Winning in dramatic fashion has become a thing for the Braves and “Dat Dude,” who got a walk-off win for the second day in a row Sunday against the Marlins.
Brandon Phillips, aka Dat Dude, hit a one-out RBI single in the ninth inning to give the Braves a 5-4, series-finale win against the Marlins at SunTrust Park, one day after he hit a walk-off single in the 10th inning to beat the Fish.
“When I saw the inning start going, I was like, aw, snap, I think I’m going to do it again,” said Phillips, who has eight walk-off hits in his career including two in less than 24 hours for the Braves, with his father James Phillips, in attendance, along with Phillips’ son and daughter.
He’s the fourth player in Atlanta Braves history to have game-ending RBIs on consecutive days and the first since Ozzie Virgil in September 1988.
“Especially for me to do that on Father’s Day, and Father’s Day weekend for me to do it two days in a row, it’s a blessing,” said Phillips, who is from Stone Mountain outside Atlanta. “I’m happy. I know my pops is happy to be here, my kids are happy. It’s a beautiful day.”
After Johan Camargo reached on a one-out infield single and went to third on Ender Inciarte’s single, Phillips hit a ground-ball single up the middle to give the Braves their 11th win in their last at-bat, the most in the majors. Phillips got a ball through despite the Marlins having outfielder Marcell Ozuna lined up as an extra infielder for the at-bat.
“I was watching on TV, and just the way he was taking pitches he was going to put that thing in play somewhere,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker, who watched in the clubhouse after being ejected for arguing when a called third strike against Matt Adams ended the sixth inning. “It’s amazing the way they stacked the infield that he found a hole.”
It had been nearly six years since the Braves last got consecutive walk-off wins, Aug. 15-16, 2011, against the San Francisco Giants. Their five walk-off wins this season are tied for the National League lead.
Camargo, a rookie, also played a big role in the Braves’ four-run seventh inning Sunday when they erased a 2-o deficit. Camargo drove in the tying run with a single in that inning, after singles by Kurt Suzuki and Dansby Swanson to start the inning and a sacrifice fly from rookie Rio Ruiz.
And in Saturday’s 8-7 walk-off win, it was Camargo who singled and scored the winning run on Phillips’ hit.
“It’s been a great experience, to have the opportunity to be in these game-winning moments,” Camargo said through an interpreter. “All I’m trying to do is get on base, knowing the guys behind me are coming up. Brandon Phillips, to his credit, he just put the barrel to the ball and was able to hit a line drive.”
Phillips said, “Yesterday was crazy, but today it was one of those epic things. I never thought I’d have back-to-back walk-offs. But this wasn’t just me, it was a team effort. All the young guys went up there and did a good job, Ender, all these guys, they got it going. I just had to holler at them that I had to cut the head off. You know what I’m saying?”
For six innings Sunday, the Braves appeared headed for a fifth offensively challenged loss in six home games and Marlins starter Jose Urena was in line for his fourth consecutive win.
Then the Braves, after managing one hit through six innings, got five hits and four runs in the seventh to turn a two-run deficit into a two-run lead.
However, it took reliever Jose Ramirez just two batters in the eighth to give back the lead on a Marcell Ozuna home run after a leadoff walk by Christian Yelich. If the Braves were going to pull out a late-innings win, they’d have to take the lead twice.
And they did.
The Braves won their second consecutive series, taking two of three at Nationals Park before taking two of three against a Marlins team that had won 14 of 20 before losing Saturday and Sunday on game-ending hits from Phillips, a 16-year veteran who’ll turn 36 on June 28.
“He’s been playing great defense, he’s been winning us games the last two days and even the whole season,” said Braves starter Mike Foltynewicz, who gave up seven hit, two runs and two walks with four strikeouts in six innings. “It’s great that we’ve got these veteran guys stepping up in these situations with Freddie (Freeman) down.
“It’s awesome and we’re going to keep it going, I know that for sure.”
Urena was a different kind of effectively wild, hitting three batters with pitches before the end of the third inning but allowing just one hit and one walk through six innings. He wasn’t charged with a run until after he left the game following two singles to start the seventh.
The only scoring before the Braves’ four-run seventh inning came on Justin Bour’s two-run single in the sixth.
Bour has a career-high 11 homers, 30 RBIs and an OPS above 1.000 in 37 games against the Braves, but he’s hardly just an Atlanta nemesis: In his past 25 games before Sunday, he hit .395 with 13 homers, 24 RBIs and a .458 OBP and 1.354 OPS.
The Braves failed to score after loading the bases with none out in the second inning and didn’t get another runner past first base until the seventh inning, when Urena left after the singles Suzuki and Swanson.
With runners on the corners, reliever David Phelps entered to face Ruiz, who hit towering sacrifice fly to cut the lead in half, 2-1. Next up was another rookie, Camargo, whose pinch single to center scored Swanson with the tying run.
Inciarte followed with the Braves’ fourth single in five batters and Camargo hustled from first to third on the hit to shallow center, cooly blowing a bubble as he slid into third on a close play.
In came another right-handed reliever, Nick Wittgren, whose first pitch was driven the other way down the third-base line by Nick Markakis to drive in two more runs and give the Braves a 4-2 lead.
Foltynewicz allowed only one runner to advance past first base through five innings, that in the third when JT Riddle drew a leadoff walk, advanced on a sacrifice bunt, went to third on Dee Gordon’s infield hit before getting caught in a rundown between third and home when Giancarlo Stanton struck out for an inning-ending double play.
