back out there again and let him figure it (out).”
