Braves blank White Sox to halt losing streak

CHICAGO — Grant Holmes held the White Sox to one hit over six scoreless innings and Austin Riley drove in a pair of runs as the Braves halted a three-game losing streak with a 2-0 win Thursday at Rate Field.

In a makeup of a game originally scheduled for June 11, the Braves (75-53) avoided what would have been just their second four-game losing skid of the season. Instead, they rode a superb pitching performance from Holmes (8-5), who has now thrown six scoreless innings in three of his last four starts — and bounced back nicely from his Saturday start when he was beat up by the Diamondbacks to the tune of six earned runs.

“My game plan every game is to get as many outs as quick as possible, go deep in the game, whether that be five, six, or seven innings, get the guys back in the dugout as quick as possible,” Holmes said. “That’s my game plan each time. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, kind of like last outing.

“But last outing, I feel like that was a fluke. I didn’t really get that upset about it, knowing what I was capable of in the other two outings before. Coming back and doing what I did today kind of puts a little bit more of a confidence in my game.”

Holmes no-hit the first-place White Sox (66-61) for six innings, but then issued his third walk of the day to begin the seventh before falling behind 3-1 to Andrew Benintendi. Benintendi lined a slider into left for a solid single.

That ended Holmes’ day at 94 pitches.

“I looked at (the no-hitter) every inning,” Holmes said. “How the day was going, I felt like I could throw it anywhere and they were going to hit it at somebody. I was just keeping that mindset. Tried to fill up the zone as quick as possible, get the outs as quick as possible.

“For a little bit of it, I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m going to strike anybody out.’ But that’s OK if I get deep into the game. We were up at that point, so just keeping the team in the game.”

When Holmes departed, Didier Fuentes got the call from the bullpen and was faced with a two-on, none-out situation. The hard-throwing righty struck out all three hitters he faced on 14 pitches.

Dylan Lee threw a 1-2-3 eighth for the Braves. Closer Raisel Iglesias worked a perfect ninth for his 26th save, preserving the Braves’ eighth shutout of the season.

When leading after eight innings this season, the Braves are now 64-2. Their lead in the NL East is five games and their magic number to clinch the division is 30.

Having been swept by the Twins in a three-game series already this week, the Braves had not led in a game since Sunday’s win over the Diamondbacks at Truist Park. But Riley changed that in the third inning with an RBI double that scored Mauricio Dubón from first.

That turned out to be the only run the Braves needed on this day.

“Obviously, last couple days have been rough from an offensive standpoint. Just not getting some timely hits,” Riley said. “I said (Wednesday) we got to come in today, and today’s a new day and new opportunities. We were able to scratch across a few, and our pitchers did a great job.”

White Sox starter Anthony Kay had only allowed the one run going into the seventh. He was lifted after Michael Harris II lobbed a double into the right field corner. Kay struck out six and worked around five hits and one walk while throwing 94 pitches.

Kay (9-6) wound up being charged two runs because Dubón, who finished 3-for-4, moved Harris to third with a fly out to deep right, then Riley ambushed a first-pitch sinker from reliever Huascar Brazobán for an RBI single up the middle, making it 2-0.

The Braves have only scored nine runs in their past four games, but that didn’t diminish spirits after a win. The happy team boarded a bus after Thursday’s game and headed north to Milwaukee, where they’re scheduled to face the NL Central-leading Brewers on Friday.