(Pic)- Brian McCann handles the late throw as Ross Gload scores in the sixth. (John Bazemore/AP)
ATLANTA (MLB.com)- Showing the same determination that he often displayed when he struggled to receive offensive support earlier this season, Javier Vazquez found himself minimizing Anibal Sanchez's dominance up until the point that he was once again done in by the long ball.
With memories of Ryan Howard's power still fresh in his mind, Vazquez returned to Turner Field on Friday night and found the makings of an impressive effort doomed by the two seventh-inning homers that allowed the Marlins to stave off the Braves and claim a 5-3 win that put them in sole possession of third place in the National League Wild Card race.
"I thought [Vazquez] pitched real well," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. "He just made a couple of bad pitches there in the seventh inning."
Before Howard damaged him with a pair of home runs that allowed the Phillies to exit Atlanta with a win on Sunday, Vazquez had enjoyed a nine-start stretch in which he had surrendered just three home runs.
But whatever magic was present during that stretch was once again absent while the Marlins gave Sanchez a comfortable lead courtesy of the seventh-inning power supplied by Jeremy Hermida and Hanley Ramirez.
Hermida began the decisive, four-run seventh inning with a homer that barely cleared the right-field wall -- just beyond Matt Diaz's reach -- and Ramirez capped it with a two-run shot that highlighted his three-hit performance and ended the 105-pitch evening for Vazquez, who at least gained the satisfaction of breaking up Sanchez's no-hit bid with one out in the sixth.
Vazquez, who left before talking to reporters, was charged with five earned runs and 10 hits in 6 2/3 innings. The first run he surrendered came courtesy of a one-out RBI single supplied by Ramirez, who entered the game hitless with four strikeouts in six career at-bats against the Braves right-hander.
"The two homers were offspeed pitches that were up," Jones said. "Those are the ones that make hitters' eyes get big."
When Adam LaRoche cut the Braves' deficit to two runs with his three-run, seventh-inning homer off Dan Meyer, crew chief Tim Tschida found himself in a position where he had to consider the wide-ranging postseason ramifications of this game.
"The games are that important," said Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez, whose club moved one game in front of the Braves and in a position where they trail the front-running Rockies by three games in the Wild Card race and sit 5 1/2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East standings.
After rain halted play with one out in the top of the ninth, the two teams sat through a two-hour and 28-minute delay. Eight minutes after play resumed at 12:44 a.m. ET, Leo Nunez completed a scoreless ninth with LaRoche getting thrown out while attempting to turn a single into a double.
"Both teams are in it and [the umpires] wanted to make it fair, and they did a great job of it," Braves manager Bobby Cox said at the conclusion of a game that lasted just 20 minutes longer than the delay. "Whether you're on this end or the other end, they did the best that they could to complete a ballgame."
Sanchez, who was charged with one run on two hits in six innings, had retired 14 consecutive batters until Vazquez ended the no-hit bid with his clean one-out single to left in the sixth inning. The Marlins right-hander issued his only two walks within a span of the first three batters he faced and then escaped the first inning with Brian McCann's double-play groundout.
Ryan Church's seventh-inning leadoff double ended the impressive 82-pitch outing for Sanchez, who had gone 1-2 with a 7.71 ERA in his previous four starts against the Braves.
"He mixes his pitches well and has a good fastball," Diaz said. "He never uses it, but it's in the back of your mind that he might throw it. He did well."
Making Sanchez's effort even more impressive was the fact that this was his first start since a right shoulder sprain sidelined him on June 2, which ironically was the last time the Braves had been held hitless past the end of the third inning.
While the Braves managed to come back and claim a 12-inning victory over the Cubs after being held hitless for 6 2/3 innings on that early June evening, the Marlins didn't allow them to stage another improbable finish.
"He looked great," Cox said of Sanchez, who was 1-2 with a 7.71 ERA in his previous four starts against the Braves. "He was throwing hard -- great changeup. He changed speeds in every situation that he wanted to. I don't think we really hit a ball good off of him that I remember."
LaRoche's fourth homer in his past five games and seventh in the 18 games that he's played since being acquired from the Red Sox accounted for the only offense supplied by the Braves, who have hit just .214 (66-fo-308) in their past 10 home games. In the 10 road games they've played during that span, which dates back to July 31, they've hit .297 (108-for-364).
Vazquez, who lost a second consecutive start for the first time since May 4, held the Marlins scoreless until Ross Gload produced a sixth-inning, one-out single and then with the help of a wild pitch put himself in position to score on Ramirez's RBI single.
After Hermida homered to begin the seventh, Wes Helms followed with a double and then scored when Gload snuck a two-out single through the left side. Ramirez then provided the final blow with his fourth homer in 38 at-bats against the Braves this year.
"The ball that killed us was Gload's ball, that seeing-eye ball between third and short," Cox said. "That would have been the third out and only two runs."
Mark Bowman is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
.jpg)
Sat Aug 22, 2009 5:53am EDT
.JPG)
