NEW YORK – No National League hitter has been worse with runners in scoring position this season than the Braves' B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla, but both came through in the 10th inning Saturday in the conclusion of a suspended game.
Uggla broke a tie with an RBI single and Upton put down a squeeze bunt to bring in the final run of the Braves’ 7-5 series-opening win, extending their winning streak to seven games. The game was suspended after eight innings Friday due to rain, and resumed Saturday in the ninth inning.
Craig Kimbrel worked out of a 10th-inning jam to convert his 15th save in the 7-5 win, which was completed with a half-hour break before the regularly scheduled Saturday night game.
Kimbrel hit the first batter in the 10th and gave up a single to .143-hitting Ike Davis, then got Ruben Tejada on a popped bunt attempt and induced a game-ending double-play grounder by Justin Turner for the Braves’ 14th win in their past 17 games against the skidding Mets.
“I’m glad we were able to finish it off in 10 innings and get the W,” Gonzalez said in the break between games.
Uggla and Freddie Freeman hit home runs in the Friday portion of the game, and Evan Gattis had a two-run pinch-hit single in the eighth inning that gave the Braves a 5-3 lead. Reliever Anthony Varvaro gave up the lead in driving rain in the bottom of the inning before play was suspended with the score tied.
When play resumed, the Braves got a leadoff double from Ramiro Pena in the ninth. He moved to third on a sacrifice bunt and Jason Heyward walked to put two on with one out, before Justin Upton grounded into a rally-killing double play.
Varvaro (2-0) returned to pitch a perfect ninth inning Saturday, and the Braves put together another scoring opportunity in the 10th after Freeman’s leadoff walk and a Brian McCann double on an 0-2 pitch. Uggla followed with a broken-bat RBI single to left field for the lead, and B.J. Upton squeeze-bunted with two out to score pinch-runner Jordan Schafer.
Upton is a majors-worst 2-for-29 (.069) with runners in scoring position, and Uggla was 2-for-27 (.074) in those situations before Saturday.
“Two big hits for Danny, the home run yesterday to tie it, and then the go-ahead winning run,” Gonzalez said. “Big knock there, after we squandered an opportunity the (ninth) inning. He comes up big. And Mac with the double. What did he have, three hits? (3-for-5). And Schafer with a heads-up plays. That (squeeze bunt) wasn’t on, it wasn’t a sign. But it was B.J. trying to get another run, and he had the right guy at third base Schafer, and he was heads-up and able to score a run there.”
Varvaro said it was impossible to get a good grip on the ball in the eighth inning, but Gonzalez didn’t have a problem with umpires allowing play to continue Friday. The Mets scored a run on Daniel Murphy’s two-out single that Upton misplayed in center, allowing a runner to advance to third.
They scored the tying run when that runner scored on a wild pitch that skipped across the wet dirt past McCann.
If the game had been stopped after the top half of the eighth inning, it would’ve had to be resumed from that point, since the Braves had scored the go-ahead runs in the top of the inning.
“That’s the protocol, try to keep playing and finish the inning,” Gonzalez said. “And give the home team either a chance to come back in the bottom of the inning or us to make three outs. If that happens and we’ve got the lead, and we end up having a three-hour rain delay or whatever and then they want to bang it (rain out), it’s an official game.
“So that’s what they were trying to do. Actually I thought it would benefit us, because we had the lead. I think Varvaro punched out the side, and we still gave up two runs.”
The suspended game was the first in Mets franchise history, and first for the Braves since April 5, 1997, when the second game ever played at Turner Field was suspended in the bottom of the seventh inning. The Braves won 11-5 when it was completed the following day.
