The Braves beat the Giants on Wednesday night with some help from the quirks of their new ballpark. Matt Kemp sneaked a walk-off homer over the fence in right field in the 10th after Tyler Flowers hit a home run that bounced off the top of the short left-field wall in the seventh.
The Braves weren’t apologizing for getting some favorable breaks at SunTrust Park.
“Other teams have taken advantage of our surroundings,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “When Matt hit that one out I said, ‘I love our ballpark.’ ”
Kemp’s home run against Giants reliever Cory Gearrin landed in the foliage just over the 16-foot wall in right field. According to Stattracker data, the ball had a 23 percent “hit probability” based on its exit velocity (93.5 mph) and launch angle (27) so the ball likely would be an extra-base hit off the wall at many parks.
Flowers was even more fortunate on his home run against Giants starter Jeff Samardzija. He hit it moderately hard (90 mph exit velocity) at a high angle (38) but the ball hit the top of the six-foot high wall and bounced into netting that runs alongside the foul pole 335 feet from home plate.
Third-base umpire Paul Emmel ruled the ball live as Flowers ran to first base. The hit was changed to a homer after a replay review by the umpires.
“Not too far past third base I thought (the ball) was 10, 15-plus feet foul and hooking,” Flowers said. “It kind of kept getting closer and closer. Thank goodness it went out and not just to get a hoem run and to not end up single with something like that. That’s more the embarrassing part.”
