Former Traveler close to no-hitter
ATLANTA — Former Arkansas Traveler Sean Newcomb came within one strike of pitching the first no-hitter by the Atlanta Braves since 1994, denied when Chris Taylor sharply singled in a 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday.
Newcomb had a 2-2 count with two outs in the ninth inning when Taylor hit a hard grounder beyond the reach of diving third baseman
Johan Camargo. That came on the career-high 134th and final pitch by the 25-year-old lefty.
Newcomb left to a thunderous standing ovation from the sellout crowd at SunTrust Park as Manager Brian Snitker removed him. Snitker took the ball and gave it back to Newcomb as a keepsake — instead, Newcomb simply tossed it toward the Atlanta dugout as he walked off, wanting no souvenir of the near-miss.
Kent Mercker was the last Atlanta pitcher to throw a no-hitter, doing it 24 years ago at Dodger Stadium. There have been three no-hitters in the majors this year.
A first-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Angels in 2014, Newcomb was assigned to the Class A Burlington Bees and later promoted to the Class AA Travelers. He was traded to Atlanta after the 2015 season in a deal for shortstop Andrelton Simmons.
Newcomb (10-5) struck out eight and walked one against the NL West leaders. He retired the first 15 batters before walking Yasiel Puig to begin the sixth, and that was the only runner Newcomb permitted until the ninth. Shortstop Dansby Swanson made the defensive play of the day for Atlanta, ranging into shallow center field to snare a popup by Enrique Hernandez in the second.
Dan Winkler relieved Newcomb and gave up Manny Machado’s RBI single before ending it on Matt Kemp’s groundout.
Nick Markakis homered and drove in three runs as the Braves snapped a four-game skid. Newcomb has been an elixir this year in such situations, improving to 8-1 with a 1.84 ERA, a span of 731/3 innings, following an Atlanta loss.
Pitching past the seventh for the first time in 40 career starts, Newcomb worked fast, mixing a fastball in the low 90s mph with sharp breaking balls. This is his second season in the majors, having gone 4-9 in 19 starts last year.
The fans let out a collective groan after Taylor’s hit, but that quickly turned to raucous applause. Snitker popped out of the dugout as soon as Taylor touched first, took the ball from Newcomb and congratulated him.
After tossing aside the ball, Newcomb smiled and tipped his cap as he walked to the dugout to high-five and hug his teammates.
After the game, Newcomb apologized for racist, homophobic and sexist tweets he sent in 2011 and 2012. Major League Baseball said it is aware of the situation and will have Newcomb take part in diversity training.
Newcomb’s tweets were sent when he was 18. He called the social media posts “some stupid stuff” and said, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”
Newcomb was staked to a 2-0 lead in the first on doubles by Markakis and Kurt Suzuki and kept the Dodgers off-balance all afternoon. Markakis, the NL leader in hits and multi-hit games, made it 4-0 in the third with his 11th homer.
Machado’s RBI was as good as the Dodgers, who won the first three games of the series by a combined 17-4 score, could muster.
Atlanta had dropped 13 of 18, was outscored 26-7 during the losing streak and had dropped 10 of their last 14 home games.
Ross Stripling (8-3) was subpar in