After struggling against a rookie pitcher with a bloated ERA – does that sound familiar? – and wasting scoring opportunities in the sixth and seventh innings, the Braves did something a lot of folks at soggy Turner Field probably weren’t expecting Sunday.
They played small-ball is if it were their usual modus operandi, rallying for four runs in the eighth inning for a 5-2 win and series sweep against the Dodgers in a game delayed twice by rain.
“We got it done somehow,” said Andrelton Simmons, who reached on a bunt to load the bases, before four consecutive Braves drove in a run apiece. “However you’ve got to do it, just get it done. And we did it.”
Craig Kimbrel struck out three in the ninth inning for his 14th save, and the Braves (25-18) won for just the second time in 16 games when they’ve failed to hit a homer. In fact, they won without any extra-base hit.
“Snit (third-base coach Brian Snitker) said it was nice to win ballgames without hitting the ball out of the ballpark, and certainly we have that type of lineup that we can do that,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves came from behind to win every game in the series, their first three-game winning streak in 30 games since a 12-1 start.
They trailed 2-1 when they began their eighth-inning outburst with Freddie Freeman’s leadoff single and a Brian McCann walk. Both came against reliever Kenley Jansen, the right-hander who gave up consecutive homers by Evan Gattis and Simmons in the eighth inning of the Braves’ come-from-behind 3-1 win Saturday night.
With two on and none out Sunday, the Dodgers replaced Jansen with Brandon League, who was greeted by a first-pitch bunt by Simmons. The ball was mishandled by third baseman Juan Uribe, loading the bases.
Gerald Laird followed with a single to center on the next pitch to drive in the tying run, and Ramiro Pena delivered again in the clutch – this time a sacrifice fly to deep right field – for a 3-2 lead.
“Gerald comes through with a huge knock, and we just added on from there,” McCann said. “That inning we played really good baseball. And then you hand the ball over to Kimbrel. Something that’s going to get overlooked is how good our bullpen did today. Some guys are going to have to step up, and today they definitely did that.”
The Braves’ bullpen has been ravaged by injuries to its three top setup men. After Mike Minor pitched six solid innings (three hits, two runs, two walks, nine strikeouts), the Braves got a perfect inning apiece from Anthony Varvaro and Luis Avilan (2-0), before Kimbrel finished off the Dodgers.
Pena gave the Braves the lead, but they still had only one out in the eighth and weren’t done manufacturing runs. Chris Johnson singled to drive in another, and Jordan Schafer laid down a nifty squeeze bunt that scored Laird for a 5-3 lead.
“We played the small-ball,” Johnson said, smiling. “Got to show everybody that we’re capable of doing that, too. We’ve got a lot of guys who can do that. Simmons can do stuff like that, Pena can do stuff like that, Schafer can do stuff like that.”
Said Pena: “Everybody put something into that inning. Everybody was just, like, ‘We have to do it one-by-one, everybody has to a little bit.’ And everybody did.”
The Braves completely flipped the script on a game that was delayed one hour and 42 minutes before the first pitch, and 33 minutes in the bottom of the sixth. They completed a sweep to start a six-game homestand, after a 4-6 road trip.
Dodgers rookie Matt Magill, in his fourth start, had a career-high eight strikeouts in five innings and left with a 2-1 lead. Fortunately for the Braves, they tend to do better against known-commodity pitchers. L.A.’s relievers fit that bill.
Minor allowed just three hits and two walks, retired the last 11 batters he faced, and had nine strikeouts in six innings. He was charged with two runs in the first three innings, one after an awkward catch attempt by left fielder Justin Upton turned into a Carl Crawford double to start the game.
The opponent has scored first in 11 consecutive games, and the Braves have won six of those.
