I’ve gone on at length already about my love for the 2001 team, and this game was something special. Normally you see a 14-7 game and figure it was a laugher, but that’s not really what happened here. Instead, it was very tense, until the Braves had a near-legendary inning to blow it wide open.
The gist: The Braves trailed early in this one by scores of 2-0 and 5-1, but tied the game in a three-run fifth that featured Rico Brogna hitting a two-run double against his former team. With the game still tied in the bottom of the seventh, the Braves went berserk: six straight singles with one out, followed by a walk, a double, another single, and another walk. By the end of it, they led 13-5. Chipper Jones had the third single in the sequence, and finished the game 4-for-4 with a walk and two homers. Amazingly, the game took less than three hours despite the 21 combined runs.
Box scores: Baseball-Reference, Fangraphs
The set-up: This game wasn’t about the set-up, but nonetheless, the Braves were on the warpath. After sitting at .500, 7.5 games back by the end of May, they began to rapidly close on the scuffling Phillies in June. A sweep in Philadelphia vaulted them into first place, and the dance was on — the Braves had gone 2-2 since, and now found themselves at 45-36, two games back, with the Phillies coming to town for a midweek series. The Phillies had a crappy, 12-16 June that dwindled their division lead by seven games. Still, they had won five straight against the Marlins (a doubleheader was involved) to keep the Braves temporarily at bay.
Starting for the Braves in this one was Tom Glavine, having an uncharacteristically bad year (112 ERA-, 127 FIP-) so far. He’d faced the Phillies once in April, beating them with two runs in 6 2�?�3 with a 5/5 K/BB ratio. The Phillies were countering with Robert Person, who had his one good year (3.4 fWAR) in 2000, but was already right back to his not-very-good career line with a 114 ERA- and 117 FIP- so far in 2001. Person’s issue was more inconsistency than a throughline of poor performance, and he had had good back-to-back outings against the Braves in April, allowing just three runs in 13 2�?�3 with a 14/6 K/BB ratio.
How it happened: This game was very, very eventful. After both pitchers had perfect first innings, the Phillies immediately jumped on Glavine in the second. Scott Rolen and Pat Burrell started the inning with singles, and Travis Lee yanked one into the right-center gap for an RBI double. Two batters later, an RBI groundout from Marlon Anderson put the Braves in an 0-2 hole. Chipper Jones, though, immediately got at least one of those runs back, taking Person deep to right center on the first pitch of the bottom of the second. Brian Jordan followed with a double and moved to third on a groundout, but Javy Lopez struck out and Rico Brogna flew out to squander the opportunity to tie the game.
After a scoreless third for both teams, the Phillies struck again, in greater fashion than previously. They were aided by Glavine having to leave the game with an injury, forcing the Braves to scramble and insert starter Jason Marquis. The whole sequence really blew up in their faces. A one-out walk to Burrell was followed with back-to-back singles, with the latter scoring a run courtesy of Johnny Estrada. After another single, Marquis walked the pitcher to force in a run. An RBI groundout made it 5-1 Phillies before a grounder got Marquis out of the inning. At least the Braves got one run back — Chipper started the inning with a walk and scored on B.J. Surhoff’s one-out double into the gap.
Marquis and Person exchanged scoreless fifths, and Kerry Ligtenberg came on for a scoreless sixth, though he did allow back-to-back two out singles, including one to Person. In the bottom of the inning, though, it was time for the Braves to rally, and they also got some help.
To start the frame, Jimmy Rollins booted Andruw Jones’ grounder at short. Chipper followed by hooking one down the right-field line. That was it for Person, who departed in favor of generic relief type Waye Gomes. For a bit, it seemed like Gomes might get out of the inning. Jordan’s groundout scored Andruw, and after Surhoff reached on an infield single that kept Chipper at second, Lopez flew out. All Gomes had to do was retire Brogna, who came into the game with a 65 wRC+. What happened instead was Brogna’s hands-down best moment as a Brave, coming against the team with whom he had spent most of his career. Brogna laced one over first and into the corner. Bobby Abreu had trouble with the ball as it kicked around, allowing both Chipper and Surhoff to score, while Brogna made it all the way to third as Abreu futilely threw home. Just like that, the game was tied. The Braves couldn’t take the lead as new reliever Ed Vosberg retired pinch-hitter Dave Martinez, but just like they were doing for the season, they were clambering back and about to dunk on the Phillies.
New Braves reliever Jose Cabrera had a 1-2-3, nine-pitch inning, and the dunking commenced as long reliever Jose Santiago entered the game for the Philadelphia. Santiago started his night fine, with a groundout to first. But then:
- Keith Lockhart singled up the middle.
- Andruw ripped one to left.
- Chipper sliced one to left, loading the bases with one out.
- Jordan singled, giving the Braves the lead.
- Surhoff singled up the middle, 8-5 Braves.
- Lopez singled to left, 9-5 Braves.
At this point, Randy Wolf (generally a starter, briefly demoted to the bullpen after a string of bad starts despite still being a very solid pitcher) replaced Santiago to face Brogna, which, like, okay Phillies. You’re down four and you really want to neutralize Brogna? You do you.
- Brogna, of course, walked.
- Pinch-hitter Wes Helms doubled, 11-5 Braves.
- Rafael Furcal, who made the first out of the inning, singled to center, 13-5 Braves.
- Lockhart, who had already singled to start the frame, drew a walk.
And, just like that, Randy Wolf was gone, having not retired a batter. Swingman Amaury Telemaco was up next on the relief docket, and he actually ended the inning by getting Andruw to hit into a 1-4-3 double play.
The Braves put together ten straight plate appearances without an out. That’s not a record, as teams have collected 11 consecutive hits. But, it was still incredibly impressive and phenomenal to watch, especially coming in a game where they once trailed by four runs, against their big divisional rival, who still held a slight lead in the division.
At that point, the Phillies were basically sunk. Mike Remlinger threw a scoreless eighth, and Chipper got himself a little gift of a two-homer game by taking Telemaco deep in the bottom of the inning, once again on the first pitch of the frame. The ball went to more or less the same spot as the one he crushed off Person earlier in the game. Matt Whiteside finished out the game in his last major league appearance for about four years, giving up a two-run homer to Abreu in the process. The Braves had won a game with ten straight baserunners in the seventh after trailing by four runs and having their starter leave after three innings, while also walking the pitcher to force in a run. Awesome.
Game MVP: Of course it’s Chipper. The wunderkind went 4-for-4 with a walk and two homers. This game was nothing too special for him in 2001, which is wild. It was his fifth (and last) two-homer game of the year, one of five perfect (no out) games for him, and one of five four-hit games (which included a five-hit game in April). 2001 was still very much his peak (161 wRC+, 6.1 fWAR), and he was dominating teams on a nearly-daily basis.
Game LVP: Jose Santiago, who gave up the start of the hit carnival in the seventh. Ironically, Santiago, who had been traded from the Royals to the Phillies a month earlier, had his only great season in 2001, throwing 92 innings across 73 appearances and putting up 1.2 fWAR with an 83 FIP- in the process. Aside from a good 2000 (0.7 fWAR), he was mostly replacement level or worse throughout the rest of his career. Unfortunately, his BABIP and strand rate weren’t great in 2001, so the ERA was much worse than the FIP. However, it’s hard to say that this was anywhere near his worst outing ever. A few months earlier, he had done the unthinkable: blow a one-run lead in the eighth, only to get a lead back and then blow it again in the ninth, also allowing the opposing team to walk off (nearly a -1.000 WPA).
Biggest play: Brogna’s game-tying double, which was his highest WPA play as a Brave. Brogna was legitimately horrendous in 2001, and it’s never been quite clear why the Braves thought he was a solution for any stretch (-0.7 fWAR in 223 PAs). His failure prompted the resurrection of Julio Franco; Brogna retired just six games after this one, midway through the season (though the retirement was prompted by a roster move — Brogna was planning on retiring at season’s end anyway). Still, at least he got that one cool moment.
The game, in context of the season: The Braves won this game to move within a game of the division, but split the next two. This dance went on forever, in an incredibly thrilling division race. Between June 25 and the Braves clinching with two games to go, the division was separated by two games or fewer at the end of every day of play but 11 of them (over three months!), never growing beyond a 3.5-game span. After this series, the Braves lost three of four in Philadelphia (the first games after 9/11) to narrow their lead, but won the division by taking two of three in Atlanta in early October.
As mentioned, Glavine’s season was disappointing — 1.7 fWAR. Despite the injury, he still made his next start on time. That’s actually exactly where Person finished, too, though for him, it was the second-best total of a pretty undistinguished swingman-type career.
14 runs allowed tied a season high for the Phillies.
Video? Yeah, no.
Anything else? Somehow, this game took under three hours, even though 21 runs scored. That’s unthinkable. I can’t even explain it.
Baseball is dead to me, tell me something else cool about July 3: This date is the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg’s final day (1863) and Pickett’s charge. In 1913, the 50-year anniversary, the charge was reenacted by veterans. The Eternal Light Peace Memorial at Gettysburg was dedicated on this date in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1946, President Harry Truman is said to have commented about the motto inscribed on the monument (“Peace Eternal in a Nation United”), “That is what we want, but let’s change that word (nation) to world and we’ll have something.”