Olson walks off Rockies with 10th-inning hit, giving Braves 7th straight win

Matt Olson’s walk-off single in the 10th inning Sunday gave the Braves a sweep — their eighth of the season — of the Rockies and a seventh-straight win.

With runners at the corners and nobody out, Olson pulled a 2-2 change-up inside the bag at first to send the Braves home with a 3-2 victory. It completed a week of nothing but wins for the NL East leaders after beating the Brewers last Sunday and sweeping the Dodgers.

The Braves (82-55) have won all seven games in this win streak by a total of 10 runs.

“Obviously a lot of tight games,” Olson said. “The Dodgers series was definitely energetic here, finding different ways to win. Some good at-bats from guys. Pitching’s been great — baserunning, hitting, defense, pitching, it’s been a good, clean homestand.”

Olson’s winner came after Ronald Acuña Jr. had lined a solid single on the first pitch of the bottom of the 10th against Rockies reliever Ryan Feltner (5-9). Acuña’s single moved pinch-runner Brewer Hicklen, who began the inning on second, to third.

With the infield in, Olson got ahead before missing a slider. The next pitch was a low change-up, and Olson whacked it 104 mph down the first-base line for his seventh career walk-off hit.

“(Feltner) just punched me out with the bases loaded that at-bat before (in the seventh),” Olson said. “Putting me on to face Mike (Harris II) is not really an easy task.”

The Braves, now 21-5 at home since the All-Star break, had a chance to win it because right-hander Víctor Mederos pitched a scoreless 10th despite the unenviable task of trying to strand the go-ahead run on second. But Mederos did just that by getting Cole Carrigg to pop out to shortstop, Brett Sullivan to look at a called third strike and pinch-hitter Zac Veen to fly out to left.

Mederos has allowed one run in his last 8 1/3 innings pitched and struck out nine hitters in that span.

“At the end of the day, I still got to go out there, get the outs, give the team the best chance to win,” Mederos said. “That’s my job, and every time I go out there, that’s all I can possibly try to do.”

Braves starting pitcher Tyler Mahle sparkled again before being pulled after a two-out single in the seventh. He finished his day having thrown 60 strikes out of his 89 pitches and struck out nine, which tied a season high. Mahle didn’t issue a walk and had a three-ball count on just four batters.

Throwing three pitches, a four-seam fastball, splitter and cutter, Mahle got 13 whiffs and eight called strikes while working ahead of 10 out of the 17 batters he faced.

In his five starts with Atlanta since being acquired from the Giants before the trade deadline Aug. 3, Mahle has a 1.48 ERA in 30 1/3 innings.

“I’ve been kind of just sticking with what’s working. Early in the season, I was getting punished on my third- and fourth-best pitches,” Mahle said. “We’re just picking our spots to throw those. Like, we threw one to (Hunter) Goodman today, like 0-2, just threw it off the plate. And it was a good pitch, but it was — he’s either going to swing at it or we’re going to mix that in. Then we got two, three pitches to work with after that and we could throw anything we want. It’s just picking the right spots to throw those third and fourth pitches.

“And then, like I said, working with ‘Murph’ (catcher Sean Murphy), he’s been great back there. We work well together, and I’m trusting whatever button he’s pressing.”

Mahle was cruising with one out in the sixth when Jake McCarthy turned on an inside fastball and hit it 391 feet into the Chop House for a solo homer. It was McCarthy’s 14th home run of the season and cut the Braves’ lead to 2-1.

Left-hander Dylan Dodd got the final out of the seventh, a strikeout of Carrigg. But Dylan Lee couldn’t hold the lead in the eighth, giving up a leadoff single to Sullivan and a two-out single by Connor Norby that scored Sullivan from third.

In his last 4 1/3 innings, Lee has allowed five runs and 10 hits.

Braves closer Raisel Iglesias pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning before Mederos (4-1) held the Rockies (52-85) at bay in the 10th.

The Braves’ last 22 games have been decided by an average margin of 2.13 runs, and the last 14 have been decided by an average of 1.71. They’re 24-19 in one-run games and 6-6 in extra-inning affairs.

“It’s not good for my health, I’ll tell you that much,” Braves’ manager Walt Weiss said. “Every night it’s the same game. But this team’s battle-tested, with or without that. Having to deal with a tough June, that last road trip (in August), and to come back from that? They’re battle-tested.”

Murphy broke a 0-0 tie in the third by leading off the inning with a solo home run to the opposite field. Murphy’s second home run of the season went 407 feet into the bullpen in right.

Murphy is 6-for-11 in his last three games with a pair of homers, three RBIs and two doubles.

“Knew it was coming, but it was frustrating for a while,” said Murphy, who has missed much of the season with a broken finger. “It’s good to see some positive results.”