After waiting more than 3-1/2 hours Monday night to start the game, then waiting around for 2-1/2 more hours to score, Freddie Freeman made sure all the waiting was worth it for the Braves.
Freeman’s two-run, walk-off homer with one out in the ninth inning lifted the Braves to 2-1 win over the Mets in a game that ended at 1:22 a.m. His homer off Dillon Gee was just the fifth hit of the night against the Mets right-hander, all but two of those hits coming off the bat of the hot-hitting first baseman.
“You know, we’re here, you might as well just go out there and try to win,” Freeman said after his second game-ending hit in three days gave the Braves a win in the opener of a five-game series. “We were able to get it done.”
Freeman has had the game-winning RBI in every game during the Braves’ current three-game wininng streak, and has batted .385 with 11 extra-base hits (five homers) and 22 RBIs in his past 24 games. It was the second walk-off homer of his career.
“He’s awesome, man,” Braves pitcher Tim Hudson said. “Just like a Little Leaguer out there, the way he’s playing. He’s like the Little Leaguer that shaves already… He’s Kelly from Bad News Bears, riding up on his motorcycle and smoking heaters. That’s Freddie right now.”
Hudson got no decision after allowing six hits and one run in seven innings, and remained winless (0-2) in June despite a 1.57 ERA in four starts.
“It was a crazy night,” Hudson said. “A lot of people wondered why we even started the game. But we did, and luckily we came out on top of it.”
After Justin Upton’s one-out single in the ninth, Freeman turned a 2-2 slider into a towering homer to the right-field seats on the 101st pitch for Gee (5-7) to give the Braves’ their National League-leading 21st come-from-behind win.
“I really was just trying to look for a pitch out over (the plate),” Freeman said, “so I could hook it through the hole at first base, to see if we could get first and third with Evan (Gattis) coming up. I really was trying to pull the ball right there, but I was able to lift one out at the same time.”
The few thousand fans remaining from an announced crowd of 22,048 reacted almost as giddily as Braves players, who stormed the field to mob Freeman. The Braves won for the 16th time in their past 19 home games and snapped Gee’s three-start winning streak.
“Yeah, well, 1:30 in the morning,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “I think the best two swings we’ve taken off Gee were the last two with Justin and then Freeman. He had us baffled the whole night. Good for us that we had Freeman there at the last at-bat.
“Huddy was outstanding. He gave up one run to Gee himself and the bullpen did a nice job keeping it a one-run game.”
With the Braves scheduled to play a split doubleheader Tuesday beginning at 1:10 p.m. — necessitated by a May 4 rainout — Freeman and some players and coaches planned to spend the night in the clubhouse after the game went late. Gonzalez said he would, too, to avoid rush-hour traffic Tuesday if he were coming from his home in the Atlanta suburbs.
Until the ninth inning, it looked like one glaring mistake by Hudson would be enough for the Mets. Gee took a three-hit shutout to the ninth, and it was the Mets pitcher’s two-out RBI single in the seventh inning that accounted for the only scoring in the game until Freeman took him deep.
Hudson’s had hard luck in June, to put it mildly, but Freeman made sure he didn’t lose a third consecutive start. Gee had allowed only three runs in 29 innings in June until Freeman launched a cut fastball where no one could catch it.
“I knew I hit it good enough,” he said. “I didn’t know if it was going to stay fair actually, because it was an inside pitch and I didn’t know if I was able to get my hands inside. But once I saw it get up to its peak height, I knew it was gone.”
Hudson allowed six hits, one run and three walks with six strikeouts in seven innings, and has allowed one or no earned runs in three of his four June starts. The Braves have scored a total of three runs during the 28-2/3 innings that he’s been in those games.
The managers didn’t exchange lineup cards until 10:47 p.m., and Hudson threw the first pitch at 10:53. He had warmed up just before 10 p.m. when it was announced the game would start shortly, and ended up sitting around for another 40 minutes after the start was delayed even longer. The 37-year-old threw the equivalent of one simulated inning in that period to stay loose.
“It was a bad situation for both teams, honestly,” Hudson said. “For the pitchers and for the position players. But you’ve got to go out there and play it. Luckily we came out on top. Gee had a great game. He pitched really well. He didn’t really give us any opportunities, and he just made one mistake right there at the end. Cost him the game.”
Gee (5-7) is getting vastly different results than when the Braves faced him in late May. The right-hander has collected 32 strikeouts with only four walks in 29-1/3 innings during his past four starts, after going going 2-6 with a 6.34 ERA in his first 10 starts. His winning streak included road wins at Yankee Stadium and Washington.
Hudson allowed four singles and two walks through the first six scoreless innings, and in that period the Mets went 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, with three strikeouts and a double-play grounder.
Gee took matters into his own hands in the seventh inning, hitting a two-out single through the left side of the infield for a 1-0 lead. John Buck singled to start the inning and advanced on a groundout before Gee hit a 1-0 sinker that Hudson left belt-high over the middle of the plate, Gee’s third hit and second RBIs in 23 at-bats this season.
The Braves had wasted an early scoring opportunity, after Freeman’s leadoff double in the second inning. Gattis grounded out, B.J. Upton flied out and Dan Uggla struck out without Freeman advancing even to third base.
Gee retired the next eight batters after Freeman’s double, a string snapped by Freeman’s two-out single in the fourth.
It was the longest rain delay and latest start to a game at Turner Field since a Braves-Marlins game June 28, 2004, which was delayed 3 hours, 20 minutes before the first pitch, and ended at 1:24 a.m.The Braves won, 6-1, getting six innings of three-hit pitching from John Thomson and a two-run, third-inning homer from J.D. Drew.
“It is difficult to sit around for hours and hours and hours,” said then-Braves manager Bobby Cox. “I told my guys, ‘We’ve really got to hustle tonight.’ And they did.”
On that summer night in 2004, Cox’s Braves used the win to pull within 3-1/2 games of division co-leaders Florida and Philadelphia. On Monday, Gonzalez’s first-place Braves knew Philadelphia had already beaten second-place Washington 5-4, in a game that was shown on the massive Turner Field video board during the rain delay.
The Braves moved to 7-1/2 games ahead of the Nationals, with the Phillies one game behind Washington.
Hudson used strikeouts to end the first, second and fifth innings with a runner in scoring position, and Gattis gunned down Lucas Duda trying to steal second base after a leadoff single in the fourth. Duda matched a career high with four hits.
The Mets had two on with one out in the sixth before Sprayberry High graduate Marlon Byrd grounded into an inning-ending double play.
