Mike Foltynewicz, Freddie Freeman Lead Braves To 9-6 Win Over Padres To Complete Sweep

Mike Foltynewicz delivered a strong outing with the Braves in Thursday’s home game against the Padres, thus leading his team to a 9-6 victory and its first sweep of San Diego since May 2008.

Mike Foltynewicz, Freddie Freeman Lead Braves To 9-6 Win Over Padres

The Braves’ offense strongly backed the right-hander. After Freddie Freeman’s two-run home run in the third, Atlanta burst for five runs in the fifth to chase Padres starter Jarred Cosart out of the game after giving up seven runs in 4 1/3 innings.

“I just didn’t have a good feel for anything today, felt kind of locked up, pitches weren’t crisp,” Cosart said. “Mainly the off-speed pitches, [I] couldn’t get them down in the zone.”

San Diego couldn’t get a runner on base through the first three innings, as Foltynewicz retired three while tossing just 29 pitches. Travis Jankowski got the first hit against the righty with a leadoff single in the fourth, but he came back to record five consecutive flyouts.

Twelve of the 15 outs Foltynewicz recorded over six innings came in the air, although he also allowed a solo shot to Hector Sanchez in the fifth and a two-run homer to Wil Myers in the next frame.

“There were a couple bad pitches I left out over the zone, and you saw what happened there,” Foltynewicz said. “But other than that, my changeup was working real well for me today. My fastball didn’t have the life it usually does, but I got away with some stuff.”

San Diego rallied for three runs in the ninth, although it proved insufficient to turn the game around. With the victory, the Braves registered their first sweep at Turner Field this season.

“It has a lot of meaning,” said Freeman about getting the sweep. “You want to win as many games as you can. Obviously, we’re not having the season we wanted to, but we’re trying to end strong. We’ve been doing that. We’ve been playing better baseball for the last couple of months, and we welcome those sweeps.”

After pushing his on-base streak to 24 games with a walk in the first inning, Freeman’s homer two frames later marked his 10th during the streak. The first baseman has hit 361 (30-for-83) with 26 RBIs in that span, and his 34 extra-base hits since the beginning of July lead the National League.

Twenty-five months after he last threw a pitch in the Majors, Braves reliever Shae Simmons returned to the mound for the first time since undergoing Tommy John surgery 18 months ago. The right-hander entered the game in the top of the eighth and required only nine pitches to silence the Padres. His fastball reached around 96-97 mph, and several of his teammates greeted him at the dugout steps to congratulate him as he left the field.

“[Simmons] was good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “He had been away for a while, and when you get a guy like that, there’s never the perfect time to put him in the game. But right there was kind of as good as any, because we had six outs to cover and some guys who could have backed him up if something went wrong. I thought he did great for not being out on a Major League diamond for a while.”

After scoring nine runs on Thursday, the Braves have scored at least seven runs in five straight home games for the first time since August 7-10, 1953.

The Padres (55-78, 5th in NL West) next travel to Los Angeles to begin a three-game series against the Dodgers Friday night. Left-hander Clayton Richard will get the start.

The Braves (51-83, 5th in NL East) will open a three-game series against the Phillies in Philadelphia on Friday night. Right-hander Joel De La Cruz, a 27-year-old rookie, will take the mound for Atlanta for his second start against the Phillies this year.

ATLANTA, GA – AUGUST 30: Freddie Freeman #5 of the Atlanta Braves knocks in a run with a third inning single against the San Diego Padres at Turner Field on August 30, 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)