Atlanta Braves Steal a Split in San Fran: 7-5

May 31, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; Atlanta Braves second baseman

Jace Peterson

(8) hits a three run RBI thriple in the eighth inning of their MLB baseball game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance

Iversen-USA TODAY Sports

We have seen this so many times: a middle infielder who has a sure double play and rushes the effort… only to commit an error, turning 2 outs in none.

We’ve also seen things like this: Fredi Gonzalez out-managed in his use of players late in the game.

Today we saw both of these things turn around in favor of Atlanta with an offense that refused to lose… despite facing Madison Bumgarner, despite a rough start by Julio Teheran, despite a defense equally brilliant and baffling, and despite another bullpen failure.

What a nutty final three innings… a set that almost made us forget about the first six.

The First Six Innings

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Teheran and Bumgarner. For quite a while it appeared that Atlanta would be shut down and that would be the end of the story. Teheran managed to get through the first inning, but then suddenly saw pitches being ripped as both Brandons (Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford) smoked home runs to the right field seats. 2-zip Giants.

At that point, we’re thinking “Oh no, not again”… particularly while the TV broadcast crew started ticking off velocity numbers for virtually every pitch.

But Teheran actually recovered and gutted out the start: he finished six full innings and into the seventh… ultimately giving up 3 earned runs on just 4 hits. He wasn’t helping himself with walks (4) or strikeouts (1), but at least got that far.

It wasn’t until the 5th inning that Jonny Gomes broke through with the first hit of the contest for Atlanta. But then Gomes advanced to second on a groundout and Chris Johnson – playing first base to give Freddie freeman a day off – singled him in.

This seemed to change the mood to optimism, as in “yes, we can score off of Bumgarner.”

Inning 7

Juan Uribe has a swing that goes from 0 to 100 in about a tenth of a second. With Jonny Gomes aboard, he ambushed a Bumgarner offering and circled the bases, putting the Braves on top by a 3-2 count.

After this blast – Uribe’s second as a Brave – singles by Johnson an Simmons suddenly made it much more interesting, but aside from getting Bumgarner out of the game, the offense was unable to add to the rally.

Then the Atlanta bullpen took over. Not in a good way.

Teheran did give up a leadoff double, but Donnie Veal came in and could not hold the Giants at all: RBI single, sacrifice, home run. That gave the lead right back to the home-standing Giants and knocked Veal out of the game… and I would guess out of the majors, too, but that’s still to be seen as he has given up at least one earned run in every appearance he’s made with Atlanta this year.

Nick Masset finally put an end to that, getting Pence and Posey to ground out. But the damage was done: 5-3 San Francisco.

Inning 9

We’ll skip over the eighth inning, as the only interesting thing there was the back-to-back first base challenge plays, both won by Atlanta (Bruce Bochy failed his challenge, Fredi succeeded).

Santiago Casilla was pitching for San Francisco to begin the frame… and lasted for a lot longer than he should have.

After Uribe grounded out, Freddie Freeman – brought in as a defensive replacement for Chris Johnson who made an error earlier – destroyed a second Casilla pitch this series. Home run… now 5-4 Giants.

Then it got interesting:

Simmons walk
Bethacourt hits a routine grounder to Crawford at short. Crawford isn’t quite Andrelton Simmons on defense, but he’s at least in the conversation. If he turns the double play, the game is over.

He booted it. Everybody safe.

Now the Braves went for the kill:

A.J. Pierzynski gets a bloop single in short right field. Bases loaded.
Jace Peterson CLEARS the bases with a gapper triple that rolled all the way to the right center-field wall. Three runs score. Braves lead 7-5.

All of this time, Casilla is still pitching… despite Javy Lopez being directly available. Inexplicably, Lopez was finally brought in – after a Cameron Maybin groundout. Lopez then got the final out of the inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Jason Grilli made things more interesting by giving up a double to Joe Panik… which led to the inevitable puns, given that Hunter Pence was next. A fly out to deep right field from Pence did end the game. Save number 15 for Grilli. The win went to Nick Masset, his first as a Brave. Casilla gets the loss… though he had help.

*Whew*

Something to Watch For

Andrelton Simmons is going to get himself a bad reputation: for the second time this year, he appeared to slide… airborne… directly at the foot or glove of a defender attempting to make a play. That’s going to be noticed, and he will become a marked man if he doesn’t change his ways soon. That was a very bad move on his part, and had the potential of breaking the ankle of the Giant infielder today.

On the previous occasion, Yunel Escobar was hurt by Simmons’ “slide” and had to leave the game (that was the 13-12 loss to Washington as a result of Dan Uggla‘s exploits… which would not have happened if Escobar was still in that game). These actions are getting harder to ignore – or defend.

Nontheless, the Braves escape San Francisco with 2 wins in the 4-game set and leave California 3-4 on this road trip… which exactly matches my own hoped-for figure for the end of May. They head to Arizona on a high note and are at 25-25.

Just 3 games out of first place now… behind a Nationals club that’s suddenly looking a little vulnerable.

It took a little luck and some great hitting heroics, but we will book it!

Next: Atlanta Braves: Team of International Intrigue

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