A couple of support runs would have been sufficient for Mike Foltynewicz the way he pitched Wednesday night, but Nick Markakis and the Braves scored a whole lot more just in case as they finally beat the Phillies. And beat them something fierce.
Foltynewicz allowed four hits in seven scoreless innings, Markakis drove in five runs with three doubles and Dansby Swanson’s first three-hit game of the season included a three-run homer in a 14-1 rout of the Phillies at SunTrust Park.
“It was good to be able to finish off the night like that and see the whole team flowing in rhythm with each other,” Swanson said after the Braves set a season-high for runs and snapped a four-game home losing streak while winning for the first time in six games against last-place Philadelphia.
They led 14-0 before Luke Jackson gave up a run in the ninth inning, thwarting the Braves’ bid for a second shutout of the season.
Swanson’s three-run homer in the fifth inning gave the Braves a 4-0 lead.
“It’s awesome to have that lead early,” Foltynewicz said, “and to keep putting zeroes on the board for us and just getting (the Braves) back hitting.”
They have scored more than two runs while Foltynewicz (4-5) has been in a game in five of his 11 starts this season, and he’s won four of those. The hard-throwing redhead faced one batter over the minimum through five innings and pitched seven innings for the second time in a week, allowing three singles, a double and two walks with four strikeouts.
“He’s making strides,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “As sharp as he was the other day (at Anaheim), he built on that one and had to work himself out of a couple of situations, but did a great job. He was very confident and had just a really solid outing.”
The Phillies ran out of pitchers and brought in infielder Andres Blanco to pitch with two out in the eighth inning, and he gave up a two-run homer to Matt Adams before recording the third out in a six-run inning.
After allowing nine hits and seven runs in four innings of a 10-0 loss to the Cardinals at SunTrust Park on May 5, Foltynewicz is 4-1 with a 2.57 ERA in his past six starts. Five of 10 earned runs he allowed in that stretch came in a May 27 loss at San Francisco, and Foltynewicz has gave up one or no earned runs in four of the other five games in that period.
“Just slowing things down and making pitches,” said Foltynewicz, who relied more than usual on fastball command Wednesday, mixing in only a few sliders, curveballs and change-ups. “Executing your pitches instead of worrying about the next pitch or who’s on deck, that kind of stuff. Just one pitch at a time, just executing pitches, getting double plays when I need to, slowing things down.”
Swanson snapped out of his recent funk with three-run homer in the fifth inning that pushed the Braves’ lead to 4-0 and singles in the seventh and eighth innings. The Braves blew the game open with a four-run seventh inning that featured a bases-loaded RBI single by Ender Inciarte, a two-out, two-run double from Markakis and Adams’ bases-loaded walk.
“I think the biggest deal was just seeing as as a team put together at-bats the way we did,” Swanson said. “One of the best stats in my opinion is when we score, when we go back out there are we shutting them down from scoring. And we did that a lot tonight, which I think how is how you ultimately build leads and win games.”
Swanson was 7-for-47 (.149) with two extra-base hits, four RBIs and a .465 OPS in his past 14 games before Wednesday, entering with a .194 average and a .577 OPS that was the sixth-lowest among 171 major leaguers with enough plate appearances to qualify. He raised his average 11 points to .205.
The Braves’ win was their first in six games this season against the Phillies, who are 16-35 against everyone else and have baseball’s worst record (21-36). Their wins in the first two games of the series were the Phillies’ first back-to-back road wins.
Before Wednesday the Braves dropped 14 of 20 home games since a four-game sweep of the Padres to open SunTrust Park. They can salvage a split of the four-game Phillies series with a win Thursday before the Mets come to town for another four-game series including a Saturday doubleheader.
Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff (0-7) came in with a 5.13 ERA and recorded 10 outs in the first 10 batters, giving up only a first-inning leadoff single to Inciarte, who was later picked off trying to steal second base.
The second Brave to reach base was Brandon Phillips on a one-out single in the fourth inning, and Markakis followed with an RBI double to the left-center gap for a 1-0 lead.
Tyler Flowers led off the fifth with a sharp grounder that got past third baseman Maikel Franco for an error, and when left fielder Howie Kendrick slipped trying to corral the ball, Flowers raced all the way to third. Rio Ruiz drew a walk to put runners on the corners with none out for Swanson, batting .181 with 81 runners stranded in 101 plate appearances with runners on base before Wednesday.
Swanson swung at and missed an outside slider to start the at-bat, but when Eickhoff threw him another slider and missed down the middle, Swanson connected squarely and drove it to the left-field seats to push the Braves’ lead to 4-0.
Four of Swanson’s six home runs this season that have come on 0-1 counts. He’s 8-for-17 with four homers when he puts the ball in play on 0-1 counts. On 0-2 counts, he’s 1-for-26 with 15 strikeouts.
It was the rookie shortstop’s second home run at SunTrust Park, where Swanson hit .160 with a .509 OPS in 23 games before Wednesday.
About the Author
