OAKLAND – Athletics fans gave Braves catcher Kurt Suzuki a big round of applause the first time he came to bat Sunday, a warm welcome for a popular former Oakland player who hadn’t played in the first two games of the series.
By the end of a long day, they weren’t cheering him. Suzuki’s second homer of the game was a leadoff shot in the 12th inning that lifted the surging Braves to a 4-3 win and series sweep at Oakland Coliseum. Suzuki said it felt special doing it against the team he spent most of his first six major league seasons with.
“I want to do good every time, but it gives you a little extra adrenaline,” said Suzuki, 33, who had his third multi-homer game, the others coming with the A’s in 2010 and 2011. “I got a little bit of cheers at the beginning of the game. I’m definitely very blessed and humbled.
“This was a great place for me, my family and I had a great time when I was here, the fans embraced me from Day 1. So to come back here I definitely had some adrenaline going.”
The Braves completed a 4-2 West Coast trip and moved within one game of .500 (40-41) at the season’s midway point.
“I told (Suzuki) yesterday, I’ve got to break you out or these people around here are going to kill me,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said, smiling. “It’s great. It couldn’t happen to a better guy. Big hit after big hit all year for him. Most of his homers are probably big ones. Big hits, great job — it’s just nice to see when good things happen to the good guys.”
Twelve of Suzuki’s 21 RBIs have come via his six home runs.
Matt Kemp came through with a two-out double in the 11th inning that drove in Nick Markakis, and perhaps no one was happier at that than Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips, who lost a pop-up in the sun that proved costly in the seventh inning when the A’s erased a 2-0 lead.
But sweeps are never easy, and 11 innings weren’t enough for the Braves to finish this series finale and getaway day before a cross-country flight home.
The A’s scored a tying run in the bottom of the 11th against closer Jim Johnson after he walked the first two batters in the inning, but Johnson did impressive work to get out of that inning without further damage, with an assist from newly minted All-Star Ender Inciarte on a sliding catch with bases loaded.
“The whole way I knew I was going to get it,” Inciarte said. “I had to.”
Arodys Vizcaino gave up a two-out single and walk in the 12th before getting the final out.
The Braves frittered away a 2-0 lead in the seventh inning and gave up the lead again after taking it in the 11th, but then they did what they’ve done on a regular basis lately. They bounced back and won another close game, improving to 9-1 in games tied after eight innings and 23-18 in games decided by one or two runs including 10 straight wins in such games.
They’ve won 11 of 15 games and 16 of their past 25.
"The team's playing so good, this is a great group of guys," Inciarte said. "We love each other, we play for each other, and even when we got tied in the 11th inning, we came back and scored another run and played defense. We're doing the little things and hopefully we're going to keep this going until the end, because I feel like we've got a great chance to get to the playoffs if we keep playing like this."
After Johnson walked Khris Davis and Yonder Alonso to to start the 11th inning, he struck out Franklin Barreto before Bruce Maxwell hit a tying double off the right-field wall. After intentionally walking Jaycob Brugman to load the bases, Johnson coaxed a pop-up from Adam Rosale that Inciarte sprinted in to catch as he slid in shallow center field.
“I mean, that was huge,” Suzuki said.
Johnson struck out Rajai Davis looking to end the inning with the bases loaded.
If anyone who feels as helpless as a defensive player who’s lost a fly ball in the sun in mid-flight, it’s probably the pitcher who watches from the mound as the scene unfolds. Such was the case Sunday when Julio Teheran, pitching a gem until the seventh inning, watched as second baseman Phillips lost a pop-up in the sun just two batters after Davis led off the seventh with a homer that cut the Braves’ lead to 2-1.
Teheran came a big unraveled soon after Franklin Barreto’s routine pop-up fell to the infield dirt for a hit. The A’s would score the tying run in the inning after a pair of Teheran walks.
Suzuki led off the second inning with a home run on an 0-2 pitch from left-hander Sean Manaea to give the Braves a 1-0 Inciarte added a two-out RBI double in the inning.
For much of the afternoon, it looked like Teheran would make that lead stand to extend his road winning streak to six consecutive starts. He’s been brilliant on the road and struggled most of the season at home, coming into Sunday’s game with a 5-0 record and 2.89 ERA in seven road starts and a 1-6 record and 7.58 ERA in nine starts at SunTrust Park.
Half of the 14 earned runs Teheran allowed on the road before Sunday came in five innings at Cincinnati’s so-called “Great American Small Park.” He had a 1.63 ERA in his other six road starts before Sunday.
The only Oakland runner to reach second base through six innings did so on a leadoff walk and a wild pitch in the second inning.
Teheran retired nine of 10 batters before Davis led off the seventh with his 23rd homer, second in as many days and majors-leading 46th since the 2016 All-Star break. One out later came the sun ball, followed by a pair of walks issued to Oakland’s Nos. 7-8 batters, and an exit with bases loaded and one out.
Reliever Jason Motte gave up a game-tying sacrifice fly before left-hander Ian Krol induced an inning-ending grounder.
The game had turned quickly and Teheran was charged with three hits, two runs and four walks with a season-high eight strikeouts on an afternoon when the Braves right-hander topped out at 95 mph with his fastball and operated consistently at 92-94, a tick or two above his usual velocity.
The rookies on the left side of the Braves’ infield, shortstop Dansby Swanson and third baseman Johan Camargo were wearing sunglasses under the cloudless blue sky, but the veteran Phillips was not.
“It’s just tough,” Snitker said. “It shouldn’t happen (but) does. You go on.”
The Braves did. And won again.
