PHILADELPHIA – After first assuring they wouldn’t go 0-for-Philly in 2017, the Braves went ahead and grabbed two wins on the last day they’ll play at Citizens Bank Park this season.
Ender Inciarte had a good week’s worth of hits in one day, Julio Teheran followed up R.A. Dickey’s strong start in the doubleheader opener with a highly effective outing in the second game, and the Braves doubled their previous season wins total against the Phillies in one afternoon with a doubleheader sweep capped by a 5-2 win.
After beating the Phillies only two times in their first 14 games, the Braves beat them twice at “The Bank,” where Inciarte had eight — count ’em, eight — hits including three in the late-afternoon game after his majors-leading third five-hit game in the 12:05 p.m. first game. The Braves had been 0-8 at Philadelphia this season before Wednesday.
“It was fun,” said Inciarte, who went 8-for-10 with a walk and five RBIs in nine plate appearances, leaving him one shy of a major-league doubleheader record of nine hits, which has been done nine times. “You come here thinking just thinking you’re going to play two games and try to get on base for your team, and I end up having a really good day.”
So did Teheran, who limited the Phillies to five hits, one run and one walk with eight strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings, getting in synch after the first couple of innings with David Freitas in the well-traveled catcher’s major league debut.
“To come in here today and not have won a game all year, it’s nice to get the two, but it takes good pitching to do that,” said manager Brian Snitker, whose Braves are now 4-14 against the Phillies with one series remaining against them Sept. 22-24, the last series of the season at SunTrust Park.
The Braves also got their first series win since winning two of three Aug. 4-6 against the Marlins. They had lost five series and split another in their past six series before taking two of three from the Phillies.
“We got two great starts,” Snitker said. “Things got a little dicey at the end there, but fortunately Viz (closer Arodys Vizcaino) had a lot of rest, that he could come in and do one-plus (innings).”
Jose Ramirez walked three of five batters he faced in the eighth inning before Vizcaino came on to strike out Cameron Rupp to preserve a 3-1 lead, and the Braves added two in the ninth on run-scoring hits from Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson.
After Nick Markakis was walked intentionally with two out, Swanson lined an RBI single up the middle for his third hit to go with three walks in the doubleheader.
Vizcaino gave up a triple and sacrifice fly in the ninth before recording the four-out save, the second time this season he got more than three outs and the first time in a save situation.
Inciarte went 5-for-5 with a walk in six plate appearances in a 9-1 win in the first game, then got three hits in five plate appearances in the second game. He singled on the first pitch of the game from Mark Leiter Jr., then stole second base and scored on a two-out double from Matt Kemp to give the Braves a 1-0 lead.
“He’s been doing it all year,” Teheran said. “Today was a big day for him, doubleheader. He got eight hits — that’s impressive.”
The Phillies tied the score with a run in the second on doubles from Maikel Franco and Pedro Florimon. But after Leiter hit a two-out single to put runners on the corners, Teheran struck out Cesar Hernandez to end the inning and begin a stretch in which he retired 15 of 16 batters before Hyun Soo Kim’s a two-out double in the seventh inning.
Reliever Sam Freeman replaced Teheran and struck out Andres Blanco to end the inning and protect a two-run lead.
“It took us two innings to figure it out and for (Freitas) to get to know me,” Teheran said. “That was the first time ever that I got to work with him. But the rest of the game we worked good, we were on the same page. He got to know me, what I want, and when I’d shake him off he went straight to the pitch I wanted.”
Teheran (9-011) threw 72 strikes in 109 pitches and improved to 2-1 with a 2.33 ERA in his past four starts including consecutive wins against the Rockies and Phillies.
Freitas, called up from Triple-A on Wednesday, had a RBI double in his second at-bat, his first big-league hit scoring Swanson in the fourth inning for a 2-1 lead. Two batters later, Inciarte singled to score Freitas.
Teheran is 6-2 with a 2.77 ERA in eight career starts at Citizens Bank Park, statistics that don’t really reflect how well he’s pitched there. Eight of the 16 earned runs he’s allowed came in one start (4 2/3 innings) July 28, when he lost for the first time in Philadelphia since losing his major league debut May 7, 2011.
In five starts between that debut and his July 28 loss, Teheran went 5-0 with a 1.00 ERA and .197 opponents’ average and no homers allowed at Citizens Bank Park during the 2014-2016 seasons.
He got back to form Wednesday when he allowed one run, the fifth time in eight starts at Philadelphia that he’s surrendered one or no runs in six or more innings.
“My last start here was a tough one; just one inning was bad,” Teheran said. “Doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to keep doing what I’ve been doing — I like pitching here. Like I’ve said, every time I get the ball here it reminds me of when I made my debut.”
