Whether it was Alex Rodriguez doing his best Jim Leyritz imitation, or Curtis Granderson spoiling a nice moment for Brian McCann, the Yankees seemed to have an answer for everything this series.
McCann had just put the Braves up 2-1 in the fifth inning Wednesday night, giving Tim Hudson a lead to go along with his valiant pitching effort. But it took Granderson all of two batters to answer with a two-run home run of his own in the sixth inning to put the Yankees back up 3-2, a lead they held from there.
Granderson’s home run wasn’t the dagger Rodriguez’s grand slam was the night before but it helped the Yankees complete the sweep.
The Yankees have won six in a row after sweeps over the Braves and Mets and remain one game up on Baltimore for the lead in the A.L. East. It was their first sweep at Turner Field since a two-game sweep in 1998.
The Braves fell five games back in the NL East behind the Nationals, who have won six in a row themselves. It’s the Braves biggest deficit in the division since they trailed by five on April 10.
“We're just going through a frustrating little period,” Hudson said, who gave the Braves a second straight quality start in a loss. “We felt like we missed some opportunities. We missed some pitches and they made some plays to keep us from scoring.”
Dueling home runs kept a sell-out crowd of 48,938 at Turner Field on their feet, but the Braves loss ultimately came down to their problems with small ball. An ill-timed bunt by Andrelton Simmons might have cost them a run in the second and a failed squeeze attempt by Martin Prado in the eighth preceded an inning-ending double play.
The Braves went 2-for-13 with runners in scoring position and stranded 13 runners on Wednesday night. They went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position the night before, stranding nine.
“Every game was real close,” McCann said. “It just seemed like we didn’t get that big hit to break open a close game. But (they’re) one of the best teams in the game, and we know we can hang with them.”
After winning their first two games in this 15-game gauntlet through the AL East, the Braves have lost four straight. After an off-day Thursday, they host Baltimore for the weekend then it’s back to New York for three more with the Yankees.
Coughing up four-run leads twice in those four losses didn’t sit well.
“You play good baseball and you get beat, you can live with it,” Chipper Jones said. “But when you’ve got leads middle innings, late innings, and I’m not talking about one-run leads, I’m talking about four-run leads, and you give them up, that’s a little concerning. But I’ll just chalk it up to it being a little bit of a fluke and move on.”
Hudson was trying to win for the fourth time in six starts after Braves losses this season but couldn’t pull it off, despite striking out eight in six innings and giving up only one run before Granderson’s homer.
Hudson was pitching on seven days’ rest because of bone spurs in his left ankle and said afterward it felt “good enough.”
Perhaps a little rusty, he gave up two hits to Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez in the first three batters he faced and only two more over the next four innings. Rodriguez’s RBI in the first inning seemed fairly harmless – especially compared to the grand slam he hit off Jonny Venters Tuesday– but it still packed some punch. The Yankees are 17-0 in games this season when Rodriguez has driven in at least one run.
McCann is hoping to make a big impact of his own for the Braves from here on out. He said Monday he feels like he’s onto something mechanically, and the results are bearing that out. McCann hit two doubles Tuesday, and went 2-for-5 Wednesday, with his first home run since May 30.
“I found some things that I haven’t had for the last four months of baseball that I’ve played,” said McCann, now hitting .243 on the season. “So it’s exciting to get that back, and it’s exciting to get out there and know that you’re hitting in the middle of the order for a reason. It feels good that you know you can contribute to this team with the bat.”
The Braves put the leadoff man on base 13 times in the series and scored in only two of those innings. They had a great scoring chance in the second inning Wednesday but Simmons bunted for a single rather than swinging with runners first and third and one out, with Hudson coming up behind him. He loaded the bases but got stranded after Hudson struck out and Michael Bourn grounded out.
“It’s a learning thing,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “He probably hasn’t hit eighth before and he’s playing National League rules every day now. It’s an aggressive mistake really. We talked to him about it, and I don’t think we’ll see him do it again.”
