SAN DIEGO – On a night when Sean Newcomb once again needed little in the way of offensive support, the Braves provided a profusion of runs in a 14-1 dismantling of the Padres on Tuesday at Petco Park, a stadium that for once was anything but a house of horrors for the Bravos.
Freddie Freeman went 4-for-4 with two doubles, a homer and a walk in five plate appearances, and Dansby Swanson and Nick Markakis added homers as the Braves won for only the third time in their past 18 games at San Diego and evened the series after an 11-4 loss in Monday’s opener.
The 14 runs were the most scored by the Braves since a 15-2 win against the Phillies on March 31 in the third game of the season. Kurt Suzuki and Swanson had three hits apiece for the Braves including Swanson’s sixth homer of the season and third in the past five games.
It says plenty for how far Newcomb (7-1) has come in one year that he could pitch six scoreless innings of three-hit ball and have it be a typical recent outing for the emerging ace.
The left-hander allowed three walks with four strikeouts while improving to 6-0 with a stunning 1.32 ERA in seven starts since the beginning of May, including four scoreless outings of six innings or more with three or fewer hits allowed.
Newcomb didn’t face more than four batters in any inning and extended his homerless streak to 42 innings, the longest active streak by a major league starter and the longest by a Braves starter since Kris Medlen’s 43-inning streak over his final six starts in 2013.
After giving up five runs in 4 1/3 innings of an April 2 loss to the Nationals in his season debut, Newcomb has gone 7-0 with a 1.96 in his past 11 starts, allowing just 44 hits and two homers in 64 1/3 innings in that torrid stretch while totaling 62 strikeouts and 29 walks.
It was an entirely different sort of night for Padres veteran Jordan Lyles, who had been 2-1 with a 3.64 ERA in five starts since moving to the rotation, with the Padres winning each of his past four starts before Tuesday. The Braves thrashed him for 11 hits and eight runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Freeman, after having a 16-game hitting streak snapped Monday, put on a hitting clinic Tuesday with an RBI double in the first inning, his 10th homer in the third inning, both a double and a single in the five-run fifth inning, and a walk in the five-run seventh.
A native of Orange County between San Diego and Los Angeles, Freeman turned in his latest stellar performance in front of a family reunion of sorts that included, among others, his father, Fred Sr., an uncle, Freeman’s 20-month-old son Charlie, and wife Chelsea.
The Braves sent 11 runners to the plate in a five-run fifth inning which ended with Markakis striking out with bases loaded. They sent nine to the plate in a five-run seventh inning which was hightlighted by Markakis’ three-run homer to straightaway center field following Freeman’s walk.
It was 13th-year veteran’s eighth homer of the season in his 61st game. Markakis hit eight in 160 games last season.
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