MIAMI – On a night when Dan Uggla's hitting streak reached the lofty 30-game plateau and the Braves blew a late lead, newcomer Michael Bourn's speed proved decisive in a win.
Bourn scored from second base on Martin Prado’s fourth hit of the night, a one-out single in the 11th inning that lifted the Braves a 4-3 win over the Marlins at mostly empty Sun Life Stadium.
"I’m seeing my team start to the do the little things and not worry about who’s hot or who’s not," said Prado, who drove in three runs with his first four-hit game of the season. "Just somebody step up and get the big hit. Thank God I was the guy that got the big hit tonight.”
Craig Kimbrel induced a game-inning double play for his majors-leading 36th save, leaving him just four shy of equaling the major league rookie record. The win was the fifth in six games for the Braves, who improved to 13-8 in a majors-leading 21 extra-inning games.
Bourn doubled with one out after pinch-runner Jason Heyward was picked off first base.
Instead of fretting over whether Heyward might've scored on the Bourn hit, or how Bourn would've had a triple if he hadn't slipped rounding first base, the Braves could breathe easy after Prado singled through the right side of the infield and Bourn blazed home.
The ball was slowed by the wet grass and fielded in shallow right field, and Bourn made it easily when right fielder Mike Stanton’s throw sailed high.
“That was awesome," Uggla said. "Bourn came up huge with a double right there. Same situation as if you would have bunted him over. Prado just got locked in and did what he needed to do, get a base hit. Bourn could pretty much score on anything right there.”
Bourn, the major league stolen-base leader, came to the Braves from Houston in a July 31 trade.
“Those guys -- Bourn especially -- him and [Jose] Constanza in the last week have given us such a boost offensively," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "Runs that we haven’t been scoring [in the past], they’ve been scoring. Just getting on base a lot and being able to force the other team into mistakes. Not staying on first long – getting into scoring position.
"That’s when we’re all at our best in the middle of the lineup. Those little rug rats, they’ll kill you.”
The Braves, who lead the majors with 20 wins in their final at-bat, improved to 5-3 on a nine-game trip that ends Wednesday night.
Brandon Beachy went unrewarded for a dominant pitching performance, after the Braves blew a 3-0 lead when John Buck hit a three-run homer off reliever Anthony Varvaro in the seventh.
But Eric O’Flaherty worked out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth, striking out Logan Morrison and Mike Cameron, and Jonny Venters and George Sherrill worked perfect innings in the ninth and 10th to get the game to Kimbrel.
The Braves accomplished something they’ve done infrequently in recent weeks – win a game without their streaking second baseman having a hand in the scoring.
Prado homered in the fifth and had a two-out single in the sixth for a 3-0 lead. Bourn’s bases-loaded walk in the second inning brought in the Braves’ first run.
Uggla beat out an infield hit in the fifth to push his hitting streak to 30 games, one shy of Rico Carty’s Atlanta Braves record set in 1970. It was the second night in a row in which he extended his streak with only an infield hit.
“Yeah, man," he said. "We’re talking about a lot of games [in the streak], so there’s going to be times where you don’t feel as good as other times. You’ve just got to battle and take what you can get.”
Uggla equaled the longest hitting streak in the majors this season, by the Dodgers’ Andre Ethier. Other than Carty, the only player in franchise history with a longer streak than Uggla’s was Tommy Holmes, who hit safely in 37 consecutive games for the 1945 Boston Braves.
"I think the loudest cheer all night was when he beat out that hit," Jones said. "You can say what you want about the home run and scoring that [final] run; I think we were all too tired to cheer there in the 10th or 11th, whenever it was. But, man, when he got that hit, the whole dugout erupted."
Reduced to a footnote was the work of Beachy, who had 10 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings, allowed three hits and three walks, and left with a 3-0 lead and two Marlins on base.
“What a helluva job Beachy did for those first 6-2/3 innings," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "Again, he sure deserved a little better. That seventh inning didn’t go quite the way we wanted it to, but the guys out of the bullpen were terrific.”
Varvaro entered and promptly gave up a three-run homer to the next batter, Buck’s two-out blast sailing over the left-field clock tower to turn a three-run deficit into a tie.
Instead of winning his third consecutive start, Beachy had to rue walking two of the first three batters in the seventh. Until then he had issued but one walk, and no Florida runner had advanced past first since the second inning.
“Hey, we won the game, that’s what matters," said Beachy, who nevertheless admonished himself for the walks. "I’m furious with myself. I throw well for the most part the whole game, then I come up and walk two guys. With a lead. Same thing in my last start. I had a lead and walked a leadoff guy. Walking guys, that’s just inexcusable.
"There’s no more helpless feeling than sitting on the bench with your guys out there on base. It’s frustrating.”
After Cameron’s leadoff double in the second inning, Beachy struck out the next five batters and nine of the next 12.
His only inning without a strikeout was a three-up, three-down sixth, but in the seventh Beachy ran into trouble after walking leadoff hitter Mike Stanton. One out later, he walked Cameron, too.
Beachy coaxed a pop-up from Bryan Peterson for the second out before manager Fredi Gonzalez called on Varvaro to face Buck. Beachy had thrown 107 pitches including 69 strikes.
Uggla has the 13th hitting streak of 30 games or more in the majors since 1990, and seven of the previous dozen ended at 30 games.
It was the second night in a row that he extended the streak with an infield hit against the Marlins, Uggla’s team for five seasons before he was traded in November.
