Whalen hit a wall in 3rd inning, but Braves bullpen had his back
PHOENIX — Things were not looking good Tuesday night for the Braves when rookie Robert Whalen, who’d been staked to a 2-0 lead, saw his pitch command completely abandon him. He had recorded the first two outs of the third inning, but coudn’t retire any of the next six batters in a four-run inning that gave Arizona a 4-2 lead.
Whalen was replaced after giving up a two-run ground-rule double to Jake Lamb, and it was up to a weary Braves bullpen to try to hold the Diamondbacks at bay the rest of the way — a bullpen that’s struggled lately, showing cracks from a heavy workload and roster churn.
However, this time they put out the fire and kept the Diamondbacks in check until Atlanta’s offense could get the big hit it needed in a three-run eighth inning that lifted the Braves to a 7-4 win a Chase Field. Five Braves relievers combined for 6 1/3 scoreless innings, with the last four of those being of the power-armed variety and totaling eight strikeouts with no walks over the final four innings.
“Rob left and it was like, how are we going to piece this thing together now?” Braves interim manager Brian Snitker said. “All of them did a great job. Webby, that was big to come in in that situation and get us to those other guys. Really big.”
After Whalen went from allowing no hits and one walk through 2 2/3 scoreless innings to giving up two hits, four runs and three more walks without recording another out, fellow rookie Ryan Weber bailed him out, inducing an inning-ending groundout and then retiring all seven batters faced before the Braves had Gordon Beckham pinch-hit for Weber when his spot came up to start the sixth inning.
After Weber’s 2 1/3 perfect innings, Chaz Roe pitched a perfect sixth before Jose Ramirez (2-0) worked around a leadoff triple and a hit batsman in a three-strikeout seventh inning, fanning Michael Bourn and Paul Goldschmidt consecutively with two on to escape a tight jam without giving up a run.
“Runner on third and nobody out, that’s huge — strike the side out,” Snitker said.
Rookie Mauricio Cabrera also used strikeouts to record all three of his outs in the eighth inning, and Jim Johnson had one strikeout and one hit allowed in the ninth and recorded his 11th save in 14 opportunities.
“They did a good job,” said Braves left fielder Matt Kemp, who bases-clearing double in the eighth inning (plus a fielding error on the play) turned a one-run deficit into a 6-4 Braves lead. “That was a good team effort for us all the way around. We won that as a team and it’s good to see that.”
The third inning became a nightmare for Whalen, in his fifth major league start. He retired eight of the first nine batters he faced Tuesday, allowing just one walk, before trouble arrived in the former of consecutive two-out walks to Jean Segura and Michael Bourn in the third inning.
That brought up slugger Paul Goldschmidt, whose walk-off homer gave Arizona a 9-8 win in Monday’s series opener. Whalen walked Goldschmidt, too, loading the bases for Yasmany Tomas, who came in tied for the National League lead with 13 homers since the All-Star break.
Tomas hit a game-tying two-run single through the left side of the infield.
Wellington Castillo was up next, and when Whalen hit him with a pitch to re-load the bases, it was clear the rookie might not get out of the inning even if Braves interim manager Brian Snitker would keep giving him chances to.
With the bases re-loaded, Whalen faced Jake Lamb, who pulled a long fly ball to the right-field corner that bounced over the fence, driving in two runs instead of the three that it might have otherwise. And that was all for Whalen, who exited with the Braves down 4-2.
Whalen, 22, has already pitched 144 2/3 innings this season, after never pitching as many as 100 in his four previous minor league seasons. The Braves seemed inclined to shut him down soon even before he ran into a wall in the third inning Tuesday, which could hasten that decision.
“We forget that he’s only got like (eight) starts above Double-A in his life,” Snitker said. “The kid competes and it just went south on him. It’s something we’ll talk about; we’ll look at that (innings limit) too, because that’s a realistic outlook on him right now….
“You can’t walks guys like that and expect to escape anything like that. But he’s out there battling and trying and pitching, and he’s done a very good job of that the whole time he’s been up here. Like I said, he’s a young kid that we kind of fast-tracked and put in this situation, and he competes his butt off.”
