After so much late-inning frustration and failure in April, the Braves began May with the sort of rousing rally and dramatic win that was their trademark last season. They did it with a familiar character, too.
Brooks Conrad, who hasn’t had much to celebrate since October, came through with a pinch-hit walkoff single in the ninth to give the Braves a 6-5, sweep-averting win over the St. Louis Cardinals on Sunday afternoon at Turner Field.
Alex Gonzalez’s two-run homer in the fifth began the climb back from a 4-0 deficit for the Braves, who blew late-inning leads in losing the first two in the series.
“It felt good today to have another close game, then come back late to pull it out,” Conrad said after his second hit and first RBI of the season. “Obviously we wish we had won a couple more games in this series, but to win this last game is big for us.”
It was only the second victory in their final at-bat for the Braves, who led the majors in that category last season with 25.
“Maybe the worm has turned, because we’ve been on the other end of those games,” first-year Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. His team had not experienced the sort of late-inning jubilation it enjoyed so often in Bobby Cox’s final season as manager.
Before Sunday, the Braves were 1-10 in games they trailed after six innings, and 1-14 when they were tied or trailed after eight innings.
"A lot of extra-inning games, a lot of one-run games, and heartaches and broken hearts at the end,” Gonzalez said. “Hopefully it’s our turn to get it going a little bit.”
Braves starter Derek Lowe gave up three runs in the first inning and Cardinals left-hander Jaime Garcia had a perfect game through four. It appeared the Braves were about to be swept at home and fall to fourth place in the National League East behind Washington, and well behind division leaders Philadelphia and Florida.
“We needed that one,” Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. “We needed that one bad. We kind of turned the tables on them. They kept coming back on us, and we came back on them today, and then they came back on us again.
“It was one of those series that was just really well played on both sides. Fortunately we had enough left in the tank today.”
The Cardinals led 4-0 before the Braves got three fifth-inning runs, which included Brandon Hicks’ pinch-hit RBI single, the first hit of the rookie infielder’s career.
The Braves took a 5-4 lead with two runs in the seventh. Dan Uggla doubled and scored on an error by first baseman Albert Pujols, and Martin Prado hit a two-out single through the right side to drive in the go-ahead run.
The Cardinals answered with a tying run in the eighth off rookie Cory Gearrin, coming after a leadoff double by Matt Holliday. That set the stage for the ninth-inning drama.
Conrad was the Braves’ best hitter in the late innings of close games last season, batting .313 with a team-high five homers and 17 RBIs. He came to the plate in the ninth Sunday lugging an .083 average that included 0-for-7 in late and close situations.
Gonzalez reached base on a dropped pop-up by shortstop Ryan Theriot to start the ninth. After a sacrifice bunt, Nate McLouth drew a walk to bring up Conrad.
His otherwise enchanted previous season took an awful turn in October with a rash of errors, including a three-error game in the division-series playoff loss to San Francisco. Teammates stood by the popular Conrad after that game and since, and there was no one they wanted to see come through with a big hit more on Sunday.
“Brooksy struggled early, then he started hitting into some bad luck,” Jones said. “So it was good to see him bust through in a big spot, because getting base hits in those types of situations are huge confidence-builders and momentum-builders.”
