Evan Gattis did more than help the Braves avert a shutout with his eighth-inning homer Saturday night against the Angels. He sent a jolt that woke a moribund offense and a large crowd at Turner Field, where the Braves staged a furious four-run rally in the ninth to force extra innings and then rallied again to tie in the 10th.
But after all that, after it looked as if the Braves a couple of different times would pull out one of their more impressive and improbable wins in recent memory, they lost 11-6 when reliever David Hale was charged with five runs in the 13th inning, his third inning of work in what had been a strong outing by the rookie to that point.
“We were down four runs there in the ninth inning and battled back,” said manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose Braves stranded 14 runners, including three in the 10th inning. “We have a lot of (deficiencies) in our team, but battling and fight is not one of them. And I’m sure everyone has got some pimples here and there, but that’s not a trait that we lack.
“We battle our ass off, all the way to the end. We had some opportunities (to win) but I’m really proud of our club.”
Erick Aybar started the Angels’ 13th with a bunt single, then things unraveled quickly on the Braves when Aybar advanced on a passed ball against catcher Gerald Laird and Hale walked pinch-hitter C.J. Wilson – yes, the Angels starting pitcher from Friday’s series opener. Hale hit the next batter, Chris Iannetta, to load the bases.
One out later, Kole Calhoun hit a one-out single and Mike Trout added a two-run double to chase Hale (2-1) and put the Angels up 9-6. Albert Pujols added a two-run single off rookie Shae Simmons before the inning was through.
“That stings a little bit, to have started off so well and then to have it end like that,” Hale said.
The Marietta rookie allowed only one base runner in his first two innings, that on a walk in the 11th. But Hale hit a wall in the 13th inning. It was his third outing in five days, including 2 1/3 innings at Colorado on Tuesday, when he got a win, and one inning in Friday’s 4-3 win against the Angels. He was the seventh of eight Braves pitchers Saturday.
“It’s the second day in a row for him and then all of a sudden we ask him to go what three innings,” Gonzalez said, “but he gave us everything he had. He left everything on the field today.”
Hale insisted that fatigue wasn’t a factor in his performance.
“No, no, I just can’t walk people like that,” he said. “Just got to throw strikes. That was a big problem.”
Hale was charged with five runs in 2 1/3 innings, and a momentous rally was reduced to a footnote in a game that lasted 4 hours, 57 minutes. The Angels evened the three-game series at one apiece.
After the Angels scored a go-ahead run in the 10th against closer Craig Kimbrel, the Braves tied it again on Jason Heyward’s broken-bat RBI single in the 10th before leaving the bases loaded when Kole Calhoun made a sensational diving catch on Justin Upton’s fly ball to shallow right field. The Braves were just about to race onto the field to celebrate after the ball left Upton’s bat.
“Oh, yeah, everybody was ready to jump out,” Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons said. “That won them the game. That was a big moment for them. They fought back after that and they ended up taking it.”
Gattis, whose eighth-inning homer was his seventh in a 15-game hitting streak, led off the 11th with a single. After a sacrifice bunt the Angels intentionally walked hot-hitting Braves rookie Tommy La Stella. Simmons lined into a 5-4 double play to end the inning, with pinch-hitter Dan Uggla caught off second base.
“Can’t aim them, can’t make them fall (for hits),” Simmons said. “We had a couple of shots, they robbed us. Sometimes it’s just not yours. At least we showed that we can still battle, even though we were four runs behind. At the end the one that capitalizes is the one that wins, but we at least showed that we have it. We’re capable of coming back. The offense is capable of waking up at any time. That’s a good sign at least.”
Just as quickly as the Braves brought a Turner Field crowd of 48,559 to its feet with four runs on five consecutive hits to start the ninth, the Angels momentarily quieted the crowd Pujols hit a leadoff double in the 10th against Kimbrel and scored on Josh Hamilton’s single to put the Angels back on top 6-5.
But the Braves had their rally machine cranked now, and weren’t done yet.
They got a run in the 10th against Angels rookie Cam Bedrosian, an East Coweta High graduate and the son of former Braves pitcher Steve Bedrosian. After Heyward’s broken-bat single drove in the tying run, Bedrosian induced a groundout from B.J. Upton and intentionally walked Freeman with first base open to load the bases with two out for Justin Upton. Calhoun charged in to catch his fly ball with a play that will show up on highlight reels.
La Stella’s single in the 10th gave the rookie his eighth multi-hit game in 15 since arriving from Triple-A. One out later, Ramiro Pena reached on an infield hit before Heyward came through with his second huge hit in as many innings.
Heyward had an RBI single in the ninth, one of five consecutive hits the Braves got to start that inning against reliever Ernesto Frieri.
B.J. Upton, whose error in the eighth inning – his second in as many nights — led to an unearned run, made amends with a two-run triple in the ninth, before Freeman interrupted a slump with a tying RBI double that raised the decibels to ear-splitting levels.
He said it felt good to come back and get a big hit after making the error. “At the same time I kind of think if I don’t make that error, then maybe we won the game,” Upton said. “It’s on me. But all in all, we battled hard and just didn’t come up with the win.”
Mike Morin replaced Frieri and struck out Justin Upton before the Angels walked Gattis intentionally with first base open, putting two on for Chris Johnson, who grounded into an inning-ending double play.
After watching Angels teammates go 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in the fourth and fifth innings against Braves starter Gavin Floyd, Trout and Pujols took matters into their own hands in the sixth by hitting consecutive home runs to push the lead to 3-0.
That seemed like it would be enough on a night when Garrett Richards became the latest pitcher to set a career high for strikeouts against the free-swinging Braves.
Richards had 10 strikeouts in six scoreless innings and was charged with four hits and three walks. The hard-throwing right-hander has allowed five or fewer hits in each of nine road starts and two or fewer runs in all but one.
Pujols’ sacrifice fly in the fourth accounted for the game’s only run until Trout and Pujols each blistered an 0-1 Floyd pitch to the bleachers. Floyd was charged with a season-high four runs on seven hits and four runs in 6 1/3 innings, his last run scoring when reliever Anthony Varvaro walked Trout with the bases loaded and two out in the seventh.
The Angels tacked on an unearned run in the eighth after B.J. Upton’s error allowed Howie Kendrick to reach third on a one-out single.
The Braves have scored one or no runs while Floyd was in the game in half of his starts. This time, no one should have expected them to score many, at least not while Richards was pitching.
The Angels right-hander began the day with a 2.08 ERA and .159 opponents’ average in road games — the best in the majors in the latter category among pitchers with at least 40 innings.
Richards’ overall .211 opponents’ average before Saturday was tied with Oakland’s Scott Kazmir for the American League lead among starters, ahead of the Yankees’ Masahiro Tanaka (.216), Texas’ Yu Darvish (.218) and Seattle’s Felix Hernandez (.219). In other words, he has been really good this season.
But the Angels bullpen has been a different story, and the Braves teed off on relievers.
Gattis’ home run against right-hander Joe Smith was the 15th for Gattis, tops among the Braves and the most among major league catchers.
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