For just a split second Thursday night, it looked like the Braves might try a little small ball. Tie game against Pittsburgh, eighth inning, leadoff walk and a sacrifice to get a runner in scoring position.
Then manager Fredi Gonzalez pulled Ramiro Pena back from the on deck circle and handed the bat to a lumberjack.
Evan Gattis doesn't have much use for the dink or the dunk to get that runner home. He was more interested in the left field seats. His two-run homer off reliever Jared Hughes lifted the Braves to a 6-4 win over the Pirates.
“Third sinker in a row - I’m hunting that,” said Gattis, who worked a 2-0 pitch for his fifth home run in his first pinch-hit at-bat since rookie ball. “It was a day off, pretty much. It was kind of relaxing. Nice, relaxed but ready.”
Gattis and the Braves (13-2) came back from a shutout loss Wednesday to start this three-city swing on another power trip. They added four more home runs to their majors-leading total - now 29 - and won for the 11th time in 12 games. B.J. Upon and Justin Upton homered in the same game for the second time as Braves and Chris Johnson added a two-run shot.
“To come off the bench and win it with a pinch hit home run the way (Gattis) did today says a lot,” B.J. Upton said. “A lot of guys don’t know how to handle that situation, especially in crunch time. He was able to go up there and stay within himself and get a good pitch to hit.”
Gattis has given new meaning to the term jack of all trades. With his brand of power potential, and by him showing he can hold his own defensively, Gonzalez has caught him on a regular basis. Gonzalez tried him at first base last week and plans to do it again Friday against the Pirates, even though it's a position Gattis hadn't played in two years.
On Thursday, Gonzalez couldn’t resist pinch-hitting Gattis even though he was the backup catcher with Gerald Laird catching Julio Teheran.
“That same situation in the fifth or sixth you may not do it, but in the eighth inning, with the game the way it was, take a shot at it,” said Gonzalez, who had infielder Blake DeWitt as an emergency catcher.
Gonzalez said he just wanted somebody who could put up a good at-bat.
"In the back of your mind, you're thinking, 'Well, we've seen (Gattis) being patient,'" Gonzalez said. "So make him get the ball up and he did."
There went the small ball.
“We played two bunts today,” Gonzalez said, laughing. “How many bunts do you want? We had two bunts and four home runs.”
B.J. Upton started it off with the ninth leadoff home run of his career, and four innings later Justin Upton hit his ninth home run of the season. That’s as many or more than six major league teams had entering play Thursday night.
Nine home runs in his first 15 games as a Brave is a new franchise record. Upton hit his ninth home run last year with Arizona on August 3. Now he just needs some runners to get on ahead of him. Eight of the nine home runs have been solo shots.
“It’s a pretty cool thing to watch, but he’s still little brother, so I’m not going to give him too much credit,” B.J. Upton joked. “Nah, he’s swinging the bat well right now and the team is kind of feeding off that.”
The Braves have used the long ball to come back and win each of Teheran’s first three starts this season. The rookie fifth starter is still looking for his first major league win. He had to settle for keeping it close.
Teheran gave up four runs in five innings, including two long home runs by Russell Martin and Pedro Alvarez. He has given up 13 earned runs in 19 innings pitched, while rest of the Braves’ pitching staff had allowed 25 earned runs in 131 innings.
“Obviously as a competitor I’m sure he’d like things a little bit different,” B.J. Upton said. “But at the same time he’s keeping us in ball games and that’s all we can ask.”
