Gerald Laird hadn’t driven in a run all season before Thursday, but the Braves’ veteran backup catcher showed a few times in a span of about 25 hours why he remains a valuable piece on a team with championship aspirations.
Laird’s two-out single in the eighth inning Friday lifted the Braves to a rousing 3-2 win in a series opener against the Rockies at Turner Field, their fifth win in six games and 13th in 15 games against Colorado since the start of the 2012 season.
On Thursday night, Laird’s double drove in the first run of a three-run seventh inning in a 5-4 comeback win against the Brewers, and he also had a game-tying, two-out RBI double in the second inning Friday. He’s filled in while catcher Evan Gattis recovers from a virus.
“He’s supposed to be a guy that fills in once a week, twice a week,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of Laird, 34. “We’ve played him four days in a row now and he’s come up big. He sticks his nose in there and he’s going to make contact. He’s been there and done that — a couple World Series teams — so these situations, he likes it. And good for us that we have that type of guy that can step in and catch four or five days in a row if we have to.”
Laird has started four consecutive games in place of Gattis, who’s expected back in the lineup this weekend. Laird was 8-for-45 (.178) before going 3-for-8 with three crucial RBIs the past two nights.
“I’m obviously off to a slow start at the plate, but I felt like the last week or so I’ve been taking better swings and my swing is coming along real well,” Laird said. “I’m kind of back to where I was last year when I was hitting some balls hard and finding some holes, and tonight I got some balls up and was able to put some good swings on them.”
“I’ve been working with (hitting coach Greg Walker) on trying to get back to where I was. We figured some things out and the last week or so I felt better at the plate. I’m seeing the ball a lot better and, like today, it’s just nice to contribute, especially when you know you’ve got to fill in when the big white bear (Gattis) is out.”
Laird’s go-ahead RBI in the eighth Friday came just when it looked like the Braves might waste a prime scoring opportunity for the second consecutive inning in a tied game.
“G can play, man,” Braves center fielder B.J. Upton said of Laird, whose nickname in the clubhouseis G-Money. “He’s always been able to play.”
The Braves had loaded the bases and failed to score in the seventh. In the eighth, Ramiro Pena led off with a double before Andrelton Simmons and Dan Uggla both struck out. But right after the boos ceased following Uggla’s third consecutive strikeout, Laird energized the Braves crowd with his hit to left field for a 3-2 lead.
Craig Kimbrel struck out the side in the ninth inning to notch his 13th save, leaving him two shy of matching John Smoltz’s franchise career record of 154 saves.
Pena had entered in the third inning in place of third baseman Chris Johnson, who was pulled from the game after his second-inning strikeout when he threw a tantrum in a hallway that leads from the dugout the clubhouse. Johnson apologized to the team after the game and vowed to begin anew trying to curb his notorious hot temper.
“I let me emotions get the best of me tonight,” Johnson said. “I play with a lot of passion every single pitch, every single at-bat. I hold with pretty high regard and then when things don’t go well, that’s kind of my downfall. That’s one of the biggest parts of my game that I’ve got to try to work on.”
The Braves came away with nothing after loading the bases with one out in the seventh. Left-hander Rex Brothers was left in to face Freddie Freeman, who struck out to make him 1-for-6 with three strikeouts and two RBIs with bases loaded. Last season the big first baseman was 10-for-17 with the bases loaded, with two strikeouts and 17 RBIs.
Right fielder Michael Cuddyer, who hit a game-tying sixth-inning homer tied the score for the Rockies, made a running catch near the right-field line to rob Justin Upton of a bases-loaded hit to end the seventh. The Braves are 4-for-27 (.148) with 12 RBIs when the bases are loaded, after hitting .319 with 98 RBIs in 113 at-bats with bases loaded in 2013.
Gavin Floyd had his fourth impressive start in as many outings for the Braves, but the veteran right-hander is still looking for his first win. Floyd was charged with two runs and seven hits in 6 2/3 innings, striking out seven with no walks. He left with the score tied, and he’s 0-1 with a 2.49 ERA in four starts after spending the first five weeks on the disabled list completing his recovery from Tommy John surgery.
The strikeout for Johnson was his ninth in a 4-for-26 stretch over his past seven games, with all but one of those hits coming in Thursday’s win against Milwaukee. During Gonzalez’s postgame press conference Friday he declined to discuss the latest Johnson incident and said the third baseman himself would talk to reporters about what happened, which Johnson did a few minutes later.
“I agree 100 percent with his decision (to pull him from the game),” Johnson said. “It was the right thing to do. Taking me out of the game and not letting me play is probably the worst thing to do to me, because all I want to do is get out there and play and whatever the punishment may be I’ll take it like a man and try to get better at that.”
Johnson was benched for two games in April after he simmered and boiled over at least once during a pair of four-strikeout games April 10 and April 12. The Braves felt his temper had become detrimental and hitting coach Greg Walker said at that time, “We’re trying to get him to get the fight back between him and the pitcher.”
The Braves trailed 1-0 when Johnson left Friday’s game. Colorado scored in the second inning after Nolan Arenado led off t with a line-drive double off the left-field wall, only a foot or two from clearing it. He advanced on an infield single and scored on a Jordan Pacheco groundout.
Arenado left the game with a fractured left middle finger on a night when both starting third basemen were gone before the third inning.
It didn’t take long for the Braves to answer the Rockies’ run. After Uggla drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the second, Laird doubled to the left-center gap and Uggla hustled around from first with the tying run.
The Braves took a 2-1 lead in the third with a run after singles by Jason Heyward and Freddie Freeman, a wild pitch by Jordan Lyles, and Justin Upton’s RBI groundout. Pena flied out to end the inning with a runner at second.
Cuddyer knotted the score again with home run to start the Rockies’ sixth inning. Floyd got ahead in the count 0-2 before Cuddyer took a pitch and then drove a 90-mph fastball to the left-field seats.
The Braves had a chance to reclaim the lead in the sixth after Justin Upton’s leadoff single. He stole second and advanced to third on Simmons’ groundout before Uggla struck out to end the inning. Uggla lined a ball a few inches foul down the third-base line earlier in the at-bat.
Johnson’s two-game benching in mid-April was followed by a couple of three-hit games, then a 13-game slump when Johnson went 7-for-44 (.159) with no extra-base hits or RBIs through May 3. A couple of days after signing a three-year, $23.5 million extension, Johnson heated up and went on an 11-game tear in which he batted .405 with five RBIs through May 16.
Then came his latest slump in which he was 1-for-21 with eight strikeouts in five games before his three-hit night Thursday against Milwaukee.
After batting a career-best .321 – second in the National League – with 12 homers, 68 RBIs and a .358 on-base percentage in his first season with the Braves, Johnson has hit .265 with just one homer, nine RBIs and a .289 OBP through the Braves’ first 47 games this season. He’s run hot or cold this season and seldom anything in-between, the antithesis of the steady performer he was in 2013.
He is 11-for-25 (.440) against left-handers, but just 34-for-145 (.234) with 36 strikeouts and three walks against right-handers.
