Braves swing, miss on sweep of Phillies
ATLANTA — Nick Pivetta and Luiz Gohara provided more reasons to be included in their teams’ plans for 2018, but only Pivetta had a win attached to his impressive start.
Pivetta outpitched Gohara in a matchup of rookies, Mikael Franco homered to break up a scoreless tie and the Philadelphia Phillies won 2-0 Sunday in the Atlanta Braves’ final home game of their first season at SunTrust Park.
Pivetta (7-10) lasted six innings, allowing five hits and one walk with four strikeouts. The right-hander, who left the game with a 1-0 lead, earned his second straight win.
“I didn’t really feel like it was a one-run baseball game,” Pivetta said. “I felt like the guys were swinging the bats really well, and it felt like a 5-0 game. I was confident. I was able to get the guys out, attack the hitters and everything seemed to click. I didn’t put too much pressure on myself.”
Pivetta’s ERA fell to 6.26 — still unappealing, but Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said his pitching “was real effective for the most part. The key to his outing was he was throwing all his pitches for strikes.”
Gohara (1-3) allowed one run on five hits and two walks in seven innings in his fourth start since his promotion from Class AAA Gwinnett.
“That’s really big for me,” Gohara said. “I can tell I can compete against major league guys and get outs with good pitches. For next year, that’s going to be a big thing for me.”
Franco hit Gohara’s first pitch of the fifth high into the second deck of the left-field seats for his 21st homer. It was Philadelphia’s 167th homer of the season, a high mark for the team since hitting 224 in 2009.
Aaron Altherr’s run- scoring double to left off A.J. Minter in the eighth stretched the lead to 2-0.
Hector Neris pitched out of trouble in the ninth for his 24th save in 27 chances. Neris is 18-for-18 in save opportunities since June 28.
Freddie Freeman led off the bottom of the ninth with a hit and moved to second on Kurt Suzuki’s one-out single up the middle. Neris struck out Rio Ruiz and pinch-hitter Matt Adams to end the game.
Ender Inciarte had three singles, continuing his push for 200 hits this season. His 197 with eight games to play are the most for Atlanta since Andruw Jones had 199 in 2000. The last Atlanta player to reach 200 hits was Marquis Grissom, who had 207 in 1996.
Inciarte was stranded on third in the sixth, when he led off with a single and advanced on groundouts by Johan Comargo and Freeman. The inning ended with a groundout to first by Nick Markakis.
Markakis, a right fielder, threw out Phillies baserunners at second base in the first and third innings. Cesar Hernandez led off the game with a single but was thrown out in his attempt for a double. In the third, Jorge Alfaro singled off the wall in right, and again Markakis made an accurate throw to second.
Markakis is the first Atlanta outfielder with two or more assists in a game since Jason Heyward on Aug. 27, 2012 at San Diego.
Sunday’s attendance was 33,183, bringing the Braves’ 2017 home total to 2,505,297. It’s the most the Braves have drawn since 2013, their most recent playoff season. In 2016, their final season at Turner Field, the total was 2,020,914.
Atlanta closes the season with four-game series against the New York Mets and the Miami Marlins.