The Braves and Paul Maholm have struggled on the road for much of the season, and Miami pitcher Jacob Turner has been unbeatable lately at home.
That proved a bad mix for Atlanta on Wednesday, when the Marlins scored four runs in the first inning of a 6-2 win at Marlins Park, averting a series sweep and leaving the Braves with a 3-3 record on their last road trip before the All-Star break.
“The game could have gotten out of hand in a heartbeat after he gave up those (four first-inning) runs, but he kept it right there,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said of Maholm (9-8). “We battled back and made it a two-run game. You feel pretty good that we’ve got a chance. Then they added two runs there late, in the eighth inning.”
Maholm was charged with seven hits, four runs and five walks in 4-1/3 innings, and fell to 4-6 with a 5.37 ERA in 12 road starts. Four hits and two walks came in the 37-pitch first inning, when the Marlins sent nine batters to the plate.
“If you look at (just) my home record and what I did at home, I’d probably be a leading candidate for a lot of awards,” said Maholm, who is 5-2 with a 1.93 ERA in seven starts at Turner Field. “Obviously, we’ve got to take everything into account, and I haven’t done as well on the road as I wanted to.”
He won his first two road starts in dominant fashion, allowing only five hits in 14-2/3 scoreless innings at Miami and Washington. The Braves went 7-0 in their first seven road games, but are 16-26 on the road since then. Maholm is 2-6 with 6.83 ERA in 10 road starts in that latter span.
“We won the series,” Gonzalez said. “That’s what we always like to do, win series. We had a chance to sweep the series and go home 4-2. That didn’t happen. Now our goal is the Cincinnati Reds. Win that series before the break.”
They open a four-game series against the Reds on Thursday night at Turner Field, where the Braves have a league-best 29-13 home record.
“We played a little better on the road,” first baseman Freddie Freeman said, “so hopefully after the All-Star break we can get in there and get some wins on the road.”
The sweep hopes looked dead in the water early Wednesday. After Justin Ruggiano walked to start the first inning, Ed Lucas singled and Giancarlo Stanton doubled to drive in both runners.
One out later, Placido Polanco doubled in another run. And one out and one walk later, Jeff Mathis singled for a 4-0 lead.
“I was off,” Maholm said. “They took advantage of it in the first.”
But he settled down after that inning, and the Braves got a run in the second after consecutive doubles by Chris Johnson and Dan Uggla to start the inning. Then things got weird. B.J. Upton struck out, but the strike 3 pitch got away from catcher Jeff Mathis, who retrieved it and threw out Uggla trying to advance to third on a close play.
“That was an aggressive play at third,” Gonzalez said. “And it looked like he might have been safe over there.”
Upton advanced to first despite striking out, but was then picked off by Turner.
Johnson had two of the Braves’ six hits and extended his hitting streak to 11 games. He’s 18-for-42 (.429) during the streak, and has a team-high 27 multihit games this season.
Freeman doubled with one out in the sixth, advanced on a wild pitch, and scored on Johnson’s groundout to cut the lead to 4-2. But Turner retired the next four batters to get through the seventh, and relievers Chad Qualls and Steve Cishek had four strikeouts over the last two scoreless innings.
Turner (3-1) limited the Braves to four hits, two runs and three walks in seven innings. He’s 4-0 with a 1.41 ERA in his past seven starts at Marlins Park, including 3-0 in four this season.
“He was good, man,” Freeman said. “He had his two-seamer and a cutter, and he had a good changeup today. He mixed in that curveball every once in a while just to let us know that he had it. He made his pitches when he needed to.”
The Marlins’ eighth-inning runs were charged to Luis Ayala, in his second appearance since coming off the disabled list last week after missing 2-1/2 months with anxiety disorder and a bacterial infection near his stomach.
Ayala gave up a two-out double in a scoreless seventh, then allowed two singles in the eighth before giving way to Anthony Varvaro with one out. Varvaro walked Marcell Ozuna to load the bases with two out before Polanco’s two-run single.
