April 6, 2013: Upton brothers homer to power Braves’ comeback win

When brothers B.J. Upton and Justin Upton were acquired by the Atlanta Braves before the 2013 season, they became major-league teammates for the first time. The highly touted duo thrilled Braves fans soon after coming to Atlanta, as they both smashed home runs in the ninth inning on April 6, propelling the Braves to a dramatic 6-5 comeback win over the Chicago Cubs.

The Braves signed 28-year-old B.J. Upton, an eight-year veteran with the Tampa Bay Rays, to the largest free-agent deal (five years, $75.25 million) in franchise history in November 2012.1 During his last six seasons as the Rays’ center fielder, he had averaged 19 home runs, 71 RBIs, and 36 stolen bases.

Two months later, B.J.’s brother Justin was the featured player in a seven-player trade between the Braves and Arizona Diamondbacks. Three years younger than B.J., Justin had played six seasons in right field for Arizona. He was a two-time All-Star and had finished fourth in the National League MVP voting in 2011. By acquiring Justin, the Braves were aiming for a star-level player to replace future Hall of Famer Chipper Jones, who had retired after the 2012 season. The Braves assumed Justin’s existing contract, which called for $38.5 million over the next three years.2

Pleased to be united with his brother, Justin said, “It was a dream of ours to play together. I didn’t think it would be this early in our careers, but the opportunity presented itself now. This is our time to take full advantage of it, play for a great organization with a lot of history. We’re excited.” The brothers had been teammates only once before, with a fall travel-ball team while both were in high school.3 The Uptons were the 10th set of brothers in Braves franchise history.4

The Upton brothers were brought in to enhance the young team’s chances to return to their “glory days” of the 1990s.5 Braves GM Frank Wren believed the addition of B.J. and Justin, with 23-year-old Jason Heyward already in place, gave Atlanta the best outfield in baseball.6

Under manager Fredi González, the Braves were coming off a second-place finish in the NL East Division in 2012. They had exited the postseason with a wild-card game loss to the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cubs were aiming to improve from their third consecutive fifth-place finish in the NL Central Division. Manager Dale Sveum, in his second year at the helm in Chicago, was on the hot seat after winning only 61 games in 2012.

The Uptons’ fifth game as Braves teammates was played on a Saturday night at the Braves’ Turner Field. A night earlier, Justin Upton’s two-run homer – his third of the season – had led Atlanta to a 4-1 win over Chicago.

Right-hander Julio Teherán, part of the Braves’ youth movement, was making his fifth career start. The 22-year-old Colombia native opposed veteran Carlos Villanueva, a 29-year-old right-hander from the Dominican Republic. Villanueva was new to the Cubs staff, having been signed as a free agent for the 2013 season. He had pitched primarily out of the bullpen in six seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays.

Teheran gave up a run in the first inning, when David DeJesus led off with a double and scored on Nate Schierholtz’s single.

In the bottom of the frame, B.J. Upton – hitless in his first 14 at-bats as a Brave – led off with a walk. A stolen-base threat since his major-league arrival, B.J. was thrown out trying to steal. One out later, however, the Braves got even on Justin Upton’s solo home run to deep center field. It was his fourth homer in five games.

Teherán and Villanueva held their opposition scoreless in the second and third innings. In the fourth, the Cubs jumped ahead on Luis Valbuena’s home run down the right-field line.

The Cubs added to their lead in the fifth. With one out, Starlin Castro singled to the pitcher. Anthony Rizzo followed with a two-run home run to deep right field. With two outs, Schierholtz doubled and scored on Welington Castillo’s single for a 5-1 lead.

Villanueva remained effective through 6⅔ innings, giving up six hits, including B.J. Upton’s first hit of the season, a single. With two outs in the seventh, Villanueva gave way to James Russell, who finished the inning.

Cristhian Martínez, who had relieved Teherán at the start of the sixth inning, escaped trouble in the seventh after allowing two singles with one out. He induced two groundball outs to keep the Cubs off the scoreboard.7

Anthony Varvaro began the top of the eighth in place of Martínez. The Cubs seemed ready to add to their tally when singles by Valbuena and Alberto González and a walk to pinch-hitter Steve Clevenger loaded the bases with none out. Varvaro got the first out on a groundball to second baseman Dan Uggla, who threw home for a force out. Braves manager González then turned to Cory Gearrin, who stranded the runners on Castro’s fly ball to center field and a strikeout of Rizzo.

Scoreless for six innings in a row, the Braves found life in the eighth. Reliever Kyuji Fujikawa, who was making only his third major-league appearance after 12 seasons in Japan with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Hanshin Tigers, experienced a rude arrival. He gave up a double to Justin Upton, who scored on Freddie Freeman’s single. Uggla’s single and a walk to Gerald Laird then loaded the bases.

Ramiro Peña, formerly with the New York Yankees and signed as a free agent in the offseason, played in place of the injured Andrelton Simmons and delivered a two-run single to make the score 5-4. With two runners still on base, Fujikawa kept the Braves from tying the game, inducing a double-play groundball from pinch-hitter Reed Johnson.

Eric O’Flaherty, the Braves’ best middle reliever in 2012 (1.73 ERA and 233 ERA+ in 64 appearances), entered the game in the ninth inning. With two outs, he allowed a single to Castillo and walked Valbuena. But he shut down the Cubs by striking out Alberto González.

Cubs manager Sveum called on veteran closer Carlos Mármol to secure the win. Mármol, a member of the Cubs’ bullpen since 2006, hadn’t been particularly effective in his first two outings of the season, yielding three runs in 1⅓ innings. The first batter he faced was B.J. Upton, whom he had never previously opposed. The count went to 3-and-1 before B.J. hit a game-tying home run into the seats in left-center, to the delight of Braves fans among the 38,498 in attendance.

Having blown the save, Mármol needed to send the game to extra innings. The next batter, Heyward, was retired on a fly ball.

The crowd’s Tomahawk Chop antics were in full force when Justin Upton approached the plate. After falling behind 1-and-2 count, he hit a 94-mph fastball over the wall to deep center, giving the Braves a win in walk-off fashion, 6-5. It was Justin’s second homer of the game and his fifth in Atlanta’s first five games.

It was only the second time in Mármol’s seven-year career that he had allowed a walk-off home run. He had not given up two home runs in the same inning since 2006. The next day’s headlines in the Chicago Tribune characterized Mármol’s appearance as a “meltdown” and suggested that he might lose his closer role.8

The Elias Sports Bureau reported that the Upton brothers, who combined for a 5-for-9 day at the plate and 15 total bases, were the first siblings in major-league history to hit a game-tying and walk-off home run in the same inning. They were also the first brothers to hit home runs in a game since Bill and Cal Ripken Jr. on May 28, 1996.9

When asked where the Upton brothers’ homer feat ranked in his experiences on the field, Justin responded, “I think right now, in my mind, it’s No. 1. It’s a pretty good feeling.” Manager González added, “I’ve never seen anything like that in the ninth inning.10

The Upton brothers again homered in the same game on April 18. Five days later, they hit back-to-back home runs.

B.J. Upton didn’t live up to his prior performance with the Rays. He hit only six more home runs after April, while collecting only 26 RBIs in 126 games. His slash line was a paltry .184/.268/.289. On the other hand, Justin Upton led the Braves with 27 home runs, while batting .263 with 70 RBIs.

The 2013 Braves went on to win the NL East Division by 10 games over the Washington Nationals. They lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Division Series. The Cubs won only five more games in 2013 than they did in 2012, and Sveum was replaced after the season by Rick Renteria.11

The Upton brothers were teammates with the Braves for one more season, and then both were traded to the San Diego Padres in 2015.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL201304060.shtml.

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B04060ATL2013.htm.

Notes

1 Charles Odum, “B.J. Upton, Braves Finalize $75.25M, 5-Year Contract,” Huffington Post, November 29, 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/29/bj-upton-braves-contract-mlb-free-agent_n_2214979.html. As of 2024, B.J. Upton’s free-agent contract remained the highest in Braves history. Sarah Langs, “Every Team’s Largest Contracts by Total Value,” MLB.com, February 5, 2024, https://www.mlb.com/news/every-team-s-largest-contracts.

2 Carroll Rogers and David O’Brien, “Outfield Family Reunion,” Atlanta Constitution, January 25, 2013: C1.

3 Rogers and O’Brien.

4 “Brothers as Teammates in MLB History,” MLB.com, September 29, 2023, https://www.mlb.com/news/brothers-as-teammates-in-mlb-history.

5 From 1991 to 1999, the Braves won eight division championships, five National League pennants, and one World Series.

6 Rogers and O’Brien.

7 This was the final game of Martínez’s five-season major-league career.

8 Paul Sullivan, “Meltdown Complete,” Chicago Tribune, April 7, 2013: 3, 5. On April 14 the Cubs signed veteran Kevin Gregg as a free agent. Gregg – who had lost the Cubs’ closer role to Mármol during the 2009 season – served as closer for the rest of Chicago’s season, recording 33 saves. Mármol was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 2. Paul Sullivan, “A Bidder for Marmol: Trade With Dodgers Could Provide Cubs a Little Salary Relief,” Chicago Tribune, July 2, 2013: 3, 3.

9 Mark Bowman, “Uptons Homer in Ninth for Wild Walk-Off Win,” MLB.com, April 6, 2013, https://www.mlb.com/news/bj-upton-homered-to-tie-it-in-the-ninth-then-justin-upton-won-it-with-a-walk-off-homer/c-44062326.

10 Bowman.

11 Three years later, however, the Cubs finally realized the fruits of their brutal rebuilding period by winning their first World Series since 1908.