PITTSBURGH – The Braves have had some encouraging moments in the past week or so, but when their starting pitcher gets knocked out early things still tend to get ugly.
Starter Mike Foltynewicz lasted three innings Thursday.
The Pirates scored five runs in the first two innings – all with two outs — against Foltynewicz and tacked on three more against the bullpen during a 8-2 win against the Braves at PNC Park.
Jeff Francoeur had three hits including a double and his second home run of the series for the Braves, who lost three of four games in Pittsburgh and fell to 10-30. Their four opponents in the National League East all have winning records.
The Braves 2-5 on a 10-game trip that’ll conclude with a series at Philadelphia starting Friday night.
For the recently impressive Foltynewicz (1-2), trouble began in the first inning when he hit Jung Ho Kang with a pitch on 1-2 count with two out and a runner on first. Both Pirates were in scoring position after a passed ball, and Starling Marte’s soft single to shallow right field was enough to bring them in for a 2-0 lead.
“He was getting to two strikes and then having a hard time finishing the hitter off,” said manager Brian Snitker, whose record fell to 1-2 since he took over for fired manager Fredi Gonzalez. “The command wasn’t real good, they mis-hit a couple of balls; sometimes you get the ball up and it’s kind of like you’re doing the work for them, they just have to touch it and it happens to find a hole or it’s just over the infielder’s reach.
“You got the leadoff single and then two outs, and then kind of all hell broke loose a little bit.”
After two ground-outs to start the second inning, Foltynewicz gave up three consecutive two-out hits: John Jason triple, Andrew McCutchen RBI single, and Gregory Polanco two-run homer on a full-count curveball, after Foltynewicz was ahead 0-2 in the count. Just like that, he’d given up five runs before recording his sixth out.
“A lot of hits came with two strikes and they were all (pitches) up in the zone,” Foltynewicz said. “If they’re in the bottom of the zone things might have been different. I just really wanted to get my team a win tonight, and I think I just tried to do too much. Tried to throw the ball too hard, tried to throw a slider, a curveball a little too much there in certain situations with two strikes, and everything was just up and they got the bat on it.”
Foltynewicz, who entered with a 2.89 ERA, saw that climb to 4.15 after he surrendered seven hits, five runs (four earned) and two walks with four strikeouts in three innings. He had allowed only two runs, 12 hits and no walks in 15 innings over his past two starts before Thursday.
Francoeur had a second-inning leadoff single, fourth-inning leadoff double, and a sixth-inning leadoff home run. All three of his hits came against lefty John Locke (2-3), who gave up only three other hits in seven innings and left with a 6-2 lead, after coming in with a 5.45 ERA.
“(Locke) is tough,” Francoeur said. “The Pirates — me and Freddie (Freeman) were just talking — they do a great job of just pounding it in on people. And I think you saw Freddie and Nick (Markakis) and those guys, he was spotting them up on the inside corner, and it’s tough when you do that. Folty ran into a little bit of trouble commanding his fastball, and you get behind, you give (their) pitcher confidence, and he threw well.”
Francoeur raised his average to .327 (15-for-46) against lefties including two homers, both in this series. The Braves hit as many home runs (six) in the four-game series as they’ve hit all season in 19 games (647 at-bats) at Turner Field.
Tyler Flowers and Chase d’Arnaud, batting leadoff for the first time, added doubles for the Braves, who were just 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
“I’ve got to imagine that’s the most extra-base hits we’ve had in a series all year, and that’s a positive,” Francoeur said. “We’re going to Philly, a good place to hit, hopefully we can carry it there this weekend and do some damage there, score some runs. You’ve definitely got to like the way we’re swinging and driving the ball. It’s a lot better than before.”
