NewsClutch seventh sparks Braves' victory
Kotchman's two-run single seals Kawakami's second win
By Mark Bowman / MLB.com
05/10/09 6:29 PM ET
PHILADELPHIA -- When Kenshin Kawakami signed with the Braves in January, he carried the tag of being a fierce competitor who had shown the knack to rise to the occasion during his successful days in Japan's Central League.While overcoming the adversity created by his initiation to the Majors, Kawakami is providing every indication that he's determined to encounter success in the United States. Simultaneously, he's slowly turning doubters into believers.
Exactly two weeks after experiencing the worst start of his young career at the Midwest's homer paradise known as Great American Ball Park, Kawakami proved to be up for the challenge of conquering the demons that pitchers often encounter in Philadelphia.
Kawakami produced six solid innings and then notched his first win in a span of five starts with the help of Casey Kotchman. The first baseman highlighted a three-hit performance with a two-run, seventh-inning single that gave the Braves a lead that their versatile closers would preserve in a 4-2 victory over the Phillies on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park.
"The win is big, but I'm also happy that I was able to win on Mother's Day," said Kawakami, while forgetting the fact that it was already Monday for his mother in Japan and focusing solely on his second career win, which came one day shy of one month since his victorious Major League debut.
The Braves have won four of the first five games of this road trip and will begin Monday's three-game series against the first-place Mets with just a 2 1/2-game deficit in the National League East standings.
Limiting the potent Phillies lineup to two runs and five hits in six innings, Kawakami gave his mother a belated Mother's Day gift. But his efforts would have gone for naught without the timely hit provided by Kotchman, who is just a little more than seven months removed from nearly losing his mother.
Almost fully recovered from the effects of the brain hemorrhage that she suffered last August, Susan Kotchman had the opportunity to watch her son battle through a stiff neck and deliver the seventh-inning game-winner that allowed the Braves to claim their second series victory of the young season against the Phillies.
With his good friend Garret Anderson capping a two-hit game by prolonging the seventh inning with a two-out single, Kotchman followed a walk to Brian McCann by bouncing a bases-loaded two-run single through the middle of the infield. After producing the lead against left-handed reliever Jack Taschner, the reserved Braves first baseman extended it in the ninth with an RBI double off Brad Lidge.
"He's starting to drive them in, which is great," Braves manager Bobby Cox said of Kotchman, who has collected eight of his 12 RBIs over the course of the past four games.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel's decision to use Taschner in the seventh was based on the fact that he'd be able to turn Chipper Jones around to the right side and then have his left-handed reliever ready to face three straight left-handed hitters.
While that plan was spoiled by Anderson, McCann and Kotchman, Cox's decision to bring his left-handed closer Mike Gonzalez in to pitch the eighth against the left-handed trio of Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez and Matt Stairs proved to be successful.
"That's their four, five, six hitters right there," Gonzalez said. "You go out there, get it done, and it's not that you can breathe any better. But it's a little calmer out there. You take the wind out of their sails, and that was my intention."
After Gonzalez worked a scoreless eighth, Rafael Soriano, who began the 2008 season as the Braves' closer, was given a chance to face two right-handers before dealing with the switch-hitting duo of Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino. Miguel Cairo's bloop leadoff single was the only thing that delayed the scoreless ninth that Soriano manufactured to notch his third save of the season.
When presented similar situations, Cox said he won't hesitate to flip-flop the primary roles reserved for Gonzalez and Soriano.
"We talked about it in our team meeting before the season opened, that we would have to do this and have to do it as a team," Cox said. "When another team is loaded up with lefties like that, and you've got an ace like Gonzalez, it's an advantage to throw him at those guys. It worked, and hopefully it will continue to work. ... It has to be a team concept to do that, and they understand. All they want to do is win."
Since winning his Major League debut on April 11, Kawakami had gone 0-4 with a 6.97 ERA in the four starts that had followed. But after getting a few extra days to rest his shoulder, the 33-year-old right-hander showed some signs of improvement on Tuesday, when he limited the Mets to two runs in a 113-pitch, five-inning effort.
Showing that same fighting spirit that enabled him to pitch out of the constant trouble the Mets presented, Kawakami proved much more efficient, needing 95 pitches to complete six innings against the Phillies.
Facing a lineup that consisted of six left-handed hitters, Kawakami found his chief nemesis to be Howard, whose leadoff doubles in the second and sixth innings put the first baseman in position to score his Phillies' only runs.
"There's no need for anybody to get down on him," Cox said of Kawakami. "I like his stuff. Just give him time."
Mark Bowman is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
