Durham Bulls fall to Gwinnett Braves

Only a week into the season, Gwinnett Braves manager Brian Snitker said his team is already experiencing what he terms “survival mode,” when roster moves and injuries can make it a challenge to keep a quality lineup on the field.

Winning pitcher Mike Foltynewicz knows something about survival mode, too.

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-hander threw six shutout innings for Gwinnett as the Braves (5-2) claimed Wednesday’s rubber game of a three-game series against the Durham Bulls (4-3) with a 6-2 victory at Durham Bulls Athletic Park.

Shortstop Sean Kazmar, a last-minute addition to the starting lineup, drove in two runs with a first-inning home run and seventh-inning sacrifice fly for the Braves.

A year ago Foltynewicz was Gwinnett’s opening-day starter, and he would get called up to the parent Atlanta Braves three times. He eventually cracked the Braves’ rotation and compiled a 4-6 record and 5.71 ERA in his Major League Baseball stint. The Braves were especially enamored of his fastball, which touched 100 mph on occasion.

However, on Sept. 2 he went on the Braves’ disabled list with costochondritis, an inflammation of the cartilage that connects the ribs to the sternum. Three weeks later, a life-threatening blood clot was found in his right arm, and he needed surgery to remove part of one of his ribs.

“I ended the season well after the second time I was called up, before the pneumonia and the blood clot,” Foltynewicz said Wednesday. “It wasn’t an injury as much as it was a health issue. That concerned me.”

Foltynewicz (1-0) spent the winter and spring regaining his strength, and he showed major strides against the Bulls in his second start of the season. He consistently hit the mid 90s with his fastball, with a high of 97. He struck out seven, walked one, and hit two batters, but he retired the last 10 batters he faced as he found his groove.

“He’s got big-league stuff,” Bulls manager Jared Sandberg said. “We definitely had an uphill battle.”

“We’re closer, but we’re not there yet,” Foltynewicz said, rating his strength at 90 percent. “I wanted to use all my pitches so they couldn’t sit on my fastball, because they’re a great hitting team,” he said of the Bulls.

“He was forcing things early, but those two double plays allowed him to settle down,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker, a former Bulls manager and coach. “His last pitch (a sixth-inning strikeout of Nick Franklin) might have been the best pitch he threw. Once he found his rhythm he looked like he could pitch all day.”

“Maybe it didn’t look like it, but I was getting tired there at the end,” said Foltynewicz, who threw 58 of his 90 pitches for strikes.

Foltynewicz got plenty of support from Kazmar, who joined the lineup when Daniel Castro was promoted to Atlanta about an hour before game time. Kazmar homered off Bulls right-hander Matt Andriese (0-1) in the first inning, and the Braves never trailed. Left fielder Brandon Snyder went 3-for-4, including RBI singles in the second and eighth for the Braves, and former Bull Reid Brignac added two hits, an RBI and two stolen bases in his homecoming.

“It’s always nice to play well against your former team,” said Brignac, who spent parts of four seasons in Durham (2008-09, 2011-12). He signed with the Braves as a free agent last October after spending most of 2015 with the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Triple-A outpost of the Miami Marlins.

Brignac, who has played 356 games in the major leagues over the last five years, went 5-for-15 in the three-game series against former teammates.

“All I can do is control my controllables,” he said, “hit, play good defense, be a good teammate, and let all the other stuff happen. I’m 30 years old, and I’ve played the up-and-down game for eight years.”

After Foltynewicz departed, the Bulls threatened to make a game of it against the Braves’ bullpen, cutting the lead to 5-2 in the eighth on RBI singles by Dayron Varona and Franklin off left-hander Madison Younginer, the second of four Gwinnett pitchers. But Durham left the bases loaded in the eighth and ninth.

Andriese struck out six and walked one, but he was undone by his own mistakes. He committed two balks, threw two wild pitches, and was charged with an error when he failed to stay on the base after taking a throw from first baseman Pat Leonard. The mistakes figured in two of the three runs he allowed in 5 2/3 innings.

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 5:02 PM with the headline "Durham Bulls fall to Gwinnett Braves."