When Freddie Freeman homered in the first inning Wednesday the Braves had to feel good about their chances, considering how Mike Foltynewicz has pitched lately and the fact that San Diego would piece together the game with relievers rather than use a conventional starter.
But five Padres relievers thwarted the Braves the rest of the way Wednesday, and Foltynewicz allowed two runs in the second inning of a 3-1 series-clinching Padres win, the 16th loss for the Braves in their past 19 games at Petco Park.
“Definitely not normal, (like) when you get into a rhythm and know you’re going to face (a starter) at least two or three times,” said Freeman, who faced a different pitcher in each of his four at-bats and went 1-for-4 with two ground-outs and one strikeout.
“It kind of worked for them today. For us hitters it’s definitely tough to get into a groove,” Freeman said.
The Padres used a handful of relievers, none of whom worked more than 2 1/3 innings nor faced the same batter twice. They combined to limit the Braves to four hits and two walks with 13 strikeouts.
The Padres added a run in the eighth inning against Dan Winkler on a Freddy Galvis squeeze bunt before closer Brad Hand completed a two-inning save for the Padres.
The Braves trailed 2-1 when Ozzie Albies led off the eighth with a double against Hand, who struck out the next three batters – Dansby Swanson, Freeman and Nick Markakis – to squelch that rally before it could take hold.
Swanson, Freeman and Markakis each hit a home run in Tuesday’s 14-1 Braves win in the middle game of the series.
“It’s somebody different almost every at-bat,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said of the challenge of facing so many different pitchers, with starting reliever Matt Strahm’s 2 1/3-inning stint the longest by any of them. “Glad you can only do that every once in a blue moon.”
Foltynewicz (5-4) allowed five hits, two runs and two walks with eight strikeouts in five innings, the seventh time he has lasted five innings or fewer in 13 starts this season, but the first time in his past four starts.
He had a microscopic 0.56 ERA in his past five starts before Wednesday and had allowed only five hits, one run and four walks with 18 strikeouts in 16 innings over his past two starts while out-pitching aces Chris Sale and Stephen Strasburg in wins at Boston and Friday’s two-hit shutout against the Nationals.
Foltynewicz threw 100 pitches (65 strikes) in five innings Wednesday after throwing 106 pitches (77 strikes) in nine innings in his 11-strikeout, one-walk gem of an outing against the Nationals, the first complete game of his career and first by a Braves pitcher since the 2016 season.
“Back to a broken record -- not happy about going five,” said Foltynewicz, who had said this week that going nine innings gave him confidence that he could do it again, or at least go deeper into games.
“But that’s the way things went out there today. I was happy to come away with only a 2-1 (Padres) lead like that.”
Foltynewicz had only one three-ball count in the first seven innings against the Nationals, but the Padres were more patient and worked deeper into counts. Three of his eight strikeouts came against No. 2 hitter Eric Hosmer, who whiffed with bases loaded to end a two-run second inning after the Padres took the lead.
The Padres sent eight batters to the plate in the second and got four hits and a walk, including Cory Spangenberg’s RBI triple immediately after a Hunter Renfroe leadoff single that snuck through the infield just past Albies’s glove.
“We just couldn’t do enough offensively,” Snitker said. “Folty did a good job, high pitch counts notwithstanding. He did a good job of keeping the game there for us and giving us a chance.”
Winkler was second among major league relievers with a 0.74 ERA before Wednesday, when the Padres snapped his string of 19 appearances without an earned run.
Jose Pirela led off the eighth with a single against Winkler and Spangenberg singled with one out to put runners on the corners before Galvis executed a perfect squeeze bunt to push the Padres’ lead to 3-1, only the second earned run off Winkler this season.
“Yeah, it was big,” Snitker said of the squeeze bunt. “We were just sitting in here talking about how he bunted it about as good as you can. Knew something like that was coming too. Knew it was coming and we still couldn’t stop it.”
The Braves will spend a day off Thursday in Los Angeles before a three-game series against the Dodgers starting Friday.
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