Braves sweep Marlins to win 8th in a row
A long rain delay forced the Braves to use the bulk of their bullpen Thursday, but a four-run sixth inning allowed that group to have a larger margin for error — a margin they didn’t need in an 11-3 win over the Marlins at Truist Park. Ronald Acuña Jr. hit two homers in the win.
Tyler Kinley, Víctor Mederos, Danny Young, Dylan Lee and newcomer Brent Suter, respectively, combined to pitch the final six innings as the Braves ran their winning streak to eight straight and nine in a row at home. It was the Braves’ fifth sweep of the season as they improved to 60-1 when leading after eight innings.
Now with a 70-45 record, a season-best 25 games over .500, the Braves head to New York to face the Yankees for a three-game set beginning Friday.
On Thursday, one of the more unique home runs likely ever hit came in the third inning on Acuña’s two-run shot. Acuña’s 390-foot drive into the left field gap arrived as the gloves of left fielder Heriberto Hernández and center fielder Esteury Ruiz all met at the same time in front of the wall.
The ball took a skip up off Hernández’s glove and cleared the wall for Acuña’s 10th homer of the season.
That preceded a downpour that delayed the game for 84 minutes, a downpour that knocked Braves starter Martín Pérez from the game. Pérez threw three no-hit innings and walked a batter who was erased by a 5-4-3 double play.
Matt Olson led off the sixth with a solo home run, his 32nd of the season. It came off Marlins reliever John King and went 422 feet to center field.
That was a precursor to a big inning that saw Michael Harris II double into the corner in right, Mauricio Dubón single to center and pinch-hitter Lane Thomas rip an RBI double into the corner in left. It was Thomas’ first hit and RBI as a member of the Braves since being traded from the Royals on Saturday.
After King walked pinch-hitter Ozzie Albies to load the bases, Victor Vodnik was summoned to match up with Austin Riley. Riley drove a sacrifice fly to center field, making it 5-0.
With two outs in the inning, Drake Baldwin’s slow roller to second was booted by Xavier Edwards, allowing Thomas to score.
After Kinley and Mederos got the game to the seventh, Young allowed two earned runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batter. He left the bases loaded for Lee, who needed just two pitches to get an inning-ending fly ball to center field.
The Braves immediately got those two runs right back on Harris’ triple to the gap in right and Dubón’s single up the middle past a drawn-in infield.
Suter, traded to the Braves from the Angels on Monday, allowed a one-out walk (which he erased via pickoff) and a two-out double in the eighth. In the ninth, the lefty allowed a run on back-to-back doubles and a two-out single, but nothing else.
Acuña punctuated the victory with a solo home run in the eighth, a seemingly harmless fly ball that carried to the corner in deep right and bounced off the top of the wall. It was Acuña’s second multi-homer game of the season and 16th of his career.
Harris’ RBI single to center, bringing Olson home, made it 10-2 before the Marlins (58-58) put right fielder Javier Sanoja in, and Dubón banged an RBI double to deep right to provide the final tally.