SAN DIEGO – When you fail to score after loading the bases with none out, it can be demoralizing. When you do it twice in a span of 16 hours, it's mind-bogging and probably a good time for a day off.
The Braves have a day off Monday after losing 4-3 in 10 innings Sunday against the Padres, who completed a three-game sweep at Petco Park on Everth Cabrera’s walk-off single with two out. The skidding Braves have dropped all six games on an eight-game trip that ends with two at Seattle on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“We’re getting opportunities to score runs and we’re not getting it done,” veteran catcher Gerald Laird said. “I mean, that’s the bottom line, we’ve got to play better. This is a big stretch for us right here. It isn’t going to get any easier. We’ve got Seattle and then we go home against three tough teams.
“I know guys are trying, maybe pressing to do a little bit too much. But the bottom line is, we’ve got to play better or we could fall out of this thing real quick.”
The Braves slid to 3 1/2 games behind first-place Washington in the National League East standings, and will face Mariners ace Felix Hernandez (11-3, 2.01 ERA) on Tuesday. Alex Wood will start that game for the Braves.
“We’ve got to take tomorrow, regroup, get some rest, and take it to them in Seattle,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “We’ve just got to turn this thing around. We can’t keep saying we’ll get them tomorrow, we’ll get them tomorrow. It has to be tomorrow, meaning Tuesday.”
David Hale (3-4) gave up two singles and two walks in the 10th inning, and lost even after the Padres had a botched bunt that led to a double play and gave him a chance to get out of the inning unscathed.
The Braves are 9-16 in their past 25 games, including 0-9 in games decided by one run. They’ve gone 3-10 with only 33 runs scored in their past 13 games, including three losses by 3-2 scores and another by a 2-1 score.
“When you’re not scoring runs, everything gets exposed a little bit,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “And we had some opportunities. We had a baserunning mistake in the seventh inning (Evan Gattis not scoring from second on a Chris Johnson double), and it just compounds it.
“When you go out and score seven or eight, those mistakes you can cover up. But when you’re not scoring runs every little mistake or every time you don’t get a run in when you have to, that’s big.”
After B.J. Upton grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded and the score tied in the seventh inning, Tommy Medica hit a leadoff homer against Braves reliever Anthony Varvaro in the eighth for a 3-2 lead.
The Braves came back with a ninth-inning run that was almost entirely the work of hot-hitting Jason Heyward. After leading off the inning with a double, his third hit of the game, Heyward advanced on Gattis’ comebacker to reliever Joaquin Benoit, who tried for the out at third base.
Heyward slid head-first and would have been safe regardless, but third baseman Yangervis Solarte had the ball go off his glove and carom far enough away for Heyward to alertly get to his feet and sprint in for the tying run.
The Braves trailed 2-0 and had done almost nothing offensively against Padres starter Tyson Ross until the seventh inning, when they started things off with a Justin Upton walk, Heyward’s RBI triple, a Gattis RBI double that chased Ross from the game, and a Chris Johnson double.
Gattis failed to score after misreading Johnson’s lined double to the left-center warning track.
“I (messed) up,” said Gattis, who initially thought the ball would be caught. “Just a bad read.”
But the Braves still had two runners in scoring position. And when Ramiro Pena walked, they had the bases loaded with none out. Emilio Bonifacio, pinch-hitting for Aaron Harang, took a called third strike for the first out.
B.J. Upton then hit a sharp grounder to third base Yankervis Solarte, who threw to the catcher to get the force out at home and start a 5-2-3, inning-ending double play.
The Braves did something remarkably similar Saturday in the 12th inning of a 3-2, 12-inning loss, and with the score the same as it was when it happened Sunday.
It was 2-2 Saturday when the Braves opened the 12th inning with a single, double and intentional walk that loaded the bases with none out. Gattis grounded into a 5-2-3 double play, and Chris Johnson grounded out to end the inning.
The Padres won Saturday in the 12th on three walks issued by Craig Kimbrel and Will Venable’s bases-loaded single.
That’s a sweep and two walk-off wins in two days against the playoff-contending Braves for the Padres, who are nine games under .500 and 11 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading Dodgers, who swept the Braves in Los Angeles to start what’s become a nightmarish trip for Gonzalez’s crew.
The Braves have lost seven consecutive games at Petco Park, and 10 of their past 12.
Before Hale gave up the winning run in the 10th, the Braves had flirted with defeat in the ninth but watched hard-throwing rookie Juan Jaime get out of it. The Padres loaded the bases against him with a leadoff single, a sacrifice bunt and a pair of two-out walks.
The second of those was to Medica on four pitches as Jaime was careful not to give him anything to do more damage than he’d already done against the Braves.
It left Jaime no wiggle room against Jedd Gyorko, who got ahead in the count 3-0. One ball away from potential defeat, Jaime pumped two fastballs that Gyorko took for strikes. One foul ball later, he grounded out to send the game to extra innings.
The Braves were resting closer Craig Kimbrel and setup man David Carpenter and planned to have Jordan Walden close if they had taken a lead.
The Padres got a broken-bat single and walk against Hale to start the inning. With two on and none out, Rene Rivera popped up a bunt that he thought Hale would catch. But Hale let it land in front of him, then picked it up and threw to third for the force, with Chris Johnson throwing to first to complete a double play when Rivera didn’t hustle out of the batter’s box.
Hale walked the next batter, and after a double steal, Cabrera hit a sharp single to right field to bring the Padres pouring out of their dugout to celebrate for the second time in 18 hours.
Medica’s home run was his third in the series and made him 13-for-27 (.481) with seven RBIs in seven games against the Braves this season, compared to 31-for-130 (.238) with four homers and 15 RBIs in 57 games against everyone else.
In the Braves’ eighth inning they got a leadoff single from La Stella against reliever Kevin Quackenbush. Freeman followed La Stella by grounding to short, but second baseman Alexi Amarista dropped the ball on the exchange before he could attempt a double play.
La Stella was initially ruled safe, but the call was challenged and overturned after it was ruled that Amarista had possession long enough for the out. Justin Upton hit another grounder to short, and again Amarista dropped the ball on the exchange before he could throw to first base.
The Braves had a reprieve of sorts, and the hot-hitting Heyward at the plate. But when reliever Alex Torres bounced a wild pitch that scooted a few feet away from catcher Rene Rivera, Upton tried to advance to second and Rivera retrieved the ball and gunned him down to end the inning.
