Brandon Beachy scattered three hits in eight innings, Braves hitters smothered Jacob Turner with four first-inning runs on a pair of homers, and that about covered it during a 5-0 Braves shutout against the Marlins that extended their winning streak to 14 games.
Justin Upton, Chris Johnson and Brian McCann all homered in the first three innings for the Braves, whose Waffle House winning streak, as it’s become known, is one game shy of equaling a 15-game streak in April-May 2000, the longest for the Braves since 1900. The all-time franchise record is an 18-game winning streak in 1891.
The Braves haven’t lost a game — home or road — since Waffle House opened an outpost at Turner Field at the beginning of their previous homestand, and Beachy added to the streak in his third start since returning from Tommy John elbow surgery.
The winning streak hasn’t put any pressure on the first-place-by-a-mile Braves, according to Johnson.
“We come in every day just trying to win ballgames,” he said. “It’s a loose group. Whether we win or lose it’s kind of the same in here. We’re working hard and having fun. We have the same attitude every day.”
The Braves have the majors’ best record (71-45) and lead the NL East by 15-1/2 games over Washington.
A half-hour after the game, Beachy didn’t seem to be in much of a mood to reflect on the long journey back from surgery, the 13-month rehab culminating in his first win. His thoughts were more basic.
“We got a win — that’s 14 in a row,” said the right-hander, who limited the punchless Marlins to three hits and one walk with six strikeouts in eight innings, and threw 67 strikes in 99 pitches. “That’s fun. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
They swept their last seven-game homestand, then swept a six-game trip to Philadelphia and Washington and opened a nine-game homestand Friday with a win that was all but over before plenty of fans had maneuvered through the tail end of Atlanta’s Friday rush-hour traffic and settled into their seats at Turner Field.
Upton’s solo homer and Johnson’s three-run shot provided a 4-0 lead before Turner (3-4) recorded a second out. And that was a four-run lead against a Marlins team that has lost six in a row, been shut out a majors-leading 14 times, and scored more than three runs only twice in its past 10 games.
“It’s always good to jump out to an early lead,” Johnson said. “Usually it’s those guys (pitchers) giving us time to get comfortable. So it’s nice to repay them every now and then, get some runs in the first inning so you can go out there and be confident and under control, and he did that tonight.”
Beachy continued a trend of pitching dominance for the Braves against Miami — they are 32-11 with a 2.12 ERA in their past 43 games against the Marlins, including nine shutouts. Beachy is 3-0 with a 2.38 ERA in six career starts against them.
The three homers against Turner in the first three innings matched the total allowed by the Marlins right-hander in 77 1/3 innings over his previous 12 starts.
“Turner made some mistakes over the plate and made him pay for it,” said Gonzalez, whose Braves maintained their gaping lead of 15-1/2 games over second-place Washington in the NL East. “I think that gave Beachy a chance to kind of catch his breath a little bit, and cruise on. We added one more later on, and he made it stand. We made, what, three double plays, if I’m not mistaken?”
Beachy (1-0) thought he made progress similar to that between his first and second starts.
“I commanded my fastball and changeup pretty good,” he said. “I still have a lot of room for improvement with the curveball and especially the slider. Fortunately I was able to command the other two well enough to where I can get by, and then continue to work on the others and hopefully piece it all together little by little.”
After giving up a career-high seven runs and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings against Colorado in his first game off the disabled list, Beachy allowed five hits and four runs (three earned) in 6 1/3 innings Saturday at Philadelphia, with two walks and four strikeouts.
“In his last outing we saw him starting to get it going,” Upton said. “Today he was on fire, and we were able to give him an early cushion so he could get to work. And he worked well the whole night
On Friday, he retired 11 consecutive batters after giving up a leadoff single by Chrisian Yelich to start the game. Beachy faced the minimum 12 batters through four innings, with Yelich eliminated in a double play.
He threw a few sliders Saturday, but primarily used his fastball and change-up with plenty of curveballs sprinkled in the mix. He gave up a long homer on a slider early against Philadelphia and has since used the pitch sparingly.
“That might be the last one to come, his slider,” Gonzalez said. “But I’m really happy with his changeup, and his breaking ball is getting better, and his fastball command was good. Again, it’s only his third start back from surgery, at the major league level. I think his velocity will pick up a little bit, the more he goes out there and starts feeling comfortable.”
After Logan Morrison’s leadoff single in the fifth, then Beachy recorded 12 outs in the last 13 batters he faced. Only a Juan Pierre bloop double and a Morrison walk broke up that stretch of outs, and Morrison was erased immediately when Ed Lucas lined out to Beachy to start an inning-ending double play in the seventh.
Upton extended his hitting streak to 13 games with his team-high 22nd homer, his sixth in August. That’s two more homers than his combined total in May, June and July. He took two called strikes to start the at-bat and homered on a 2-2 fastball.
Freddie Freeman followed with a single, and McCann reached on an error before Johnson drove a pitch to the pavilion seats in left-center field, the eighth home run for the National League batting-average leader.
“Throughout the last homestand and road trip, everybody’s been really swinging the bats,” Upton said. “You can’t point to one guy…. I think it helps out when everybody’s going well, because it definitely puts pressure on the pitcher. He’s got to make his pitches, knowing the next guy coming up his pretty dangerous, too.
“There’s no holes (in lineup) to give that pitcher a break. That wears on him, and that allows us to settle in and get good pitches.”
McCann led off the third inning with his 17th homer in 71 games, after missing the first five weeks of the season recovering from shoulder surgery. The veteran catcher has 10 homers and 28 RBIs in his past 34 games, and the Braves have a 26-8 record in those games.
