MIAMI _ Freddie Freeman extended his hitting and on-base streaks and reached another milestone, Matt Wisler pitched six strong innings, and birthday boy Matt Kemp and Braves interim manager Brian Snitker got thrown out.
It was an eventful Friday night at Marlins Park, and ultimately the streaking Braves did what they've done a lot of late: Came back from a multi-run deficit to win in the late innings. This time they waited until down to their final out.
Adonis Garcia's two-out single in the ninth inning broke a tie and lifted the Braves to a 3-2 win against the Marlins, pushing their winning streak to a season-high seven games and giving the Braves a .500 record in their past 90 games including 19 wins in their past 31. It was Garcia's third hit for his second three-hit game in four days.
Mallex Smith made a diving catch on Justin Bour's line drive to left field to end the game. Smith had replaced Kemp.
Snitker and Kemp were ejected by home-plate umpire Adam Hamari in the third inning, Kemp ending his 32nd birthday on a bitter note after letting Hamari know from the dugout that he'd made a poor call on a crucial pitch to Nick Markakis with bases loaded and two outs in the inning. Hamari didn't take the criticism well.
Freeman extended his on-base streak to 43 games with a third-inning intentional walk and his hitting streak to 27 games with a leadoff double in the sixth inning.
When Snitker and Kemp got chased from the game, the Braves trailed 2-1 after failing to score with bases loaded and one out in the third. They got the tying run in the sixth after Freeman's leadoff double _ he went to third on Giancarlo Stanton's error on the play _ and a Tyler Flowers two-out RBI double.
But they left the bases loaded again in the seventh when Smith lined out after another Freeman intentional walk.
Wisler walked Derek Dietrich to start the first inning, then gave up a single and a two-run double to Martin Prado before recording an out. Then, as if flipping a switch, Wisler moved into outstanding mode, retiring the next six batters and 18 of the last 20 that he faced, giving up only a pair of walks in the third inning.
He pitched six innings and allowed two hits, two runs and three walks with five strikeouts in 99 pitches (58 strikes).
Both of Freeman's streaks are career-bests and the second-longest in the majors this season. The hitting streak is the fifth-longest in Atlanta Braves history, six games behind Dan Uggla's Atlanta franchise-best 33-gamer in 2011, and the on-base streak is the third-longest, nine behind Gary Sheffield's Atlanta-record 52-game streak in 2002.
Freeman's double also made him just the second Atlanta Brave to have at least 80 extra-base hits in a season. He joined Chipper Jones, who had 87 in his 1999 National League MVP season
Freeman's intentional walk loaded the bases with one out in the sixth and the Braves trailing 2-1, after Garcia's ground-rule double put runners at second and third. And that's when things started to get chippy between the Braves and the man behind the plate.
After Kemp struck out for the second out of the inning, Markakis worked a 3-1 count and took the next pitch for a would-be walk that would've brought in the tying run. The pitch was both high and outside, and Markakis turned toward first base before realizing Hamari called a strike.
Markakis said something to Hamari and gave him an exasperated look before getting back in the batter's box, and when Markakis popped out on the next pitch he slammed his bat to the ground while running to first base.
Hamari had already stared at the Braves dugout after hearing some chatter directed at him following his missed call on the 3-1 pitch, and after Markakis popped out the ump stared into the Braves dugout and signaled the ejection for Kemp, who had struck out with bases loaded for the second out of the inning.
Hamari was sure he heard Kemp yelling at the umpire during the Markakis at-bat and threw him out, which brought Snitker from the dugout to discuss the situation.
After Snitker argued for perhaps 30 seconds and made it clear what he thought of the strike zone and/or the ejection of Kemp, Hamari gave the manager the heave-ho signal as well. Hamari had a bad strike zone and a bad attitude on this night, and apparently wasn't in any mood to hear criticism or second-guessing.
While Snitker was on the field, Kemp came out of the dugout and was restrained before he could get to Hamari.
