With a chance for a neat-and-tidy end to their homestand, the Braves got wild on Sunday and let another winnable game slip away 7-5 to the Mets. Now they have to hope the wild card doesn’t slip away as they head out on the road.
The Braves were four outs away from a series victory over the Mets, and at worst a 4 ½-game lead on the Cardinals in the wild card, when Jonny Venters couldn’t find the strike zone.
For nine straight pitches he missed, including a walk to load the bases and a walk to score the tying run. When he finally threw a strike to Ruben Tejada, it cost him an RBI single for the go-ahead run. Then in the ninth, Craig Kimbrel gave up his first home run since May 27 on a solo shot to Lucas Duda.
“We scratched and clawed all day and for us to have a lead in the eighth and to not get it done – no excuses, I blew that game,” Venters said. “I just couldn’t throw strikes.”
The Braves lead the Cardinals by 3 1/2 games in the wild card, and San Francisco, winners of eight straight, by four games.
The Braves have nine games left on the schedule, but six of those are on the road, against the Marlins and Nationals, and the other three are against the newly-crowned NL East champion Phillies.
“It’s hard to win on the road in September,” said Chipper Jones, who went 1-for-2 with a run-scoring double and three walks Sunday. “On paper should we win a majority of the games, yeah. We should have won the majority of the games here at home too, and we didn’t.”
The Braves went 3-3 on this homestand and are now 7-11 in September. On Sunday they could blame walks. They drew nine of them at the plate, but issued eight from the mound, including two with the bases loaded.
“If you can’t throw strikes, [you] don’t deserve to win,” Jones said. “[Tim] McClelland’s got a tight strike zone. There were a ton of walks today on both sides, but it just seemed like ours, when we were out in the field, came back and bit us the most.”
Venters made his majors’ leading 81st appearance of the season Sunday. He’s given up seven earned runs in his past 10 1/3 innings over 11 games, while picking up two blown saves and a loss. Before then, as of Aug. 25, he’d blown only two saves all year, while putting up a 1.10 ERA in his first 70 games.
Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez has made a point to try and rest Venters the latter part of the season, and entering Sunday he’d had the previous three days off. When asked if fatigue was setting in, Venters said no.
“I feel fine,” Venters said. “It’s September; it’s time to dig down deep and reach for something extra. Unfortunately today I couldn’t do that and cost my team the game.”
The Braves had trailed early, down 4-1 in the fourth inning because of another three-walk inning – this one by starter Brandon Beachy. Beachy walked the pitcher Dillon Gee with the bases loaded to tie the game 1-1, before watching Tejada clear the bases on a double. He had intentionally walked Justin Turner to face the pitcher with two outs.
“That’s just something that can’t happen,” Beachy said of his walk to Gee. “I maybe got ahead of two batters all night. I’m trying to nibble too much, and that’s never a good idea.”
The Braves have lost all four of Beachy’s four starts in September, while he’s allowed 12 earned runs in 21 1/3 innings for a 5.06 ERA.
Alex Gonzalez helped the Braves rally with a three-run fourth inning by hitting a solo home run to lead it off. He also doubled and scored a run on Freddie Freeman’s single in the seventh to put the Braves up 5-4. Gonzalez finished the homestand 11-for-23 (.478).
But the Braves stranded 15 runners on the day, while going 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position. They didn’t leave any room for error for two guys who haven’t needed much this season, and Venters and Kimbrel gave up runs in the same game for the first time all season.
Kimbrel had gone 50 innings since allowing his last home run to Reds catcher Ramon Hernandez on May 27.
