Braves starting pitcher Bryce Elder, once again, sparkled. But he would still want at least one pitch back after Saturday’s outing.
Elder had a 2-1 lead with two outs in the seventh when Willson Contreras golfed a 1-2 slider 426 feet into the seats in left field, giving the Red Sox a 3-2 lead. The visitors then held on to that lead over the final two Braves’ at-bats to take the middle game of a three-game series at Truist Park.
The right-handed Elder gave up seven hits and three runs over eight innings. He threw 103 pitches, 72 of which were strikes, induced 14 groundouts and threw 22 first-pitch strikes out of the 32 batters he faced.
A two-out double to left by Wilyer Abreu in the eighth, however, brought the veteran hitter Contreras to the plate. He shocked the near 40,000 in attendance by turning the tide of the game on one pitch.
Drake Baldwin, for the second night in a row, put the Braves on the board first with a home run in the Braves’ first at-bat. In the designated hitter spot, Baldwin whacked a 95-mph sinker over the center field wall off Red Sox starter Payton Tolle. It was Baldwin’s second career lead-off homer and 13th long ball of the season.
After allowing a lead-off double to start the game, Elder then retired nine in a row before giving up back-to-back singles to begin the fourth. Willson Contreras rolled over a slider for what should have been a double-play ball to third, but Austin Riley dropped it, giving the Red Sox the bases loaded with nobody out.
Masatake Yoshida lifted a sacrifice fly to tie the score at 1-all.
Baldwin struck again in the fifth with an RBI single to left that scored José Azócar — who had doubled for the second time in as many at-bats — and gave the Braves a 2-1 lead in the fifth. It was Baldwin’s 36th RBI of the season.
Tolle, meanwhile, went eight strong and only allowed four hits (two to Baldwin and Azócar each). He walked one, struck out three and threw just 85 pitches.
Aroldis Chapman worked around a two-out error, stolen base and two walks in the ninth for his 10th save of the season. Ha-Seong Kim lined a two-strike fastball off Chapman’s leg that Chapman eventually found and threw to first.
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