MILWAUKEE – Just when Dansby Swanson had finally started to make some progress at the plate, the Braves' rookie shortstop made an extremely costly mistake in the field Sunday against the Brewers.
After Swanson botched a routine grounder with two out in the sixth inning and the Braves ahead by one run, Domingo Santana hit a three-run homer on the next pitch from Mike Foltynewicz to send the Brewers to a 4-3 win in a series finale at Miller Park. It was the second homer of the game for Santana.
“Played it right, it just came up,” Swanson said of his team-high fourth error. “I mean, just one of those things sometimes, just how it goes. I knew we’d have plenty of time at second, and I went over there and tried to play it out front, and it just came up and obviously I didn’t (make the play).”
The Braves saw their series-sweep hopes quashed and a four-game winning streak snapped in the finale of a 4-4 trip, and Foltynewicz (0-3) again went unrewarded for a six-inning, one-earned-run performance that included strikeouts of six of the first seven batters he faced.
“The sixth was a little longer inning than I’d had, and I think I was just leaving pitches up over the plate,” Foltynewicz said. “They did what they had to do with them. Tough way to end the sixth there. That’s about it.”
Foltynewicz, pitching before some 50 friends and family members who drove up from his native Illinois, retired the first 11 batters and didn’t give up a hit until Santana’s game-tying leadoff homer in the fifth inning.
Freddie Freeman answered in the Braves’ sixth with a two-out homer, ending a streak of 15 consecutive batters retired by Brewers starter Matt Garza. It was Freeman’s ninth homer and second of the series and put the Braves back in front, 2-1.
But after an Eric Thames one-out single in the sixth and a 3-6 grounder that the Braves couldn’t turn into a double play, Hernan Perez hit the fateful grounder to Swanson.
He moved to his left to field it and throw to second for the force, but instead the ball bounced from his glove. Swanson bobbled it once, twice before it dropped to the ground and the runner eased into second base.
“That’s going to happen,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said softly. “Shoot, that kid (Swanson) has saved us so many runs, he’s got us off the field so much with tough plays. It’s just one of those things, I don’t think anybody feels worse than he does. But he’ll be back out there. He’s made so many great plays to help us win games.”
With runners at first and second after the error, Santana unloaded on the next pitch, a hanging slider. He drove it over the right-center wall for the second multi-homer game of his career, giving the Brewers a 4-2 lead.
“I think I did OK,” Foltynewicz said. “But again, we lead twice and I gave it right back up. At the end of the day that’s what happened. But I battled, I battled to the end.”
Three of four runs charged to Foltynewicz were unearned, and he pitched six innings and gave up four hits and no walks with six strikeouts in 82 pitches including sliders that froze Milwaukee hitters in the early innings.
“Folty was really, really good,” Snitker said. “He’s making some huge strides forward. Just his whole game has been really good, and he was really on the attack today. First run you’ve got to tip your hat to that hitter (Santana). He was throwing really good, and he just got it all.
“The second homer, after the error, he didn’t make that bad a pitch, it just kind of stayed out over the plate. That kid’s a big, strong guy.”
Foltynewicz is 0-3 despite a 2.81 ERA.
“He looks great,” Freeman said. “For that to be our No. 5 starter, you know we’re in good shape.”
Foltynewicz left for pinch-hitter Brandon Phillips after the Braves got consecutive two-out singles from Jace Peterson and Swanson in the seventh inning. Phillips came through with an RBI single to cut the lead to 4-3 and extend his hitting streak to 13 games, the second time in his past three games that he’s had a hit in his only plate appearance.
The Braves still had two runners on base when Ender Inciarte popped out to end the inning.
Inciarte’s speed helped generate the Braves’ first run after he led off the game with a single and stole two bases, giving him seven steals in April without getting caught. Matt Kemp’s two-out single gave the Braves a 1-0 lead and was followed by a Nick Markakis single before Kurt Suzuki popped out to end the first inning.
Garza (1-0) won for just the second time in eight career starts against the Braves, allowing six hits and three runs with no walks and seven strikeouts in six innings.
The Brewers didn’t have a runner reach base against Foltynewicz until two out in the fourth inning, when Ryan Braun made it to first on a throwing error by third baseman Adonis Garcia.
The Braves had played eight consecutive error-free games before their two miscues Sunday. They started the trip by getting swept at Philadelphia, but the Braves turned things around with a two-game sweep of the Mets in New York and racked up 21 runs and 32 hits in winning the first two games at Milwaukee.
“We got off to a rough start there in Philly, but (after that) we played good baseball,” Freeman said. “We didn’t get the sweep we wanted but we still won the series. … It’s not going to be a fun flight, but the beauty of this game is we get to play again tomorrow.”
