Five in fifth, Freeman homer help Braves sweep Padres, 9-6

So, this was a fun series. The Braves didn’t manage to get 12 hits for a third straight game, but they still creamed the Padres with a five-run fifth and solid starting pitching.

The game was quiet for the first two innings: a highlight was Mike Foltynewicz striking out consecutive batters on seven pitches (all strikes). The Braves broke through in the third against San Diego starter Jarred Cosart, as Cosart plunked Adonis Garcia with two outs, and then missed up in the zone with a 2-0 changeup that Freddie Freeman deposited into the right field seats.

Foltynewicz largely breezed through five innings. He gave up a homer to a gentleman named Hector Sanchez after a 10-pitch battle in the fifth, but worked quickly and efficiently, walking none and getting a lot of fly outs (for better or worse).

The Braves erupted in the fifth: Foltynewicz hit a one-out infield single, and Cosart walked Ender Inciarte on five pitches to set up a groundball single by Adonis Garcia to load the bases. Cosart then walked Freeman to drive in a third run and another groundball single by Matt Kemp made it a 5-1 game. Kemp was the last batter Cozart faced, but Anthony Recker made it a five-run inning by knocking another two-run single off of reliever Brad Hand.

Folty had one more inning in him but struggled a bit: the Matt Kemp Left Field Adventures contributed to a leadoff triple by Adam Rosales, and two batters later, Wil Myers hit his 24th homer of the season off of a (not too poorly located) Folty slider. Foltynewicz finished his outing with 93 pitches, four hits, and three runs allowed, along with three strikeouts. He didn’t walk anyone, but the two homers will ding his FIP while the 3:8 GO:AO ratio will ding his xFIP.

The Braves did some more work in the later innings to put up their nine-run tally. In the sixth, Adonis Garcia hit the third of three straight singles to score run number eight, and Ender Inciarte drove in Brandon Snyder after the latter hit a pinch-hit double in the eighth. Overall, the top of the order (Inciarte, Garcia, Freeman, and Kemp) combined for seven hits, three walks, a hit by pitch, and most of the offensive action on the afternoon.

In relief of Foltynewicz, Ian Krol threw a scoreless inning, followed by the 2016 major league debut of Shae Simmons, who contributed a perfect frame of his own. Chaz Roe let the Padres kinda-sorta get back into it by allowing four hits (nearly a natural cycle, as he allowed a single, double, and triple, in that order, to start the inning), but after Roe allowed a two-out single, Brian Snitker went to Jim Johnson to complete a very easy one-out save (Johnson got Alexei Ramirez to ground out) to send the Braves back out onto the road with a sweep.