OAKLAND – When the Braves got a ninth-inning RBI double from rookie shortstop Dansby Swanson to pull out a 4-3 win Saturday against the Oakland Athletics, they improved to 8-1 in games that were tied after eight innings and to 22-18 in games decided by one or two runs this season, including nine consecutive wins in the latter category.
Then they did both again Sunday, beating the A’s 4-3 in 12 innings in a game that was tied 2-2 after eight innings.
They did it Saturday after reliever Arodys Vizcaino blew a 3-1 lead in the eighth inning when he gave up a two-run homer to A’s slugger Khris Davis, who also homered Sunday and has hit more home runs (46) in the past 365 days than anyone else in the majors.
Instead of letting momentum shift to the home team, the Braves came right back in the ninth to win Saturday. And after the A’s erased a 2-0 Braves lead with two runs in the seventh inning Sunday, then scored another tying run in the 11th inning, the Braves kept at it and Kurt Suzuki hit his second homer of the day to start the 12th inning, the decisive blow.
“It just kind of shows again what this team’s about,” Swanson said. “We just go about our business and try not to let the game dictate what we’re trying to do, we just keep going at it and keep going at it, and understand that if we do it the right way then we’ll be where we need to be in the end.
“Viz has been great for us all year and then the guy put a great swing on a good fastball that he hit out. But we come right back, I think that shows the resiliency of this team. I think it’s extremely important because, I mean, big games are usually close games. And being able to have that experience and confidence in each other that we can get it done in a tight game is huge.”
Veteran Braves knuckleballer R.A. Dickey, who pitched six innings of one-run ball Saturday, has been impressed since spring training with the attitude and cohesiveness of the team in his first season in Atlanta. Lately, the performance on the field has moved close to the level that Dickey and others thought it would.
“We’re doing some things that we weren’t doing so well early in the year,” he said. “We’re playing better defense, we’re running the bases better, and we’re consistently giving our team a chance to win on the mound…. If we can keep winning games where we have to fight it out, it’s good for the chemistry. Any time you give up a lead and you don’t give in to that and you overcome that, those are all good for us. We’ve done that quite a bit this year.”
