PITTSBURGH – Two weeks ago the Braves flew home Seattle after a miserable 0-8 road trip that left them two games over .500 and pretty much dead in the water, in the view of many. The Pittsburgh Pirates might have a hard time believing that today.
The Braves pounded the skidding Pirates for the second night in a row Tuesday, getting five RBIs from Justin Upton and a strong performance from pitcher Aaron Harang in an 11-3 rout at PNC Park, their fifth consecutive win and eighth in 12 games since that winless West Coast trip.
Upton extended his hitting streak to 10 games with a three-run homer in the third inning that gave the Braves a 4-0 lead, and Upton and Jason Heyward had two-run singles in a five-run eighth that pushed the lead to 8-1.
“We were positive throughout our struggles,” Upton said of the recent skid, which led many pundits to severely downgrade their chances of making the postseason. “We know how baseball is. Baseball can drive you nuts, and you can have some great times, too. So we’re just going to try to continue to stay positive and just try to ride it out.”
Evan Gattis also hit his 19th home run for the Braves, a towering, tape-measure shot with bases empty in the ninth.
Harang (10-7) retired nine of the first 10 batters and limited the Pirates to three runs and nine hits in 8 1/3 innings for his team-high 21st quality start and first win in eight starts since July 10. He was replaced after giving up a run on three consecutive one-out hits in the ninth.
“I was getting ahead (in counts) early and making them put the ball in play, and guys were making plays behind me,” said Harang, who struck out four, walked none, and threw 77 strikes in 114 pitches. “Once you get more of a lead you can go in and try to execute early, try to get them to put the ball in play and let the defense work behind you…
“Everybody’s swinging well, we’re taking advantage of any kind of miscues and the guys are up there being aggressive and hitting the ball hard.”
Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons left the game in the sixth inning with a sore left hip, and manager Fredi Gonzalez wasn’t sure if he’d be ready to play in Wednesday night’s series finale. He said the issue had only cropped up in the last day or two and that he got Simmons out of the game after he struggled to stay upright on a few swings in his first three at-bats.
Harang improved to 5-1 with a 3.10 ERA in his past 11 starts, a stretch that included four consecutive wins followed by five no decisions and a loss Thursday against the Dodgers in one of his few bad games this season. The big right-hander is 4-0 in his past six road starts and allowed two earned runs or fewer in all but one of those games.
“He gave the bullpen a rest, pitched a lot of innings, and he pitched well, stayed on the corners,” Justin Upton said. “He pitched. That’s what he does. He’s really good at it.”
The formerly moribund Braves offense awoke last week and is now roaring, having produced five- and six-run innings in the first two games of a three-game series against Pittsburgh, which has lost seven in a row. In Monday’s series opener, Heyward and Simmons hit consecutive homers to start the game and the Braves scored six in the first inning.
“It’s nice to string together a few nice games — we can kind of be at ease and go have some fun again,” said Heyward, who chipped in two hits and three RBIs and has a .343 career average in 25 games against the Pirates, including .388 (19-for-49) with two homers and nine RBIs in 13 games at PNC Park.
After outscoring Oakland 15-8 in a three-game sweep of the team that came to Atlanta with the best record in the majors, the Braves have scored 18 runs in two nights against the Pirates. This is the same Braves team that mustered a total of 18 runs in eight games on their historically bad winless trip that ended Aug. 6.
“From top to bottom we’ve been able to put the ball in play and get hits,” said Justin Upton, who is 13-for-34 (.382) with four homers and 14 RBIs during a 10-game hitting streak, and ranks third in the National League in home runs (24) and RBIs (80).
Pirates left-hander Francisco Liriano had a 2.43 ERA and .172 opponents’ average in his past 10 starts before Tuesday, when the Braves rocked him for 10 hits and nine runs (seven earned) in four innings. He faced four batters in the fifth and retired none, leaving the game after B.J. Upton’s bases-loaded single off the right-field wall.
Liriano had allowed just two runs and three hits in each of his previous two starts.
The Braves announced their arrival in Pittsburgh with a first-inning scoring blitz Monday, then eased into things a bit Tuesday, scoring the first run of the game in the second inning with some of their recently discovered small ball. Simmons singled with one out, stole second on a B.J. Upton strikeout, then scored on Harang’s single, his first RBI since May 2012.
After consecutive singles by Phil Gosselin and Freddie Freeman in the third inning, Justin Upton homered for a 4-0 lead.
B.J. Upton doubled to start the fourth inning, advanced on Harang’s sacrifice and scored on a Heyward single. The Braves are 6-1 since Heyward moved back from the fifth spot in the order to leadoff.
The Pirates gave a crowd of 27,033 a glimmer of hope with a run in the fourth inning after Travis Snider’s leadoff double. But the Braves squelched any notion of a Pittsburgh rally by pouring it on the in the fifth. After Chris Johnson reached on an error to start the inning, Gattis singled and Simmons walked to load the bases.
B.J. Upton followed with an opposite-field fly off the wall in the right-field corner, hit that could’ve cleared the bases if all the Braves had been running. Gattis instead waited to tag up at second base, which clogged things up. No matter, Heyward followed one out later with a two-run single, and B.J.’s brother drove in two more with a single before the inning was over.
“I thought (B.J. Upton) had some pretty good at-bats all day,” Gonzalez said. “We talk about the guy at second (Gattis) always having the worst seat in the house (to judge the depth of a fly ball), and it’s happened to Gatty a couple of times. A guy that can run a little bit can make up for (that mistake) and score, and nobody says a word. But we’ll keep working with him; (third-base coach) Doug (Dascenzo) will keep working with him.”
Harang earned his 16th career win against the Pirates in 27 starts, tied with Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto for the most wins against Pittsburgh among active pitchers.
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