After the Braves rallied for four runs in the ninth inning of a victory Sunday in San Francisco, second baseman Jace Peterson couldn’t wait to get to Arizona so they could keep the momentum going. He knew the feeling in the visitor’s dugout Sunday, and also probably knew the Braves would have Alex Wood pitching Monday.
Wood pitched eight strong innings to win his third consecutive start, and the Braves kept that offensive roll going in an 8-1 victory against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field.
Freddie Freeman went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and his third homer in four games, Andrelton Simmons had three hits in the first four innings, and Wood chipped in with a two-run, two-out single for the first runs of the night in a three-run second inning.
“Nice to keep the momentum going,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves (26-25) have won three in a row to move back above .500, including 4-4 on a 10-game trip that began with consecutive losses at Dodger Stadium. “We talked about momentum is your next day’s starter, and we’ve got three in a row now and have (Shelby) Miller going for us tomorrow. Hopefully that’ll keep going.”
Wood (4-2) allowed seven hits, one run and no walks with four strikeouts in eight innings, throwing 77 strikes in 113 pitches. He has a 1.22 ERA in his three-game winning streak, and has allowed seven hits and one run in each of those games, lasting seven innings in each of the first two.
“My last two starts I’m starting to get everything together, so to speak.” said Wood, who outpitched Zack Greinke to beat the Dodgers in the finale of that series last week, and is 4-0 with a 2.15 ERA in seven road starts. “Now it’s just more about getting that consistency, the repeatability, to where I don’t have anything to work out anymore.”
Peterson also had two hits including an RBI double for the Braves, who pulled within 2 ½ games of National League East leader Washington, which had its scheduled game against Toronto postponed by rain.
Peterson had a double and triple in his first three-hit game Saturday in a 8-0 victory against the San Francisco Giants, and had a decisive three-run triple in a ninth-inning rally Sunday — a rally started by Freeman’s second homer in three days against Giants closer Santiago Casilla.
Monday against the Diamondbacks, Freeman homered in the fifth inning against 22-year-old starter Archie Bradley (2-3), Freeman’s fourth homer in an 11-game hitting streak against Arizona dating to May 2013. The mammoth drive to center field, estimated at 451 feet, was his fourth homer in 13 career games at Chase Field.
(Both homers off Casilla were to center, a good sign for Freeman, who had struggled for a couple of weeks and knows he’s getting it back when he starts driving balls to the opposite field and up the middle.)
Many Arizona pitchers have tried and failed to contain the big first baseman, and young Bradley joined their ranks Monday. Freeman came in with a .396 average and 25 RBIs in 24 games against the Diamondbacks, and he’s hit .418 (23-for-55) with four homers and 16 RBIs in 13 games at Phoenix.
“I always see the ball good here,” Freeman said of Chase Field, where the retractable roof was opened just before gametime Monday on a bone-dry night with the temperature 102 degrees.
The Braves had two out and nobody on in the second inning after Juan Uribe grounded into a double play. Then things got fun.
A.J. Pierzynski singled, and Jonny Gomes doubled down the third-base line. With runners on second and third, the Diamondbacks figured they’d walk Todd Cunningham intentionally to bring up Wood. So they did. And he made them pay.
Wood, who already had a three-hit game this season against the Nationals, singled up the middle on the first pitch, driving in two runs to silence an already small and subdued crowd. Peterson followed with another walk to reload the bases, and Simmons hit another two-out single to drive in the third run of the inning.
Six consecutive Braves had reached base via hit or walk.
With the bases still loaded, Freeman had a chance to blow the game open, but grounded out to first base to end the inning. But Freeman would get his a couple of innings later.
“You always want to come up in those situations when you’re in the middle of the order,” Freeman said. “Obviously I didn’t come through on that one, so I was just glad I got another opportunity and was able to come through.”
The Diamondbacks had only one runner reach base until the fifth inning, when former Brave Jarrod Saltalamacchia led off with a double and former Braves shortstop prospect Nick Ahmed reached on a bunt single.
Pinch-hitter Yasmany Tomas hit a comebacker to the mound and the Braves had Saltalamacchia in a rundown, but Pierzynski ran the runner back to the base and held the ball when he didn’t see anyone covering (Juan Uribe was a few feet away).
The bases now loaded, Ender Iciarte hit a sacrifice fly to center. The Braves turned it into an inning-ending double play when shortstop Andrelton Simmons did what he has done before in such situations, alertly throwing a strike to second base to cut down Tomas trying to advance from first on the play.
“(Wood) got himself in a little trouble there in that inning, but only gave up one run,” Gonzalez said. “That’s really good. Offensively, we added on some runs late in the game. But I thought that inning when they had the bases loaded and one out, our defense did a terrific job hitting the cutoff man there, and Simmons getting the ball and doubling up the runner.”
