Braves crush Diamondbacks thanks to 8-run fifth

PHOENIX — The Braves scored eight times in the fifth inning — thanks, in part, to an error and two overturned calls in their favor in a 17-2 win over the Diamondbacks at Chase Field in the opening game of a four-game series.

Ozzie Albies played a pivotal role in the eight-run fifth, starting the frame by drawing a six-pitch walk. Albies was originally rung up on a called third strike by home plate umpire Malachi Moore, but Albies challenged the call, and the Automated Ball-Strike system showed pitcher Ryne Nelson’s curveball up and away and well out of the zone.

Then the floodgates opened.

“I don’t know if you can hear it, but right away I said, ‘No. It’s a ball.’ (Nelson’s curveball) was having it’s bite but it didn’t bite enough,” Albies said. “So I thought it was a ball — and it was, actually.”

The Braves (5-2) collected four hits, drew four walks and took advantage of one costly error in the midst of the breakout inning. According to Statcast, the Braves’ win percentage, while holding on to a 2-1 lead, when Albies drew his walk was 67.5%.

It was 99.2% by the end of the fifth.

“Sounds crazy in a game that we won 17-2, but it was pivotal at the time. The game was hanging in the balance when Ozzie challenged that 3-2 pitch to start the inning with a walk,” Braves manager Walt Weiss said. “The lower leverage, the more certainty you gotta have (when challenging a call). But, again, you don’t know what these things are gonna lead to. That’s why I say trust your eyes. If you believe what you saw, then go ahead and challenge it.”

Nelson, the D-backs starter, began to falter in the fifth, starting with Albies’ walk. Even after getting Michael Harris II to line out to center, Nelson walked Dominic Smith to bring Mauricio Dubón to the plate.

Nelson got the ground ball he was looking for, a sharp roller to third, but Nolan Arenado booted it trying to make a backhand play, which allowed Dubón to reach and loaded the bases.

Ronald Acuña Jr. then walked, making it 3-1, and Drake Baldwin beat out a double-play ball hit to third (Baldwin was originally called out at first before Weiss challenged the call and it was overturned), allowing Albies to score, and Matt Olson ripped an RBI double to the corner in right making it 5-1.

That spelled the end of the evening for Nelson (0-1).

“You never realize how much it can lead to until that inning’s done. Looking back on it, it’s a big point in the game,” Baldwin said of his hustle down the line to reach first safely on his fielder’s choice. He tipped his hats to Braves’ replay coordinator Jimmy Leo, too. “The game kind of flipped right there. Got a huge hit from (Olson) and Riley after that. It just shows, in the future, run everything out; you never know what will happen.”

Austin Riley added to the lead by taking reliever Kevin Ginkel’s 3-2 sinker and ripping it down the third-base line for a two-run double. Albies came up for the second time in the inning and blooped an RBI single into shallow left making it 8-1.

Harris banged a double off the left-field wall to score two more, the final blow of the inning. Nelson was charged with seven runs, but only two were earned.

Braves starter Reynaldo López really only needed the two runs of support he had already received after 2½ innings. López (1-0) allowed a single run and just four hits over his five innings of work, leaving after 79 pitches.

He also appreciated the Albies challenge.

“I don’t even wanna think about (Albies) in the dugout and how mad he would be and all the things he might be saying to an umpire,” López said via team interpreter Franco Garcia. “But, all jokes aside, that overturned call and that walk changed everything and it started the rally for us.”

Olson gave the Braves a first-inning lead by turning around a 3-2 fastball from Nelson and sending it 415 feet out to center. It was Olson’s first homer of the season and second of his career off Nelson.

In the third, Smith made it 2-0 by destroying an 0-1 fastball from Nelson for a 430-foot home run into the stands in right field.

D-backs left fielder Jordan Lawler got one of those runs right back by taking the first López pitch of the bottom of the third and depositing it in the left field seats. It was Lawler’s first career dinger.

But it was the only noise the D-backs (3-4) made through the first eight innings.

Dubón kept the offensive onslaught coming in the sixth with a solo home run to left field off D-backs reliever Joe Ross. Mike Yastrzemski added a 12th run with an RBI groundout to first later in the inning.