For five innings, Yovani Gallardo pitched like the Braves remembered all too well from a month ago, when he shut them out on two hits in Milwaukee.
Yet in the sixth inning Monday, the Braves got a glimpse of what’s been ailing Gallardo since then. The Braves chased the Brewers’ struggling ace with a four-run outburst on their way to a 6-2 win at Turner Field.
The four runs in the sixth were as many runs as the Braves had scored on Gallardo in 37 1/3 innings over his five career starts against them. Coming into Monday, he was 3-0 with an 0.96 ERA against the Braves.
“We snapped the head off a chicken,” joked Chipper Jones, who started the sixth-inning rally with a walk. “And exorcised a demon.”
Alex Gonzalez got the decisive blow with a bases-loaded double down the third base line to drive in three runs. Nate McLouth, who provided one of only two singles against Gallardo last month in Milwaukee, put the finishing touches on him Monday with an RBI single to left.
Gallardo wouldn’t stick around for another round with David Ross, who’d had two hits off him, including his third home run of the season.
Jair Jurrjens might have beaten Gallardo at his best anyway. The Braves’ hottest starter won for the third time in four starts since returning from a strained oblique muscle.
Just five days since pitching the Braves’ first complete game since 2009, Jurrjens came only four outs shy of another. Only after two Brewers reached base on infield hits in the eighth, and Jones snared a Ryan Braun grounder to third, did Jurrjens turn the game over to reliever Eric O’Flaherty.
Jurrjens gave up only two runs in 7 2/3 innings to move to 3-0 with a 1.52 ERA since returning from the disabled list. Both runs came on a Yuniesky Betancourt triple that went just over McLouth’s glove in center.
“I’m pain-free,” Jurrjens said. “If I’m pain-free I can compete and give 100 percent to my team. That’s the only thing I can ask for right now.”
His run of luck continues with Ross as his catcher. Ross has caught each of Jurrjens’ four starts since Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez paired the two together in the second game of a doubleheader against the Mets on April 16.
Gonzalez isn’t going to stop it now, saying Monday he plans to have Ross catch Jurrjens for the foreseeable future, allowing Brian McCann to get regular rest.
McCann might want to get some home-run hitting tips from his backup, too.
Ross went 2-for-4 with his homer Monday. His second-inning shot gave him three home runs in his previous five at-bats. That’s one more home run than McCann has this season in far fewer starts; Ross was starting his sixth game Monday night while McCann has 24.
Ross continued what he started in San Diego last Tuesday, when he hit two home runs to help Jurrjens beat the Padres 8-2.
“I’ll come in here [tomorrow] with a big smile on my face,” Ross said. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to wipe that off. Like in San Diego the other day, I just now stopped smiling from that.”
Ross did more in one swing that the entire Braves lineup had done against Gallardo on April 5. In four starts since, Gallardo was 1-1 with an 8.86 ERA. For a while Monday, the Brewers pitcher looked like he might get back into a familiar groove, limiting the Braves to one run on six hits, while striking out seven, through the first five innings.
But he lost the strike zone in the sixth and the Braves took control. Jones started the rally with a four-pitch walk, Dan Uggla singled to left and Freddie Freeman drew another walk to load the bases for Gonzalez.
“As the game wore on, where he tried to get ahead with his breaking ball early in the count against fastball hitters, he wasn’t throwing his breaking ball for a strike,” Jones said. “The swing of the game was Gonzo’s, and that was a first-pitch breaking ball. But you could tell he was kind of feeling for it, just trying to spin one in there for strike one against a fastball hitter, and Gonzo was ready for it.”
Gonzalez has put on a clinic all season with his glove, adding a couple more highlight plays Monday night. But in the past two days he’s been in the middle of the Braves offense late in games, too. He’s driven in five runs in the past two games, including a two-run homer Sunday, while helping the Braves recover from back-to-back losses to the Cardinals.
“I love the run production,” Fredi Gonzalez said. “But I couldn’t care if he hits .085 the way he plays defense. I know it’s hard to equate, but we’re 15-15. If it wasn’t for him playing shortstop, we may be three, four games under.”
