ATLANTA _ When Lane Adams strode to the plate to pinch-hit for the Braves with bases loaded and two out in the sixth inning Saturday and the Diamondbacks ahead 3-2, some must have wondered whether the wrong Adams heard his name called.
But in about the time it took to say, why isn't left-handed power hitter Matt Adams pinch-hitting here against Randall Delgado?, right-handed Lane Adams lined a first-pitch double to left field, clearing the bases and giving the Braves a lead they wouldn't relinquish in an 8-5 win before 41,627 at SunTrust Park, the largest crowd to date at the first-year stadium.
Brandon Phillips drove two runs with a home run and a double and Jace Peterson added a pinch-hit homer in the eighth inning for the Braves, who've won the first two games coming out of the All-Star break and go for a sweep Sunday against an Arizona team that has the fourth-best record in the majors.
The Braves are 6-2-1 in their past nine series and have a 22-16 record since the beginning of June, moving back within one game of .500 at 44-45. They also have at least one double in 11 consecutive games, their second-longest streak since the team moved to Atlanta in 1966.
They've won seven consecutive games started by Mike Foltynewicz, who gave up eight hits and three runs in 51/3 innings and got no decision. He had six strikeouts and three walks and had a high pitch count (110) due to two- and three-ball counts against a majority of hitters.
Lane Adams, a 27-year-old rookie whose first home run came as a pinch-hitter June 22 against San Francisco, is now 6 for 25 (.240) with eight RBIs as a pinch-hitter, tied with Danny Santana for the team lead in pinch-hit RBIs.
After Patrick Corbin limited the Braves to six hits and two runs in five innings, right-hander Delgado, who spent the first six years of his career in the Braves organization, gave up consecutive infield singles to Ender Inciarte and Matt Kemp to start the sixth inning. Nick Markakis struck out and Johan Camargo flied out before Dansby Swanson kept the inning alive by working a seven-pitch walk to load the bases.
Delgado has reverse splits _ he handles left-handed batters better than right-handers. Lefties hit just .216 in 102 at-bats against him before Saturday and right-handers hit .265 in 132 at-bats. And so, Lane Adams, a journeyman with excellent speed, was sent up to faced Delgado. He pounced on a first-pitch slider, driving it to the left-field corner to bring in all three runs and give the Braves a 5-3 lead.
When Inciarte followed with a ground ball that was botched by the second baseman (but ruled a hit), Lane Adams was sprinting all the way and scored from second base on the play. The Braves added a run in the seventh on Kurt Suzuki's two-out single to push the lead to 7-3, and those runs turned out to be important when Braves lefty Sam Freeman faltered in the seventh inning, facing three batters and allowing two walks and a single.
Rex Brothers entered the game with bases loaded and gave up a pair of ground-outs that drove in a run apiece, the second of those scoring when Brothers inexplicably threw to first base instead of tossing to the plate to get the runner who was headed to the plate right in front of him as he fielded the ball.
Peterson led off the Braves' eighth with his first homer of the season to get the lead back to 8-5. It was the first pinch-hit homer of his career.
The Braves took a 2-1 lead on Phillips two-out RBI double in the fifth, when he went to his back knee on the swing follow-through. He scored Inciarte after the center fielder's two-out single.
Foltynewicz hasn't lost since May 27 when he allowed seven hits, five runs and two homers in four innings of a 6-3 defeat at San Francisco.
In eight starts since then he's 4-0 with a 3.21 ERA ERA with eight of his 17 runs allowed in that stretch coming in 31/3 innings of a June 12 game at Washington when he gave up 11 hits including three homers. The Braves won that game 11-10.
Foltynewicz gave up two or fewer runs in six of his past seven starts including four in a row before being charged with three runs Saturday, the third of those scoring after reliever Luke Jackson replaced Foltynewicz with one out and a runner at second in the sixth. Jackson walked the first batter he faced A.J. Pollock, and one out later gave up an RBI single to Paul Goldschmidt that put the Diamondbacks ahead, 3-2.
