Christian Bethancourt leads Braves to 7-4 victory over Phillies
By Brad Rowland
After another ugly, shutout defeat on Tuesday evening, the Atlanta Braves have reached the desperation point. Fortunately, the offense came alive during a great deal of Wednesday afternoon’s series finale, and as a result, the team avoided a sweep with a 7-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Things didn’t begin in a fantastic way for Atlanta, as Braves-killer Ben Revere led off the game with a double and was brought around to score by back-to-back sacrifice flies. Early deficits are, of course, nothing new for this squad, but on a day when we were able to publish a piece called “Rock Bottom for the Atlanta Braves offense“, a first-inning run wasn’t splendid news.
However, the offense decided to (mercifully) awaken in the bottom half of the second inning, and it was an unlikely series of events. First, Ryan Doumit led off the inning by reaching on a Chase Utley error, and he was advanced by a sacrifice bunt off the bat of Tommy La Stella. From there, Christian Bethancourt produced an infield single, and with some help from Freddy Galvis, Doumit was waved around to the plate to even the score. Then, the big blow came off the bat of B.J. Upton, who silenced the haters for a brief moment with a well-timed, 2-run home run to provide some cushion for starting pitcher Ervin Santana.
As the case always seems to be in recent days, the Braves did not handle prosperity well, though, as Santana immediately allowed a 2-run home run to Grady Sizemore (after yet another hit by the aforementioned Revere). In a blink, the lead was gone, but Atlanta fought back by playing “small ball” in generating a fourth-inning run on an RBI groundout from Jason Heyward to reclaim the advantage at 4-3. On cue, the Phillies battled back in the top of the fifth, using two singles and a walk to load the bases before Chase Utley generated a sacrifice fly to knot the game at 4 runs apiece.
The wild back-and-forth mercifully ended after Freddie Freeman led off the bottom of the fifth with a double (after a challenge), and Bethancourt brought him to the plate with a massive RBI single. That base knock gave the home team a 5-4 lead after five innings, and when Tommy La Stella extended the lead with an RBI single and Ryan Doumit scored on a wild pitch to give Atlanta a 7-4 lead, there was enough breathing room to quell the majority of fears.
From that point, left-hander Chasen Shreve navigated a scoreless seventh inning and David Carpenter cruised through a hitless eighth with two strikeouts to set the stage for a Craig Kimbrel appearance. In an effort to provide a heart attack for all of Braves Country, Kimbrel issued a walk to lead off the inning, but he quickly rebounded to induce a line-out and a game-ending double play to preserve a crucial victory.
Christian Bethancourt had perhaps his best day as a Major League player in this game, finishing the afternoon 3-for-4 with 2 runs scored and 2 RBI. Defense, and more specifically his arm, will always be Bethancourt’s best attribute, but flashes of offensive punch are undoubtedly encouraging and Wednesday qualifies. In addition, B.J. Upton reached base three times in four appearances, including the huge 2-run home run, and the offense was much-needed on a day where Ervin Santana (6 IP, 7 hits, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) did not have his “A-game”.
The Atlanta Braves are back in action on Friday, as they travel to Miami to face the Marlins in the opener of a three-game weekend series. Stay tuned.