Bartolo Colon surrendered one hit over seven dominant innings and the Braves erased Trevor Cahill’s no-hit bid with a middle-inning offensive flurry that propelled them to Sunday afternoon’s 9-2 win over the Padres at SunTrust Park.
On the way to winning their fourth straight game and remaining undefeated in their new stadium, the Braves saw Colon surrender Ryan Schimpf’s solo homer in the second inning and then retire 16 of the final 17 batters he faced. The 43-year-old right-hander gained his first lead of the day courtesy of Tyler Flowers’ go-ahead, two-run single in the fifth inning.
“Trevor wasn’t making any mistakes the first few innings,” said Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman. “We got a couple guys on and Tyler was able to knock it through. It was a big hit for us, and once he did that, the floodgates opened for us. It took us a bit, but better late than never.”
Cahill, who allowed four runs over 5 2/3 innings while striking out eight, kept the Braves hitless until Brandon Phillips laced a single to left field with one out in the fifth inning. San Diego’s right-hander exited after Phillips extended Atlanta’s lead with a two-run single in the sixth inning. Phillips finished the day with three hits and three RBIs.
“He had the stuff to pitch seven scoreless today,” said Padres manager Andy Green. “His stuff was plenty good enough to continue to mow through the order. Two, in my opinion, really bad pitch selections [to Flowers and Phillips]. Those two pitches came back and honestly bit us.”
The Braves bulllpen’s streak of 13 consecutive scoreless innings was snapped in the eighth inning when Ian Krol issued two walks, surrendered a single to Hunter Renfroe and allowed Schimpf to score on a passed ball.
But the Braves added three more runs in the bottom half of the eighth and further distanced themselves from the 1-6 record they sported before this four-game win streak, which includes victories in each of the three games played thus far in their new stadium.
“The road trip wasn’t good, but we hurt ourselves,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “We’re playing better baseball right now.”
After facing the minimum through four, Cahill ran into trouble from the stretch in the fifth. The right-hander bounced three pitches in the dirt, none of which could be handled by catcher Hector Sanchez. Two of the three wild pitches set up Braves runs, as both Phillips and Adonis Garcia reached scoring position on balls in the dirt. Flowers would promptly knock them home with a two-run single.
“I felt like I was one pitch away,” Cahill said. “I made some decent pitches, and they did a good job fouling them off. They kept battling me. I got to two strikes on Adonis and Flowers and was maybe trying too hard to put them away and not give any runs instead of just making a good pitch.”
Ender Inciarte extended Atlanta’s lead in the seventh inning with a solo homer, but the center fielder’s most influential contribution was a sixth-inning leadoff single after his liner deflected off shortstop Erick Aybar’s glove. Dansby Swanson moved Inciarte to second base with a grounder to the right side on a hit-and-run. After Freddie Freeman was intentionally walked, Phillips delivered his decisive two-run single, just his second hit through his first 12 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
“Right now, everybody just wants to win as many games as we can because it will be fun to see us play in October here,” Inciarte said of the atmosphere at SunTrust Park.
In a weekend of firsts at SunTrust Park, Travis Jankowski became the first player to successfully rob a home run at the Braves’ new ballpark. With no outs in the seventh, the Padres left fielder made a brilliant catch at the short wall in front of the Padres’ bullpen, skying to prevent Jace Peterson’s opposite-field smash from clearing the fence.
Jaime Garcia will take the mound when Atlanta and San Diego conclude this four-game set on Monday night. Garcia will be aiming for his first win and looking to rebound after surrendering a pair of home runs to his nemesis Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton his last time out.
