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The lure of a postgame fireworks display drew a sold-out crowd to State Mutual Stadium on Tuesday night.
In the near future, the fans might not need to be enticed by pyrotechnics. Just watching the suddenly competitive Braves is becoming pretty entertaining all by itself.
The team completed a quick two-game sweep of the first-place Columbus Catfish on Tuesday night by posting a 5-4 victory. The win pushed the Braves over the .500 mark in the second half and served as a nice appetizer for the annual Salute to America celebration that took place following the game.
“This is the type of night we envisioned when we left spring training,” said manager Randy Ingle of the Braves, who are off today before opening a four-game road trip in Asheville on Thursday. “Pitching, hitting, aggressive base running. Hopefully the fans liked what they saw tonight, and they’ll come back.”
Showing some patriotic flare, Jeff Locke pitched seven strong innings, Cody Johnson belted a majestic homer and Jason Heyward rapped out three hits to help the Braves (29-53 overall, 7-6 second half) grab their sixth win in the past 10 games.
Reliever Michael Mehlich also donated to the win by pitching the final two innings to earn his first save. He gave up two runs in the eighth, allowing Columbus to pull within 5-4, but then worked a perfect ninth to finish it.
“I’m sure those last two innings probably got the fans’ blood pressure up a little bit — or was that my blood pressure?” joked Ingle.
Locke (3-7) allowed just two runs on four hits in his seven innings and finished with two walks and five strikeouts. He opened the night with six scoreless innings before the Catfish finally scratched out a pair of runs against him in the seventh.
“I felt good, felt live tonight,” said Locke, who improved to 2-2 with a 3.04 ERA in his past eight starts. “I stayed at the knees (of the hitters) and felt like I had pretty good command of the strike zone.”
The offense gave him plenty of cushion by breaking out to a 5-0 lead in the first five innings.
Johnson put his signature on the early scoring by belting a towering blast to straightaway center field in the fourth inning for his team-leading 13th homer of the year.
The drive easily sailed over the “batter’s eye” in center. It marked one of the few times any player has been able to clear the Green Mini-Monster in the 5½-year history of the park.
“Some of the guys told me that I one-handed it,” said Johnson. “I don’t know if I did or not. I just know the pitch was a fastball down, and I was able to get my arms extended.”
Johnson finished 2-for-3 while extending his torrid second-half transformation. He is now batting .404 with four homers and 15 RBIs since the All-Star break after batting just .210 in the first half.
Locke, meanwhile, continues to produce an equally impressive turnaround from his troublesome start to the season.
He has produced six quality starts in his past eight outings after going 1-5 with a 5.15 ERA in his first nine starts.
“Jeff was huge tonight,” said Ingle. “After the way we’d been scratching and clawing with the bullpen, we needed a strong outing.”
Columbus starter Jesse Darcy came into the night with a 4-0 record and an impressive 2.01 ERA. But the Braves treated him with little respect.
They touched him up for five runs (four earned) on nine hits and chased him from the game with two out in the fifth.
The five runs enabled the Braves to build a lead that ultimately proved to be just big enough.
“It feels great to get a win like this in front of this many people,” said Johnson. “We wanted to give them something that will make them want to come back.”
Mission accomplished.
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