The Atlanta Braves lost their third-consecutive one-run game and fly out of Philadelphia after being swept for the first time since June 10-12. Here are three observations from the game:
If Phillies starter Cole Hamels had his way, he'd never face the Braves' 6-foot-4 rookie catcher ever again.
In their first career meetings — the Braves played Brian McCann and Gerald Laird in Hamels' previous two starts this season; think that will happen again after this performance? — Gattis gave the Phillies' 29-year-old lefty fits. Visible fits. Seemingly every time the ball left Hamels' left hand, Gattis was sending it to into Citizen Bank's outfield.
Gattis finished 2-for-3 with two home runs, his first multi-HR game of his young career.
"It's kinda been the same thing. It's just been looking for my pitch and, you know, got some pitches to hit early in the at-bat," Gattis said after the Phillies 3-2 win. "Whatever. It all counts as one and (we) lost the game today."
His first at-bat left Hamels throwing his pitching hand up in frustration and the baseball world abuzz. Gattis sent just the second pitch he saw, a 92-mph fastball left up in the zone, soaring over the center field fence. The official distance: 480 feet. Four hundred and eighty feet. Based on ESPN's Home Run Tracker, Gattis' 17th home run of the 2013 season was the longest home run in the majors this season. Curiously enough, five of the six longest homers this season have now come by a visiting team's player — here's the up-to-date leaderboard (distance in feet):
Evan Gattis, Braves: 480
Hunter Pence, Giants: 476
Mark Trumbo, Angels: 475
Anthony Rizzo, Cubs: 475
Jay Bruce, Reds: 472
Mike Napoli, Red Sox: 472
"To go straightaway center in this ballpark and up in that concourse area, it's a good poke," Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said.
Gattis wasn't done, though. After a fifth inning just-miss — another fastball sent to straightaway center; Hamels' bend-over-at-the-waist body language of frustration signified he thought it was gone — the Phillies pitching battery tried to stay away from the fastball. So he sent a first-pitch curveball over the left field fence, and though it did not travel 480 feet it still left Hamels beside himself.
In summation, Gattis put a bat on three of the four Hamels pitches he saw and sent them an approximate total distance of 1,300 feet. Not bad versus one of the most effective lefties in the game, especially one that has dominated the rest of the Atlanta lineup during his last two outings.
Since going on a brief minor league stint to "get some more at-bats" earlier this month, Gattis has gone 6-for-17 (.353) and hit three home runs.
Hamels, the three-time All-Star and 2008 World Series MVP, has never run into too much trouble against the Braves over his eight MLB seasons. Entering Sunday's game, Hamels career record against his primary NL East rivals sat at 13-8, including a respectable 3.60 ERA, 8.4 strikeouts per nine innings and an opposing slash line of .238/.295/.399. Rare were the starts where the Braves simply teed off on the talented lefty.
And with the exception of Gattis, Hamels was on point for the second straight start against the Braves.
The rest of the Atlanta lineup finished the game 0-for-22 with two walks against Hamels, 0-for-25 on the day. Hamels finished the day with his seventh win of the season after going eight innings and striking out nine on 99 pitches. (It should be mentioned here that Braves starter Paul Maholm was no slouch in his fourth start since coming off the DL, going six innings and allowing two runs on seven hits and three walks. The veteran lefty also struck out five batters and left after 108 pitches.)
"(Hamels) gave us some fits offensively, but we just never kept the line moving," Gonzalez said.
Despite some solid pitching performances in Philadelphia, the Braves' offense has hit a lull since putting 13 runs on the Mets on Sept. 2. They've scored just 13 runs total in the five games since.
"We didn't do very much offensively the whole weekend really," Gonzalez said. "We didn't swing the bats. That's the bottom line. There's no excuses about that. … We have to get the bats going."
Gonzalez may or may not have been referring to the bats of some of his bigger-name hitters, including B.J. Upton (0-for-12 with six strikeouts at leadoff in the Phillies series), Justin Upton (0-for-8, three Ks), Dan Uggla (0-for-6), among others. Heading down to Miami, where the young and dynamic Marlins pitching staff just keeps getting better and better, the Braves need to find their offensive rhythm once more if they are going to keep holding onto the No. 1 overall seed in the National League.
Back in late April, the Braves' fruitless trip to Detroit was supposed to be a contender-separating series — as Gonzalez & Co., exited the Motor City having been swept for the first time in 2013, the gap between the defending AL champs looked rather wide. However, the Braves soon put the series in their rearview mirror.
Then, in mid-June, Atlanta suffered what arguably remains their most disappointing series of the season: dropping three games to the lowly San Diego Padres. Regardless of the three-game series' run differential sitting at just four total, it was difficult road swing to define. But the Braves overcame that sweep, too. They overcame it so well that they eventually captured the NL's top seed after riding a second-half Waffle House winning streak of 14 games.
Now, Detroit and San Diego can welcome Philadelphia into their exclusive 2013 club.
Not only have the Braves done an excellent job of damage control when a series is tilting in an opponents' favor — see the post-Heyward injury series in St. Louis a couple weeks ago for a prime example — but they've done an admirable job of pursuing Gonzalez's stated goal of "Win The Series."
The Phillies are just the third team to take a series from Atlanta since the All-Star break.
If history is our guide, the Braves are primed to bounce back nicely in Miami.
