Freeman and Braves hot late in tough year
ATLANTA — Freddie Freeman extended his hitting streak to 30 games, Matt Kemp hit a two-run homer and Daniel Castro drove in three runs, leading the surging Atlanta Braves to a 12-2 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night.
Mike Foltynewicz (9-5) pitched two-hit ball over five innings in his first start since Sept. 12, when he left a game against Miami with a left calf contusion.
The Braves won for the ninth time in 10 games, building some momentum for 2017 and their move to SunTrust Park in suburban Cobb County. They have 21 victories in 34 games since Aug. 21, bouncing back from a dismal start.
Adam Morgan (2-11) lasted five innings, giving up 10 hits and nine runs, the most he has allowed in a dismal season.
Atlanta jumped ahead in the second when Dansby Swanson hit a run-scoring triple and Castro followed with a single. The Braves added three more runs in the third, with Swanson and Castro each contributing RBI hits, and really poured it on with a four-run fourth. Morgan’s throwing error allowed one run to score, another came home on a wild pitch, and Kemp finished it off with his 34th homer into the seats in left-center.
Castro added another run-scoring single in the seventh.
Freeman extended the longest streak in the big leagues this season with a single in the sixth off Phil Klein. Freeman had been tied with Boston’s Jackie Bradley, who put together a 29-game run in April and May.
Freeman had already extended his on-base streak to 46 consecutive games when hit by a pitch in the third, equaling the longest this season in the big leagues. Washington’s Jayson Werth reached base in 46 straight games before his streak was halted Aug. 18.