Three Cuts: Foltynewicz impresses again, Simmons stays hot as Braves sink Phillies
ATLANTA -- It was a phrase the Braves have waited nearly a month to utter: back-to-back wins.
They pounded out 12 hits, eight of which came from the top three spots in the order. They received another strong outing from one of those highly regarded prospects acquired in this winter's trades.
While things got dicey during Jason Grilli's ninth save, the result was a 7-5 victory over the Phillies on Wednesday night, the first time Atlanta has won consecutive games since they started out 5-0.
"I didn't think about it that way, I didn't know that," said Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez. "We won the series, I know that. That's good. That's a good roll to get on."
From Mike Foltynewicz's second start to Andrelton Simmons' mastery of the Phillies and the plans for new call-up Williams Perez, taking three cuts from Turner Field:
Before last weekend, Mike Foltynewicz never had a bat in the majors. Again, before last weekend, he had never had an at-bat in the majors.
It's worth repeating because with an RBI sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, the Braves rookie right-hander has driven in three runs in his first four trips to the plate.
"I just said 'Get the ball up any way you can' and I think it might have been a little bit of luck the last couple times, but that's cool to help the team out like that too," Foltynewicz said.
Of course, that's not why he was brought to Atlanta. It's for that arm that hit upwards of 98 mph during Wednesday's start, the second of his career.
In that department, the 22-year-old was strong yet again, striking out seven while allowing seven hits and four earned runs over 5 1/3 innings.
"I was trying to do my best Shelby Miller impersonation," Foltynewicz said of taking the ball a night after Miller threw a complete game shutout. "I got a little high pitch count and you've got a fun competition too with (the rest of the rotation) and you want to go out and one-up them. I'm just happy to get out of here with the win."
Added with his debut Saturday vs. the Reds and Foltynewicz is now 2-0 with an elevated ERA (5.23), but he's struck out nine, giving him 7.84 per nine innings, which is higher than he had a year ago in 16 games with the Astros (6.75) and more in line with what he was doing in Triple-A for Houston (8.94) before his call-up last year.
Oh, and those nine strikeouts tie Foltynewicz with Steve Barber (1970) and Ken Johnson (1969) for 10th-most all-time among Braves in their first two career starts. Take it as the statistical oddity that it is, but that figure is also two more than Hall of Famer Warren Spahn (seven) had and five more than newly-elected HOFer John Smoltz.
While that power arm is going to get most of the attention, it's two sequences that didn't include a strikeout that may have been the real highlight of Foltynewicz's second start.
After issuing a two-out walk to Cameron Rupp -- on five pitches -- to load the bases in the second inning, Foltynewicz worked his way out of the jam as Jerome Williams popped out to second base.
Then in the third inning, Foltynewicz faced a red-hot Ryan Howard with Ben Revere at third (he doubled) and Ben Galvis (single) and two outs. Foltynewicz
Then in the third, after he gave up a double to Ben Revere and a single by Freddy Galvis, Fotlynewicz faced Ryan Howard with one out. He induced a grounder that turned into an inning-ending double play. Though that slow to unfold effort did allow Revere to score, as Galvis was caught in a rundown.
In his first at-bat, Andrelton Simmons took Jerome Williams' 90-mph four-seam fastball and sent it over the left center field wall. Another way of saying that?
Yet another Simmons homer against the Phillies.
Given the vast amount of at-bats he's had against the National League East foe (168 and counting), it should come as no surprise that he's hit more home runs against them than any other team (six and counting). But this season, Simmons is devouring Philadelphia pitching, especially when he's hitting second in the lineup.
"I don't want to say (things are clicking at the plate), because whenever you say that is when things go south," Simmons said. "But I've been feeling pretty good and I'm just trying to keep that same feeling every day."
After the series finale, he's now 9 for 24 against the Phillies overall this season, which includes both of his home runs -- the first came on April 25 off David Buchanan at Citizens Bank Park -- and four extra-base hits in all, including a triple and Wednesday's double.
"This is the longest I've seen him stay with an approach," Gonzalez said. "I think you have to give a lot of credit to (hitting coach) Kevin (Seitzer) and (assistant hitting coach) Jose (Castro) for staying on him. You have to give the player a lot of the credit."
But dig a little deeper and Simmons when hitting in the No. 2 spot -- which he did in the last two games of their April 24-26 series and all three contests at Turner Field -- and the shortstop is hitting .428 with or a .478 on-base percentage in 21 at-bats.
Unfortunately for Simmons, he's going to have to wait until July 3 before he and the Braves get to see Philadelphia again.
The Braves' bullpen juggling continues, with Williams Perez moving up from Triple-A and Michael Kohn was called back down. But if Gonzalez has his way, Perez's time on the big league roster won't be short
Perez, 23, will be looked at as the long-relief option, but they will continue to build his innings to use him as a starter when needed.
"Every chance you get, you give him a couple innings here, three innings there," Gonzalez said. "If you need a spot start, he's the guy. If there's a long rain delay or a starters that comes out early, he's the guy that's going to get three or four innings. That's the way it used to be done and I think we're going to do that."
The right-hander started five games at Gwinnett, going 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA in 27 innings and struck out 21 with nine walks. Perez was the club's Pitcher of the Month in April after posting a 1.57 ERA in four starts that month. That was the Venezuelan's first stint in Triple-A after spending last season at Double-A Mississippi. He has been with the Braves since signing as a non-drafted free agent in Jan. 2009.
Kohn appeared in six games, posting a 0.00 ERA in 4 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and six walks, including a free pass in each of his last two outings (May 3 and 4).
The seemingly constant shuffle of the bullpen has been a byproduct of usage, as Gonzalez would ideally like to limit players multiple days in a row and give the relief corps the ability to always have options.
"You don't want to send (Jason) Grilli out because he's pitched three days in a row, that kind of stuff," Gonzalez said. "We get some of the guys who are of equal talent as the guys in Triple-A and you've pitched three days in a row of you've pitched five innings ... you know what? We'll make a move, move a guy up and always have a fresh bullpen arm."
While Gonzalez would like to keep Perez around, he admits that plan could easily be altered if
"All of a sudden down the road we have a rain delay and he has to crank up five innings, and you say, let's bring somebody else up," Gonzalez said.
Follow Cory McCartney on Twitter @coryjmccartney
