The few thousand fans who stuck around at Turner Field until the end Wednesday night were rewarded when Freddie Freeman singled in the 11th inning to become the first Brave to hit for the cycle since Mark Kotsay in 2008.
Then they got another thrill in the 13th inning of one of Atlanta’s wildest and most memorable games in years, as the Braves erased a two-run deficit on four consecutive hits to start the inning, then pulled out a 9-8 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Chase d’Arnaud’s walk-off single to center field with none out.
"When we got down in the 13th inning I'm sure a lot of people didn't think we were going to come back and win that game," Freeman said. "It's definitely a thrill for us and it's one of the biggest wins we've had this year."
As for being the first major leaguer to hit for the cycle — single, double, triple, home run — in 2016, Freeman said, “It probably would have meant nothing if we didn’t win, but the comeback kids came out tonight. Big hit for Chase. Big rally in the 13th inning. Nice to finally get a win.”
Jace Peterson had an RBI double and Tyler Flowers a game-tying single before Erick Aybar was intentionally walked to bring up d’Arnaud, whose fly-ball single over the draw-in outfield gave the Braves just their second win in 46 games in which they were tied or trailed after eight innings.
“That was a really special moment,” d’Arnaud said of the second walk-off hit of his career and first since his rookie year in 2011. “I feel like the adrenalin is still coursing through my veins right now. That was a blast, and I wouldn’t have had that opportunity if it weren’t for all the hard work from everybody ahead of me getting on base and rallying back.”
The game lasted 5 hours, 18 minutes, and ended at 12:30 a.m. — about eight hours after a players-only meeting the Braves had in their clubhouse before batting practice. They have the majors’ worst record (19-46) and had lost 10 of 12 games before Wednesday.
“What a team win — that’s an understatement,” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said. “Those guys kept fighting and coming back. We could have cashed it in after that bases-loaded, nobody out and we don’t score. Tyler comes back in the same situation, gets a bit hit. Holy cow, I can’t say enough about those guys out there. What they’ve been through this year, you’d never know it coming in here every day. The energy, the enthusiasm, the work ethic, everything is off the charts.”
The Braves’ only other walk-off win this season came on a Freeman homer June 1 against the Giants.
All the production in the 13th inning Wednesday came against right-hander Alfredo Simon, the eighth Reds pitcher used on a night when the Braves used nine. Adonis Garcia led off with a single, his third hit, and Nick Markakis followed with a single to set the stage for the run-producing hits from Peterson, Flowers and d'Arnaud.
The Braves failed to scored after loading the bases with none out in the 11th, the second night in a row they did that. They wasted the chance in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 3-1 loss, but this time roared back to overcome the missed opportunity as well as a two-run 13th inning by the Reds.
In the top of the 13th, reliever Alexi Ogando walked former Braves prospect Jose Peraza with the bases loaded and two outs to bring in the go-ahead run for the Reds. Ogando was ahead in the count 0-2 before throwing four consecutive balls to Peraz. Joey Votto added an RBI single before the inning was through.
Freeman doubled in the third inning, tripled in the fourth and hit his 11th home run in the sixth inning, getting the three extra-base hit parts of the cycle out of the way. After an eighth-inning strikeout, he hit a clean single to right-center with one out in the 11th against left-handy Tony Cingrani, becoming the first major leaguer to hit for a cycle this season.
“He had a killer game,” d’Arnaud said. “I’m really happy for Freddie.”
With bases loaded and none out in the 11th, Peterson’s dribbler in front of the plate was fielded by catcher Tucker Barnhart, who dove back to the plate for the unassisted force. Flowers’ fly-out to center was too shallow to tag up on, and Aybar grounded out to end the inning and make the Braves 4-for-22 with runners in scoring position.
But they would change that narrative, at least temporarily, by going 3-for-3 with runners in scoring position in the 13th.
Freeman appeared to have what would’ve been his career-high fifth hit of the game when he beat out a grounder to second base with a runner at first and two out in the 12th. But the play was reviewed and overturned for an out.
Kotsay hit for the cycle on Aug. 14, 2008, in a game against the Cubs. The Braves starter that day was Tom Glavine, now a retired Hall of Famer who, coincidentally, pulled down the No. 47 sign on the left-field wall during Wednesday’s game, the sign that shows how many games are left in this final season at Turner Field.
The only other Brave in the Atlanta era (since 1966) to hit for the cycle was Albert Hall against the Astros on Sept. 23, 1987. Of the four others who did it in the 145-year history of the franchise, none were after 1910.
