Rio Ruiz is one of the few power-hitting prospects in the upper levels of the Braves farm system. But he’s showed only flashes of home run potential at Triple-A Gwinnett, and not much at all during his two short stints with the big-league Braves.
That’s why Ruiz’s first home run in the big leagues, a two-run shot against Nationals ace Max Scherzer, felt like a lightning bolt out of nowhere.
Ruiz’s homer in the second inning sent the Braves on their way to a 5-2 victory on Saturday at SunTrust Park.
“Today was a beautiful day to see little ‘Ro Ro’ come through against one of the best pitchers in the game,” Braves second baseman Brandon Phillips said.
The Braves (18-22) are 7-2 since a six-game skid. They can sweep the Nationals (25-17) with a victory on Sunday.
Scherzer departed after five innings and a long rain delay. The Braves led 3-2 at the time and they added two runs against Nationals relievers while their bullpen didn’t allow a score over the final 4 2/3 innings.
The Blue Jays routed the Braves the day after first baseman Freddie Freeman suffered a fractured wrist that will sideline him for at least 10 weeks. But they’ve since responded with two wins against the Nationals, who lead the NL East.
“These guys, Freddie went down and they stepped up,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “That’s a good sign in a team. Nobody is feeling sorry for anybody. They just went out and played.”
The veterans in the Braves’ lineup have been producing consistently for much of the season. Now younger players such as Ruiz are contributing, too.
Ruiz went to bat with two outs in the second inning against Scherzer, a two-time Cy Young Award winner who doesn’t give up a lot of homers. Ruiz, 23, was playing in just his eighth big-league game.
Scherzer tried to get Ruiz with a fastball on the inside of the plate but the rookie pulled a line drive to right field. The ball carried just far enough to clear the brick on the upper portion of the 16-foot wall.
“I didn’t actually think it had enough juice to get out,” Ruiz said.
It was an unexpected moment for Ruiz. He hit 10 home runs in 465 plate appearances for Gwinnett last season and four in 151 this season.
Ruiz said he didn’t give much thought to his first homer in the majors coming against one of the best pitchers.
“I guess until you brought it up it didn’t really hit me,” he said. “So, yeah, that’s even more special.”
Veteran Braves slugger Matt Kemp added a lead-off homer in the fourth inning against Scherzer for a 3-0 lead. Braves right-hander Bartolo Colon made it it through four inefficient but scoreless innings before the Nationals took advantage of his throwing error in the fifth.
Matt Wieters singled to lead off the inning and, with one out, Scherzer hit a bouncer back to Colon. He fielded the ball with plenty of time for a double-play chance but threw wildly to second base, allowing Wieters to advance to third.
The next batter, Trea Turner, hit an RBI single. Jayson Werth followed with another run-scoring single to trim the lead to 3-2. Suddenly Colon’s good outing was unraveling and manager Brian Snitker pulled him in favor of left-hander Ian Krol to face lefty slugger Bryce Harper.
Krol got Harper to pop out in the infield and struck out Ryan Zimmerman to preserve the 3-2 lead.
“Huge what Ian Krol did,” Snitker said. “We kind of didn’t make the play that we should have and put ourselves in trouble. Ian, that was huge right there in that game and then the other guys came in and did a great job.”
Scherzer retired the Braves in order in the bottom of the fifth inning before the start of the rain delay that lasted nearly two hours. The Braves extended the lead on Dansby Swanson’s fielder’s choice RBI against Blake Treinen in the sixth inning and a solo homer by Tyler Flowers against Matt Albers in the eighth.
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