NEW YORK – When the Ender Inciarte-led Braves rallied from a three-run deficit Saturday and beat the Mets, 4-3, it was the fourth consecutive game they came from behind to win. And their general manager was still seemed buoyed by the win 12 hours later.
“The way that these guys battled back yesterday, of all the wins these guys have had that was my favorite,” Braves GM John Coppolella said Sunday morning before a series finale at Citi Field. “Just because it showed what a resilient, gritty club this is. Look, I know you can point to the record and say whatever you want, but these guys haven’t stopped playing.”
Coppolella looked and sounded like a different guy than he was just over a month ago, when the Braves fired manager Fredi Gonzalez after the team’s 9-28 start through May 17.
And from their performance on the field to the mood in the dugout during Saturday’s game and in the clubhouse afterward, it seemed hard to believe this was the same team that started the season 0-12 at home and finished a 1-5 road trip less than two weeks ago.
“It’s been great to see,” Coppolella said. “I think it shows our team’s makeup and who they are. These guys have been playing hard all year; we’ve had a lot of close games. It’s nice to see us … I wouldn’t say catch a few breaks, I would say make our own breaks.”
For example, the eighth inning Saturday night.
After home runs from Jeff Francoeur in the sixth inning and Tyler Flowers in the seventh tied the score, 3-3, Inciarte hit a leadoff double in the eighth. Then he made a daring dash to third base on Francoeur’s line-out to right field, which was only possible because Inciarte knew that Mets outfielder Curtis Granderson might be a bit casual getting the throw into the infield.
Inciarte didn’t hesitate to tag and take off to third when Granderson did precisely that.
“I’ve been timing a lot of outfielders,” Inciarte explained. “You see the body language, what he’s trying to do, so when I saw him taking that nice and easy throw, I was going right away. It was worth a shot.”
Moments later, Inciarte made his second bold base-running decision when he shot home on a wild pitch that caromed only about 15 feet from catcher Rene Rivera.
“It was fun to watch,” said Braves rookie starter Aaron Blair, who pitched six solid innings. “Two long home runs (to tie), and then what Ender did that inning with the hustle double, a hustle tag-up, and then scoring on a ball 10 feet from the catcher — that’s just the type of player he is.”
Blair came from the Diamondbacks in the same trade with Inciarte and top shortstop prospect Dansby Swanson in December, when the Braves got a load of talent in exchange for pitcher Shelby Miller.
“That’s just Ender being Ender,” Swanson said of the eighth-inning exploits. “Knowing who he is as a player and using that to his advantage.”
Coppolella liked it, too. The Braves have received multiple offers to trade Inciarte, but Coppolella said, “We’re very happy having him here and we hope he’s here a long time.”
“Seeing what Ender did last night was just amazing,” he added. “But also, the way we battled back. You’re talking about the homers by Francoeur and Flowers. You’re talking about just the team effort, seeing the reaction by our team. When Ender scored the run, he was welcomed into that dugout. Seeing that shows that, despite of our record, these guys are playing hard every day, they aren’t giving up.”
They still began Sunday with a 22-46 record, the worst in the National League. But the Braves were 6-4 with 47 runs and eight homers in their past 10 games, including 3-2 against the Cubs and Mets in that span.
They were 4-0 with a .293 batting average, 2.70 ERA and 25 runs scored in their past four games, beginning with a 13-inning win Wednesday against the Reds in which Freddie Freeman hit for the cycle (single, double, triple, home run) and the Braves overcame a multi-run extra-inning deficit for the first time since 2006.
“These guys are playing great,” Coppolella said. “It would have been real easy for them to give in on Wednesday when we got behind, but they fought back in that game, got a nice win Thursday, and then coming here (to New York) you’re facing the reigning NL champs, and you come in and beat two of their best starters with, for us, two rookie starting pitchers.”
Braves rookie John Gant got his first major league win Friday when the Braves beat the Mets’ Matt Harvey, and Blair got no decision in Saturday’s win against Mets lefty Steven Matz, who had been 7-2 with a 1.81 ERA in his previous 10 starts, including two wins in two starts against the Braves in that span. Matz lasted six innings Saturday, and the Braves completed their comeback against a Mets bullpen that had a league-best 3.11 ERA before Sunday.
“It’s something where this team’s makeup, its resiliency, should not ever be taken into question,” Coppolella said. “These guys are playing hard, and they’re making the most of the opportunities that they are now getting afforded. For us, we know that we have more talent than our record indicates. It’s nice to see us playing up to that ability. Hopefully this will be a springboard — we still have two-thirds of the season left and we can start playing better.
“It’s really fun to see the way these guys are playing. I think they’re playing for each other, I think they’re playing for a sense of pride.”
