These are not the same stumbling Cincinnati Reds that the Braves saw earlier this season, that much was again made clear Tuesday night.
The Braves failed to capitalize on numerous scoring opportunities and the Reds did not, getting a run in five different innings – including the eighth and ninth – for a 5-3 Cincinnati win at SunTrust Park that evened the three-game series.
The Braves trailed 4-1 before scoring two runs in the eighth inning after a leadoff single from Ender Inciarte that struck reliever Amir Garrett in the left leg and knocked him out of the game. Ozzie Albies followed with a double off Michael Lorenzen before Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis each drove in a run with a ground-out.
Tyler Flowers then singled and Charlie Culberson walked to put potential tying and go-ahead runs on base, and it looked like the never-say-die Braves might do their thing again. But no, not this time. Johan Camargo’s fly-out ended the inning.
The Braves went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position while the Reds were 5-for-14, including Scooter Gennett’s two-out single in the ninth that pushed the lead to 5-3.
Gennett fouled off four 0-2 pitches before his single to right, after reliever Shane Carle had walked Tucker Barnhart and Joey Votto consecutively with two out.
“We hit some balls hard, too,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Markakis hit two balls about as hard as you could hit them, just nothing happened for it. Had some opportunities, a hit or so away from pulling it out. Hit some balls good, just couldn’t get a bit hit.”
Braves starter Anibal Sanchez left the game due to cramping in his right calf with two out in the fifth inning and the Reds ahead, 2-1.
Reds starter Matt Harvey, who faced the Braves twice this season when he was still with the Mets, had one of his best recent performances, limiting the Braves to six hits, one run, one walk and a hit batter in 6 2/3 innings. He only had two strikeouts, but Harvey induced a couple of double plays, got a couple of other big outs when he needed them most and faced the minimum three batters in four innings and four batters in another.
“(Harvey’s) velocity was up a little bit more,” Flowers said. “Slider seemed to be pretty good; he seemed to have a good feel for that, he could use that in fastball counts. And you’ve got to respect the 95, 97 (mph fastballs) he was able to throw, too. And pretty good command for the most part. Tough at-bats.”
The Reds have won 11 of their past 14 games and averaged six runs in that span. They had a seven-game winning streak snapped in Monday’s series opener when the Braves got an 11th-inning walk-off homer from Ozzie Albies for a 5-4 win.
After a dreadful 3-18 start to their season, the Reds have turned things around under interim manager Jim Riggleman, winning 30 of their past 58 games.
“They’ve got their team back,” Snitker said. “They were missing some of their starters (early). I don’t think they played great in April, but they’re playing a lot better ball than they were when we were there the first time. It’s a pretty good team.”
The Braves fell to 2-3 on a six-game homestand and need a win Wednesday afternoon to avoid dropping both series in the homestand against Baltimore and Cincinnati.
Matt Wisler replaced Sanchez and allowed a run in the sixth after Gennett’s leadoff double, and the Reds tacked on an insurance run in the eighth against Carle after Gennett drew a leadoff walk and scored on Jess Winker’s one-out single.
The Reds were proficient at manufacturing runs, getting one in each of the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth innings without benefit of a homer. Meanwhile, the Braves failed to score after Dansby Swanson’s leadoff single in the fourth inning, or after Albies’ leadoff single in the sixth, or after Culberson and Camargo had consecutive one-out singles in the seventh.
The Braves trailed 1-0 before scoring a run in the fourth inning after Albies was hit in the foot by a Harvey pitch to start the inning. Freeman followed with a single before Markakis hit a line drive up the middle that Harvey was able to stop. Albies thought the ball was going through and went too far off third base, getting caught in no-man’s land for the first out of the inning.
That proved costly when Flowers followed with a double off the the center-field wall, a hit that would’ve driven in two runs if Albies had still been on base. Instead, the Braves had to settle for one run in the inning when Harvey retired the next two baters on a ground-out and a fly-out.
Jose Peraza, once a top Braves infield prospect, led off the Reds’ fifth with a triple and scored on Scott Schebler’s one-out double to put the Reds ahead, 2-1, a lead they would not relinquish. One fly-out later, Sanchez left the game after his right calf cramped up on a warm, humid night.
