In a game notable for its surprising turns and dramatic moments, the Braves won on a walk-off balk.
Mets reliever D.J. Carrasco’s two-out balk in the 10th inning gave the Braves a 9-8 win Thursday night at Turner Field, where they used a rare finish to avert a series sweep after Brooks Conrad’s two-run tying homer in the ninth.
The Braves got five RBIs from Chipper Jones and five hits from leadoff man Jordan Schafer. But it didn’t look like it would be enough until Conrad, their magic man from 2010, showed he still had a little pixie dust left in his bat.
“It just shows the resiliency of our ballclub," said Conrad, who homer off Francisco Rodriguez gave the Mets closer just his second blown save in 21 chances.
Conrad was pinch-hitting in the third spot of the lineup in place of Jones, who left the game with a strained right adductor muscle inside his upper right thigh. The 39-year-old third baseman was listed as day-to-day.
It was the second pinch-hit homer of the season for Conrad, who hit an 11th inning homer to beat Pittsburgh on May 25. He had four pinch homers in 2010, when he was the Braves' best hitter in the late innings of close games.
“The second day I was here in Pittsburgh, he hit that home run," said Schafer, who was called up from Triple-A last monte. "He’s huge, man. Clutch.”
Schafer already had a career-high four hits when he reached on an infield single in the 10th, after Diory Hernandez’s two-out double.
With runners on the corners and Jason Heyward batting, Carrasco balked to bring in the winning run. Replays showed the rule violation -- he briefly stopped, then restarted his pitching motion while looking in for the sign from his catcher.
The Braves had lost a game in 2000 when John Rocker balked in the winning run against the Marlins in a game at Florida.
“I think we all realized it at the same time – me, the umpire and the catcher," Heyward said. " I turned back to look at [the umpire] and then he stepped from behind home plate, and I said in my head, that’s a balk, game over. I looked back and he came out from behind home plate and called the balk.”
It was the 11th extra-innings game in their past 32 for the Braves, who’ve won six of their past seven extra-innings games.
“To come back from that deficit, after being up four," said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves snapped a three-game losing streak. "They tie the game, then they go up two and we come back. I mean, that’s a helluva effort by that club of ours.”
The Braves got two homers and seven RBIs from the third spot in the order, including Jones’ three-run homer in the third, the 47th of his career against the Mets.
“It was a good night for the offense," said Jones, who before the game had said he was out of answers as to how to get the Braves' recently moribund offense going. "Good night to come off the mat and do some damage.
"It’s like I said last night, it starts at the top. Schafe was on base all night. Guys in the middle of the lineup hit in the middle of the lineup because they get better with guys on base. It’s a domino effect right on down the line."
Jones was injured swinging on a seventh-inning at-bat, when he singled. He thought about having Gonzalez replace him at first base, but didn't. The injury worsened when he went from first to third on Brian McCann's double.
Jones made a throw error on a grounder in the eighth and said he knew he had to come out because he couldn't use his legs at that point. He was replaced between innings and went to the training room for an injection in the muscle in his inner upper thigh.
"He was having a helluva day," Gonzalez said. "Holy Cow. We’ll see how it is. Hopefully it’s just a couple of days and we get him back in there.”
He joined the growing ranks of Braves walking wounded. During the game, it was announced that Tommy Hanson was scratched from Friday's start against Texas with shoulder tendinitis. The Braves hope Hanson can avoid a stint on the disabled list.
Jones said he's had adductor injuries in the past, but none that were sore enough to require a shot.
Conrad was the kind of clutch hits for the Braves in 2010, but his rash of infield errors at the end of the season and in the division series overshadowed the good he’d done earlier.
Many fans were surprised the Braves brought back Conrad, but they did so because of his penchant for power-hitting in the clutch.
“Right there," Gonzalez said, citing Conrad's Thursday homer as an example of why he was brought back. "He has some pop. He got the game-winner in Pittsburgh on a pinch-hit, and then this one to tie it. He’s a threat right off the bench. It’s nice to have that on the bench."
Scott Hairston hit a three-run homer off reliever Scott Proctor in the fifth inning as the Braves blew a four-run lead, then fell behind by two in what looked like it would be a three-game series sweep for the Mets.
Braves reliever Jonny Venters had his 22-inning scoreless streak snapped in the seventh inning when Carlos Beltran scored on wild-pitch third strike. The Mets added an unearned run in the eighth against Venters on Dan Uggla’s throwing error to first base on the back end of a potential inning-ending double play.
It was the second throwing error of the inning after Jones’ errant toss.
Jones’ 17th five-RBI game -- the last was June 7, 2009 -- included the third-inning homer on a fastball from Mets knuckleballer R.A. Dickey for a 4-2 lead.
“I picked on a 3-0 fastball," Jones said. "I never thought I’d take a knuckleballer deep. Ever. If he’d have thrown me a knuckleball, I’d have taken it. But [runners on] first and second, 3-0, nobody out, he doesn’t want to walk me. So I figured it was a perfect time for a fastball. Got it
The Braves pushed the lead to 6-2 on RBI singles by Heyward and and Jones in the fourth, but the Mets erased the deficit with a four-run fifth against Braves rookie starter Mike Minor and Proctor.
Manager Fredi Gonzalez elected to bring in Proctor after Jason Bay’s one-out RBI single off Minor, who had issued consecutive walks to start the inning.
Proctor threw a 1-and-1 fastball that Hairston drove to the left-field bleachers, a tying three-run homer.
Minor was charged with five runs, seven hits and three walks in 4 1/3 innings. He got no decision and remained winless (0-4) with a 6.75 ERA in his past 10 starts, after beginning his career by going 3-0 with a 3.91 ERA in four starts in August.
