In a pitching matchup of left-handers young and old, inspired rookie Alex Wood got the better of Cliff Lee on Sunday, and the surging Braves saw the Phillies continue to fade in Atlanta’s rearview.
Chris Johnson’s two-run, two-out single in the first inning gave the Braves a lead they never relinquished, and they beat the Phillies 4-1 at Citizens Bank Park to push their winning streak to 10 games and complete their third consecutive series sweep.
“We’re playing good baseball,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves joined the 2001 Cardinals as the only teams to have two double-digit winning streaks in one season in the past 35 years. “Coming into this trip we hadn’t been playing good baseball on the road, but (this weekend) we had good pitching, had good pitching, played good defense.”
Wood (2-2) continued to grow up quickly, allowing two hits and one run in six innings to win his second consecutive start in his third game filling in for injured Paul Maholm. The 22-year-old had two walks and three strikeouts and threw 59 strikes in 98 pitches.
“I felt real comfortable out there,” Wood said. “I was excited. I didn’t want to be the one to lose the streak for us. So I just wanted to lock in, compete and keep us in it. As long as we’re in the game, whether it’s the first inning or the ninth, we have a chance.”
He dedicated the game to a close friend from his Charlotte high school, who was in a coma following a canoeing accident Saturday. Wood wrote the friend’s initials on his cap.
“My mind’s been a little elsewhere,” he said. “It’s hard not to think about him. Tonight was definitely for him and his family, for sure.”
Baseball’s best bullpen cranked out three more scoreless innings, with Craig Kimbrel collecting his National League-leading 34th save and 24th in a row.
Johnson and both Uptons, Justin and B.J., had two hits apiece for the Braves, who widened their NL East lead to 12-1/2 games over second-place Washington and 16 games over the free-falling Phillies, who’ve lost 13 of 14. The Braves open a three-game series against the Nationals on Monday.
After winning their first seven road games, the Braves had lost 30 of 49 before sweeping the Phillies.
“That was a big focus for us to start the second half,” Johnson said. ” We’ve still got a ways to go, but it’s a little better start for us on the road in the second half.”
They’ve won 17 of their past 24 games against the Phillies and 11 of 15 at Citizens Bank Park.
Pitching for the first time since July 21 after missing a start with a stiff neck, Lee (10-5) went five innings and gave up eight hits and four runs (three earned) with two walks and eight strikeouts. He was 5-1 with a 1.38 ERA in his past seven starts against the Braves before Sunday.
The Braves scored all of their runs in the first four innings, including a pair of two-out, run-scoring hits by Jason Heyward (single) and Justin Upton (double) in the fourth inning.
B.J. Upton, in his second game back from the disabled list, led off the fourth with what would’ve been his ninth homer – an opposite-field drive — if it hadn’t been reversed for fan interference.
“I’m just happy I drove the ball that way,” he said. “I looked at (the replay). It was debatable. I guess they thought otherwise. We ended up scoring, that’s all that matters.”
He hit Lee’s first pitch in the inning over the right-field fence, rounded the bases and went to the dugout before Phillies manager Charlie Manuel asked umpires to review it after seeing a fan reach over a chain fence atop the outfield wall. The ball needn’t clear that chain fence in that part of the ballpark to be a homer, but umpires determined it wouldn’t have cleared the outfield wall if the fan hadn’t touched it.
“I think I would have been a little more frustrated if we don’t come up with a couple of runs that inning,” B.J. Upton said. “But it worked out in the end and we won the ballgame.”
It was the second reversed homer call in a span of about 15 minutes. Carlos Ruiz led off the Phillies’ third with a fly that hit the top of the left-field wall and caromed off a chain fence above it. The rule is different in left field, where home runs must clear both the wall and the fence above it.
Gonzalez asked that it be reviewed, and umpires watched the replay and changed the call to a double. Ruiz advanced on a Lee sacrifice and scored on a ground out to cut the Braves’ lead to 2-1.
After the Ruiz double, the only three Phillies to reach base against Wood did on a single in the fourth inning, and a Johnson error and walk in the fifth.
Wood was particularly impressive working out of trouble in the fifth, when the Phillies had two on with none out. John McDonald lined out to center before Wood struck out Michael Young, then picked off John Mayberry at second base to end the inning.
“He got himself in a little trouble but got out of there,” Gonzalez said. “He did a terrific job.”
In his fourth major league start – the first was a spot start in a doubleheader — Wood built on progress made Tuesday against Colorado, when he allowed six hits and three runs in seven innings, with a walk and seven strikeouts.
“Two nice outings. He did a nice job today mixing his pitches. Threw the fastball in on right-handers, using real good changeups. That was a good outing. I thought (catcher Brian McCann) did a nice job with the game plan, with Woody and everybody else…. I don’t think (Wood) is a guy who rattles too much.”
Wood, who was pitching for the University of Georgia just 14 months ago, showed no signs of nervousness while pitching in the ESPN Sunday night game and facing Lee, one of the pitchers he most admired over the past decade. He said was “pretty cool” when Lee came by the bullpen and said good luck to Wood when the rookie was warming up.
“That two-out knock (by Johnson) off one of the best pitchers in the game in the first inning — I mean, especially with a guy like me out there, it gives me a little extra confidence,” Wood said. “That was a huge knock, and a great way to start the game before I even set foot on the mound.”
Lee wasn’t in dominant form against them July 5, when the Braves got eight hits and four runs off him in 6-1/3 innings. That started a stretch in which he posted a 6.05 ERA over three starts before taking a two-week break.
Before July 5, he was 7-0 with a 2.15 ERA over 11 starts, with 81 strikeouts and 14 walks in 83-2/3 innings. Few in the majors were pitching any better at the time.
Lee needed 95 pitches to get through five innings Sunday, and Johnson’s single in the first inning was a poke through the right side of the infield with two strikes.
“Usually he gets eight or nine innings with 90 pitches,” Gonzalez said. “We were patient with him. I thought Chris Johnson’s at-bat kind of set the tone for the whole game.”
Although the Braves lead the majors with 35 comeback wins, they relished getting a first-inning lead.
“Especially against a pitcher like that,” Johnson said. “You want to try to take advantage. You don’t get many of those opportunities against a guy like that. I was just trying to battle and make some good contact. He had two strikes on me. I just tried to use the whole field and got one through there.”
