The names of Braves pitchers change, but nemesis Ryan Howard keeps doing what he’s done to them for a decade.
The Philadelphia first baseman hit a two-run homer in the first inning Tuesday, his second in as many nights, and the Phillies never looked back on the way to a 5-2 win that clinched the series against the sputtering Braves at Turner Field.
Ervin Santana (5-4) gave up eight hits and six runs in six innings and fell to 1-4 in his past seven starts, while Kyle Kendrick (3-6) limited the Braves to six hits and two runs in seven innings for his first road win in seven starts.
The Braves have lost five of seven games and nine of 14, and scored three runs or fewer in half of those 14 games. They fell into a second-place tie with the Marlins in the National League East, a half-game behind the Nationals, whom the Braves will face in a four-game series starting Thursday in Washington.
“We want to get it going,” third baseman Chris Johnson said. “We want to obviously throw up some crooked numbers, but we’ve just got to keep grinding. Can’t get too frustrated, can’t get too down, we’ve got another game here in a little while. So we’ve just got to keep battling, keep working at it, and hope that our hard work pays off at the end.”
They trailed 4-0 Tuesday before getting an RBI single by Jason Heyward in the fifth inning and a run when Gerald Laird grounded into a double play with two on in the seventh.
Here’s how bad things have gotten for the Braves, losers of two 13-inning games in the past three days before Tuesday: Andrelton Simmons made two errors in one inning, the ninth.
“He doesn’t make two errors in two months,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Simmons, who won both the Gold Glove and Platinum Glove awards last season as the best defensive shortstop and best overall defensive player in the NL, was charged with two errors in the ninth inning when the Phillies tacked on an insurance run to push the lead to 5-3.
Simmons slipped making a throw to first base from the outfield grass for his first error, and had a bad-hop grounder carom off his glove for another error on Domonic Brown’s RBI fielder’s choice grounder with runners on the corners.
Braves left fielder Justin Upton also left the game in the seventh inning after complaining of dizziness and feeling lightheaded.
There won’t be much time to rest, as the Braves and Phillies complete the series with a 12:10 p.m. game Wednesday. Aaron Harang will face Phillies veteran Roberto Hernandez, with the Braves needing a win to salvage a split of the six-game homestand and avoid being swept by a team that was in last place in the NL East when the series started.
“Mentally we’re in this every day,” said right fielder Jason Heyward, who had two of the Braves’ six hits. “Every day’s a new day, and that’s that. Tomorrow we’ve got an opportunity to salvage a homestand for us. Tonight’s over with.”
The Braves start their longest road trip of the season – 11 games in 11 days – on Thursday. The trip includes four games at Philadelphia with a June 28 doubleheader to make up an earlier rainout.
They’ve scored just four runs in 39 innings in their past four games against the Phillies, including a 6-1 loss in Monday’s series opener. The Braves are 7-8 in their past 15 against the Phillies, and scored two or fewer runs in eight of those games.
The Braves didn’t have many scoring opportunities Tuesday, and didn’t make the most of the ones they had. They started that seventh inning with a Johnson double and Simmons single, but came away with only one run after the double play and a strikeout by pinch-hitter Jordan Schafer, who had replaced Upton.
After a two-out Heyward double and B.J. Upton single in the third inning, Freddie Freeman flied out to strand runners on the corners.
Santana had three walks with five strikeouts and threw 110 pitches in six innings. He is 1-4 with a 6.17 ERA in his past seven starts, after going 4-0 with a 1.99 ERA in his first six starts for the Braves.
“A little bit frustrating,”Santana said, “but at the same time this is a team, and we play as a team and lose as a team. I know we’ve had ups and downs right now but we just have to keep our minds positive and play one game at a time…. I know I’m close to getting out of this (slump). Just have to make good pitches. That’s it.”
Howard’s first-inning homer raised his career-best totals to 46 homers and 126 RBIs in 143 games against Braves, six more homers and eight more RBIs than he has against any other team. He has 20 homers and 69 RBIs in 71 games at Turner Field, his most in both categories anywhere outside Philadelphia.
The Phillies pushed their lead to 4-0 with two runs in the fourth inning, taking advantage of a Braves defensive mistake – there have been plenty of those recently – after Santana issued a leadoff walk to Brown.
Reid Brignac’s one-out double put two runners in scoring position, and Brown scored on passed ball charged to catcher Gerald Laird with Cesar Hernandez batting. Hernandez singled to center to drive in the second run of the inning.
The Braves were down 4-0 and the damage could have been worse that inning, as Hernandez went to second when center fielder B.J. Upton failed to hit the cutoff man (despite having no real chance to make a play at home). But Santana got out of the inning by striking out Kendrick and getting Rollins to ground out.
On Greg Maddux bobblehead night at Turner Field, it took Santana about as many pitches (99) to get through five innings as it sometimes took Maddux to get through nine. But with the Braves bullpen worn thin in the past week, including 13-inning games Saturday and Monday, they had no one warming up before the sixth inning.
Santana ran up a lot of pitches in the first inning, when he allowed three hits and a walk. Howard homered on a full-count, 95-mph fastball, after fouling off a 3-and-1 changeup. At the time there there were two outs and a runner at second base – Jimmy Rollins, who had doubled to start the game.
When Howard came up again with a runner at second in the fifth inning, this time with one out, the Braves opted to intentionally walk the big guy. Santana retired the next two batters on a fly out and ground out to strand two runners and keep the deficit at 4-0.
