PITTSBURGH — On June 18, the Pirates traded Joey Bart to the Braves. On July 8, Joey Bart hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning to beat the Pirates at PNC Park.
Bart’s blast flipped a game on its head, a game that the Braves would win 3-0. The visitors had two hits before that, one of which was a two-out double by Mike Yastrzemski off the right field wall before Bart’s game-changing at-bat.
The Braves’ catcher then took a first-pitch sinker from Pirates reliever Dennis Santana (2-4) and belted it 422 feet out to left-center.
“Just be aggressive, ready, you know what I mean?” Bart said of his approach coming up to the plate in that situation. “Get something early in the count across the plate and put a good swing on it.”
Bart’s homer was just his fourth of the season and only his second as a member of the Braves. The former Georgia Tech star and Buford graduate has just four hits in 26 at-bats with the Braves, but the fourth was a mighty and memorable one considering it came against his old teammates.
“It’s cool, but at the same time, obviously, those are my brothers over there,” Bart said of beating his former team. “I think I got closer with those guys more so this year in the spring than ever. I got a ton of respect for the Pirates organization, they gave me an opportunity. I respect that.
“Now obviously thrilled to be an Atlanta Brave, and it’s fun to compete against my old friends, and I guess the right word to say is just mess with each other and just have a good time.”
Pirates starter Jared Jones had thrown a perfect game Wednesday — through six innings. The right hander struck out eight and retired all 18 Braves hitters he faced on only 77 pitches.
But the Pirates (47-46) went to their pen anyway to start the seventh, bringing in left-hander Mason Montgomery who promptly gave up a one-out single to Ozzie Albies. The home fans were less than pleased.
Braves starting pitcher Grant Holmes did his job Wednesday by throwing five scoreless innings. The righty allowed just three hits and only walked one while striking out five, leaving after 90 pitches.
Wednesday’s outing for Holmes was the third time this season the right-hander has thrown at least five scoreless innings out of 17 starts.
“It was nice, other than the foul balls that kind of ran up my pitch count a little bit,” Holmes said “But was still throwing strikes and everything was working.
“Faced them (the Pirates) in spring training. The slider worked pretty good against them, and that was just the same plan. I feel like the first time through, I kind of threw a little bit more heaters, and then kind of slid into it a little bit later in the game.”
Said Bart: “I think he just kept guys off balance. He was just mixing good, keeping guys off balance. You got to make pitches when it matters. That’s what it really comes down to. Pitching in big leagues, when you’re in crunch time, you got guys on the pond, you gotta put ‘em away, you gotta make pitches, and that’s the game changer. And that’s what (Holmes) did today. He made pitches when we needed to and that’s all you can ask.”
Relievers Didier Fuentes, Dylan Dodd (1-0) and Dylan Lee, respectively, all put up zeros ahead of the ninth. In the top of the inning Drake Baldwin padded the Braves’ lead with an RBI single to center, then closer Raisel Iglesias earned his 18th save of the season by throwing a scoreless bottom half.
Bart caught every pitch from all five Braves pitchers in the shutout win, the team’s fifth this season.
“The zeros on the board, that’s the most important thing of my job,” Bart said. “When you’re doing that, you’re obviously gonna give your team a good chance to win. So I’m glad all the guys brought it today and we could put it together any way we could.”
The Braves (53-38) halted a three-game losing streak with the victory and will try to win the series at 12:35 p.m. Thursday.
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