Mike Foltynewicz didn’t pitch poorly Friday night, but the Braves flamethrower nonetheless lost his sixth consecutive start and was left with little more than “what ifs” to ease the gnawing sensation of his one-promising season fading away as the team’s did some time ago.
Foltynewicz gave up two runs in the second inning and a leadoff homer ro Derek Dietrich in the third, enough for the Marlins on a night when Jose Urena and three relievers silenced Braves bats for most of a 7-1 Miami win at SunTrust Park, where the only Braves offense came on Freddie Freeman’s 25th home run.
What if he hadn’t let things get away from him briefly in the second inning, when he gave up a two-out walk to Ichiro Suzuki and consecutive RBI singles to No. 8 hitter Miguel Rojas and the pitcher Urena?
What if the Braves got one key hit after putting two runners on with one out in the seventh? Or if reliever Rex Brothers pitched as he did the night before, when he struck out the side in the ninth inning of a win against the Marlins?
The Marlins rendered all of that discussion moot and blew the game open in the ninth Friday against Brothers, who entered with a 6.50 ERA and faced four batters without getting an out. He was charged with four runs, a walk (Giancarolo Stanton intentional) and three hits including an RBI double from Rojas.
Brothers also uncorked a wild pitch along the way and had an 8.50 ERA when the inning ended.
The last two runs charged to Brothers scored on a Tyler Moore single that landed just in front of the outstretched glove of diving right fielder Lane Adams.
As for Foltynewicz, the Braves have scored a total of one run while he’s been in the game 17 1/3 innings over his past three starts, that on Freeman’s leadoff homer in the fourth inning. Freeman flied out with bases loaded to end the game.
Foltynewicz (10-12) gave up six hits, three runs and one walk with eight strikeouts in six innings.
“He was probably over-exerting (early), trying to throw too hard,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said, “and then he gets his rhythm and things start flowing and you look up and you’re out of pitches. Need to learn to start off how he ended, because that was pretty good. I mean, he was mixing pitches and staying within himself, nice rhythm….
“I don’t think he realizes what he has, really. Sometimes 95 (mph) with location is better than 100 just throwing it in there.”
After Christian Yelich followed Dietrich’s homer with a double, Foltynewicz retired the next three batters in the inning and 12 of the last 13 batters he faced including two strikeouts in each of the fourth, fifth and sixth innings
“After the home run to Dietrich and the double to Yelich, the wheels could have fallen off,” Foltynewicz said. “But I dug deep and tried to not let them score, and that’s what happened. Freddie made a nice throw there (on a play at the plate). The way it ended was on a positive note, get out there with a quality start and a good spot for the team to come back.”
But the early damage done was too much for the Braves to overcome on a night when they mustered just five hits and fell to a National League-worst 17-33 in 50 games since their season reached a high-water mark of 45-45 on July 16. Their 8-17 home record in that span is also the league’s worst.
The Marlins snapped a five-game skid and won for just the second time in their past 12 games, while Urena had his second dominant performance against the Braves in a little over a month. He allowed three hits and one run in 6 1/3 innings, nearly identical to Aug. 6 at SunTrust when he allowed three hits and one run in six innings of a 4-1 Marlins win.
Urena retired six of the first seven batters before Jace Peterson drew a leadoff walk in the third inning. Foltynewicz followed with a too-hard bunt back to the pitcher on the fly for an out, before Urena struck out Ender Inciarte and got Ozzie Albies to ground out.
After Freeman’s leadoff homer in the fourth, Urena retired the next seven batters – four via strikeout – before Albies reached on a one-out bunt in the sixth. Freeman walked to put two Braves on the bases for the first time, but Matt Kemp grounded into a fielder’s choice and Tyler Flowers flied out to end the inning as Urena protected a 3-1 lead.
The Braves had their best scoring chance in the seventh, starting with a one-out walk by Dansby Swanson against Urena. In came reliever Jarlin Garcia, who hit pinch-hitter Lane Adams with a pitch before getting pinch-hitter Adonis Garcia on a ground-out that advanced the runners.
After Ender Inciarte walked to load the bases, Albies grounded into a force at second to end the inning.
It’s been a season of extremes for Foltynewicz, who lost his first four decisions, then began a run in which he was 9-1 with a 3.56 ERA in 14 starts from May 12 through July 25, including 12 team wins.
Since then, he’s 1-7 with a 7.32 ERA in eight starts including his current six-start losing skid in which the Braves have scored one or no runs while he was in five games. During his 9-1 stretch over 14 games, the Braves scored five or more runs while he was in eight games including six or more runs while he was in six games.
Foltynewicz has a 3.12 ERA in his past three starts, but the Braves scored no runs while he was in two of those games and one run while he was in Friday.
Freeman has 25 home runs and a 1.031 OPS in 96 games, which projects to 40 homers in 155 games played. He played at least 157 games in three of his first six full seasons and 147 games in two others.
This will be only the second season in which Freeman will play fewer than 147, the other in 2015 when he was limited to 118 games because of two stints on the disabled list for a right-wrist injury. If he played every game the rest of this season, Freeman would finish with 118 games, the same number he played in 2015.
He led the NL in homers and OPS this season before breaking his left wrist when hit by a pitch May 17 and spending seven weeks on the disabled list.
