Braves beat Marlins to win 14th series of the season

MIAMI — The Braves bested Marlins ace Sandy Alcántara, and Spencer Strider continued to trend upward in a 9-3 win at loanDepot Park on Thursday.

The first six of Atlanta’s nine runs came off Miami’s hard-throwing righty. The Braves, who had four different players with at least two RBIs each, also collected nine hits off Alcántara in a game they never trailed.

Michael Harris II hit two home runs in the win, his second two-homer game of the season.

Strider, in his fourth start of the season, gave up a solo homer and a walk in the bottom of the seventh before his night ended. The right-hander gave up just three hits and only walked two while striking out nine. Strider threw 100 pitches (65 for strikes), got 15 swings-and-misses and 17 called strikes.

All three of the runs Strider (2-0) allowed were on solo homers. Strider has allowed three earned runs or less in each of his first four starts this season, and Thursday’s 6 1/3 innings pitched were a season-high, as were the 100 pitches.

“I don’t think of every start as, like, a plot on a chart of how I’m trending,” Strider said. “I think of it as an opportunity to do my job. That was putting up zeroes, however I can do that, try to get deep in the game and save the bullpen.

“I think that’s another thing that’s frustrating there in the seventh. If I could have got through that inning, then we save an arm. I felt like I was in position to do that and just didn’t execute. That’s the kind of stuff that I think matters to me.”

Said Braves’ catcher Chadwick Tromp: “I think the way (Strider) goes about his business and how he carries himself and the way he goes about his prep work, I don’t think anybody here is surprised how good he is just because of the work he puts in, but also the confidence he possesses. I think that’s been evolving, and it’s been very fun watching him grow the past couple years. Excited to see what he does in the future.”

Dylan Lee got the final two outs of the seventh with a strikeout and a weak grounder to second. Robert Suarez pitched a 1-2-3 eighth. Dylan Dodd shut the door in the ninth.

The victory improved the Braves to 14-1-1 in 16 series this season, 29-0 when leading after eight innings and 19-8 on the road. The Braves (35-16) are scheduled to start a three-game home stand against the Nationals on Friday at Truist Park.

Harris began Thursday’s affair by scorching an Alcántara (3-3) changeup for a two-run home run in the first inning. Harris’ 10th home run of the season (half his home run total in 2025) came off the bat at 110 mph and went 418 feet out to right center.

Mike Yastrzemski, 0-for-9 in the series coming into Thursday, turned on an 0-1 changeup in the second and shot it over the wall in right for his third homer of the season.

Yastrzemski is now 13-for-46 (.282) with three homers, three doubles and eight RBIs this month.

“Part of it is just patience. Trying to do too much early on in the year, trying to impact games maybe when I don’t need to,” he said. “I think that’s part of being on a new team and trying to establish yourself. So right now it just feels like we’re trying to put together good at-bats every time we go up there.”

Owen Caissie got one of those runs back for the Marlins (22-29) in the third inning by ambushing Strider’s first pitch — an elevated fastball — and sending it into the upper deck in right. Kyle Stowers got another run back with two outs in the fourth when he went down to a knee and golfed a 1-2 curveball that hit the top of the wall in right and bounced into the stands, cutting the Marlins deficit to 3-2.

The Braves responded in the fifth with a little A-B-C baseball. Back-to-back singles by Mike Yastrzemski and Ha-Seong Kim, and a sacrifice bunt from Tromp, put runners at second and third for Ronald Acuña Jr. Acuña ripped a two-run single past the drawn-in infield into left center, giving the Braves a 5-2 lead.

Yastrzemski’s two-out double in the sixth brought home another run. Stowers then struck again in the seventh with another solo home run, this one a no-doubter to right that went 382 feet.