In the series that seemed as if it might never end, the Braves looked capable of a comeback and a series win Thursday night against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Turner Field.
Until Andrew McCutchen’s two-run homer in the ninth inning.
The homer off reliever George Sherrill secured a 5-2 win for the Pirates, who earned a split in a memorable and exhausting four-game series. They also ended Derek Lowe’s streak of 10 consecutive winning starts against them.
"We just didn’t swing the bats," said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves have scored two runs or fewer eight times during an 8-9 stretch, including three times in the series against Pittsburgh.
Freddie Freeman had his second three-hit game in a row for the Braves, who had 11 hits but not enough at the right times. Braves relievers pitched 21 scoreless innings in the series until McCutch gave up the homer to McCutchen after a leadoff walk.
"It felt like it was a 20-game series," Braves catcher David Ross said. "Another rain delay today was icing on the cake. ‘They’re a good team. We didn’t necessarily play bad, but just didn’t play good.”
The first and last games in the series had rain delays that totaled nearly three hours, and the two middle games lasted 19 and 10 innings. Pittsburgh won both rain-delayed games, while the Braves took both extra-inning games.
The Braves squandered a chance to gain a game on National League East-leader Philadelphia, which lost 4-1 to San Francisco on Thursday. The Phillies maintained a five-game lead.
With the non-waiver trade deadline approaching Sunday, the Braves could use some help for their stagnant offense. They're trying to add a right-handed bat to their lineup, and are believed to have either made offers or at least discussed proposals for Houston Astros All-Star outfielder Hunter Pence and Chicago White Sox slugger Carlos Quentin, and perhaps others as fallbacks.
They have scored 70 runs scored in their past 17 games, with 36 of those runs coming in four games at Colorado or against Washington. The Braves averaged 2.6 runs in the other 13 games during that lackluster stretch.
"Hopefully that changes a little bit," said Gonzalez, whose team opens a three-game series Friday at Turner Field against Florida, the team that fired him as manager in June 2010. "The Marlins are coming in and they’re playing a little bit. Hopefully we can light up the scoreboard a little bit in the run column. I mean, yesterday we got 14 hits and two runs. We’re getting our hits, we’re just not getting them with people on base.”
When Eric Hinske hit a two-out double to drive in a run in the first inning Thursday, it marked the first time in 10 games that the Braves scored before their opponent. It also was the first time in 11 games that they scored in the opening inning.
Hinske’s double off Pirates right-hander Kevin Correia (12-8) was a ground-rule hit that bounced over the fence, forcing Freeman to stop at third base. David Ross flied out to leave two runners in scoring position.
The Braves failed to score after getting leadoff hits in four consecutive innings from the second through the fifth.
"Even early on tonight we didn’t get a guy in from third with less than two outs," Ross said. "Like I said yesterday, we’ve got to do that stuff now, without B-Mac and Chipper in there. We’ve got to put those at-bats together where we get those guys in."
Ross is filling in as every-day catcher for Brian McCann, who landed on the disabled list after straining an oblique muscle Tuesday. Chipper Jones has been limited to pinch-hitting duties for three games after straining a quadriceps muscle Monday.
Lowe (6-9) was an astounding 10-0 with a 2.64 ERA in 10 career starts against the Pirates before Thursday, when he gave up three runs and eight hits in five innings, most of the damage coming after a rain delay in the fourth.
He retired the last five batters in the third and fourth innings, then sat for just over an hour through a 47-minute rain delay and the Braves’ at-bat in the bottom of the fourth. When he came back out, the 38-year-old right-hander gave up three consecutive hits to start the fifth inning, including an RBI double by McCutchen that put the Pirates ahead 2-1. They added another run on a groundout by Pedro Alvarez.
Lowe said it had nothing to do with the wait during the rain delay.
“We were able to come in here and threw in the cage a little bit before we went out there," he said. "You’d like to say it did [affect him] but it had nothing to do with it.”
But Ross said the right-hander wasn't as effective after the wait, and the Pirates capitalized.
“They did some good things coming out of the rain delay," he said. "D-Lowe wasn’t as sharp as far as location, like he was earlier. They’re a good team. There’s a reason why they’re tied for first place or whatever they are, a game back. They’re playing well and they know it. If you’re able to pitch to them, they can pitch, too. And they don’t beat themselves like they used to.”
Alvarez made one of the best defensive plays of the night in the seventh inning. With the Braves trailing by a run and Alex Gonzalez on first base, the Pirates third baseman dove to his left to stop pinch-hitter Jones’ short-hop grounder.
Alvarez got up and threw to second to start the double play.
"I centered it," Jones said. "You can’t guide it. You’ve just got to whack it. Their guy made a great play. Happens.”
The Braves had cut the lead to 3-2 with a run in the sixth, after Freeman led off with a double. He scored on an errant throw to first by shortstop Ronnie Cedeno on Dan Uggla’s infield single.
Uggla and Freeman extended their career-best hitting streaks, Uggla pushing his to 18 games with the sixth-inning hit and Freeman lengthening his streak to 12 with a first-inning single.
"We basically played these guys five times, or more that five times, in four games," Lowe said. "I think if you ask both teams, both teams probably feel like they should have won all four. I bet they’d say the same thinig. Every game was nip-and-tuck.
"We fell short today, and they got a lot of big hits.”
