ATLANTA _ After R.A. Dickey gave up eight earned runs in five innings Wednesday at Washington, the veteran Braves knuckleballer said in an earnest tone, "My results tonight were very pedestrian. But I'm close. I'm close to turning the page here and not being mediocre."
It seemed like wishful thinking when he said it, but Dickey looked like he knew something the rest of us didn't when he made his next start Monday night against the free-falling San Francisco Giants. He allowed three hits and one walk in seven innings of a 9-0 series-opening win at SunTrust Park, the Braves' third straight and fifth in seven games.
They blew the game open with a seven-run eighth inning that featured a mammoth three-run pinch-hit homer from Danny Santana.
Ender Inciarte had an RBI double in the third inning and power-surging fill-in Matt Adams hit another long home run in the fourth inning for the Braves against Giants starter Johnny Cueto, before they feasted on the Giants' shaky bullpen in the eighth, including a two-run single from Dansby Swanson and Santana's home run that reached the top deck of the Chop House beyond the right-field seats.
It was Santana's first career pinch-hit homer and the first of the season for the Braves, and the ball sailed even further than any of the long homers that Freddie Freeman and Adams have hit to the Chop House, all the previous balls hit there landing on the level below the one that Santana reached.
It was the first scoreless outing of the season for Dickey (5-5), who gave up a double and single to start the game, worked out of that jam with two pop-ups and a strikeout, then didn't allow another runner to advance past first base. He retired 16 of the final 17 batters he faced before leaving for a pinch-hitter when the Braves had a runner on first base and two out in the seventh inning with a 2-0 lead.
Adams continued doing a stunning job replacing injured Freeman, going down to get an 0-1 change-up from Cueto at the knees and pulling it long and strong to the landing in front of the Chop House, pushing the lead to 2-0 in the fourth. It was the 11th home run for "Big City" and his 10th since joining the Braves on May 21.
Adams singled through the right side of the infield in the eighth inning, giving him 27 RBIs in 28 games since being traded from St. Louis to Atlanta when the Braves scrambled to get a replacement after Freeman fractured his wrist May 17. Dansby Swanson added a two-run single and fellow rookie Johan Camargo had an RBI single in the inning before Santana hit his epic home run.
Between Freeman and Adams the Braves have 24 home runs from first basemen, the most homers that any team in the majors has gotten from players at any one position this season. Freeman is expected to be out until at least late July, at which point the Braves will have to make a decision whether to keep Adams as a bench player and backup to Freeman, or trade him, since they are likely to get plenty of attractive offers.
Dickey improved to 4-1 in eight starts at SunTrust Park and was in complete control after giving up two hits to start the game.
Granted, these are not the Giants of recent vintage. Far from it. They are a banged-up, last-place team that has lost 16 of 20 games and fell to a season-high 20 games under .500 (26-46). They started the night 19 { games behind the National League West-leading Rockies.
But for Dickey and the Braves, it was important to win the series opener in their first matchup against the Giants since losing consecutive games against them May 27-28 at San Francisco. That was the last series win for the Giants, and the Sunday afternoon series finale at AT&T Park was a low point for Dickey, who gave up six runs in the first two innings and seven in the first three during a 7-1 loss.
He asked Braves manager Brian Snitker to leave him after those first couple of innings and told him he could eat innings and at least save the Braves bullpen, and he did that while retiring the last 12 batters he faced that day to go six innings.
This time, Dickey wasn't just eating innings, he was dominating them, the 42-year-old making his knuckleball dip and dart for an entire start like it rarely has this season.
