Olson’s three-run shot lifts Braves to win over Diamondbacks

Matt Olson hit a three-run home run to break a 2-2 tie in the seventh inning, and the Braves salvaged the final game of a three-game series against the Diamondbacks with a 5-3 win Sunday at Truist Park.

It was Olson’s 36th home run of the season — one off the MLB lead — and 324th of his career, tying him for 133rd in MLB history. The Braves first baseman now has eight homers in his past 15 games and 11 in the 29 games since the All-Star break.

This last long ball broke the tension in Sunday’s affair. And as Olson walked up the first base line with his bat in his left hand admiring his 437-foot shot to center, he took a quick glance toward his teammates in the dugout before slinging the bat aside.

“I don’t know,” Olson laughed about the moment. “Just blacked out.”

Left-hander reliever Dylan Lee kept the Braves lead intact with a 1-2-3 eighth and closer Raisel Iglesias notched his 25th save of the season despite allowing a run on a walk, single, balk and RBI groundout in the ninth.

The Braves (74-50) improved to 63-2 when leading after eight innings this season.

Braves right-hander Bryce Elder had an impressive bounce-back start too, limiting the Diamondbacks to one run over six innings. Elder, who gave up seven earned runs to the Mets on Monday, allowed four hits and struck out five while throwing just 75 pitches on a hot day.

“I tried to go back out there in the seventh, but like I said before, when (Braves manager) Walt (Weiss) tells me I’m done, that’s when I’m done,” Elder said. “So I just said ‘OK’ and tried to plead my case a little bit, but he said, No, you’re done,’ so I said, ‘Yes, sir.’”

Weiss said after Sunday’s game that Elder has been pitching through knee discomfort in recent starts, nothing serious enough to keep Elder from pitching or to place the right-hander on the injured list. Elder told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution it’s his right knee that has been bothersome of late.

Elder’s velocity was down across all his pitches, too. He said that wasn’t cause for alarm, either.

“No, I think more than anything, we we’re just trying to attack early. And I think in the weeks past, my stuff had gotten a little better from that bad stretch,” he said. “But more than anything, I was trying to get a little too fine. So today I was just trying to go right at guys. I know the velocity was down, but I thought the stuff was pretty good.”

Despite the low pitch count for Elder, the Braves went to their bullpen in the seventh and Didier Fuentes (5-1) promptly served up a solo home run to Ildemaro Vargas. Vargas’ 366-foot fly ball bounced off the top of the right wall, tying the game at 2.

The Diamondbacks (66-59) then went to left-hander Brandyn Garcia, who saved Friday’s 2-0 win for his team, with one out and one on in the seventh. Garcia walked Drake Baldwin and struck out Ronald Acuña Jr. to get to Olson. Olson worked a 3-0 count, then zeroed in on a 96 mph sinker down in the zone to connect for the game’s pivotal swing.

“Yeah, tough. (Garcia’s) got he’s got good stuff,” Olson said. “Faced him a couple days ago. Good movement. Able to lay off a couple close ones and get a 3-0 count and got the green light and saw it in the zone.

“3-0 is probably got to be the highest percentage fastball count in baseball. It’s pitcher-dependent, it’s situation-dependent, it’s maybe if you don’t see a guy well, you try to get on base. But that situation there, seventh (inning) tie game, I just felt like it was a good time if I saw a pitch I liked, go at it.”

Michael Soroka, the former Braves pitcher, got the start Sunday for the Diamondbacks and found himself in trouble in the third. Singles from Dominic Smith and Jim Jarvis, respectively, put two on with one out for Baldwin, who lined an RBI single to right.

Jarvis had just two hits in his previous 28 at-bats (.071) before his third-inning single.

Gabriel Moreno quickly erased his team’s deficit with a solo home run to begin the fourth, his ninth of the season. On a 3-1 count, Moreno lined a 90 mph fastball into the bullpen in left field.

In the fifth, Elder walked Tim Tawa on five pitches, then had to eat a sacrifice bunt by James McCann that was pushed up the third-base line. Jorge Barrosa’s sacrifice bunt to first moved runners to second and third with one out.

Ozzie Albies made a run-saving play on a hard-hit ball by Geraldo Perdomo. On the infield grass, Albies stabbed a grounder to his left and threw home to strike down Tawa. Elder got a fly ball to center to get out of the jam.

Elder had an easy, 1-2-3 sixth with a pair of strikeouts and lazy fly ball to left.

“You tip your cap to (Elder) because he continues to take the ball and has been very durable,” Weiss said. “That’s probably the tipping point for me (the sore right knee) not sending him out for the seventh. Plus, we had (Fuentes) and our best relievers set up right there. I thought (Elder) had done his job. (Elder’s) been a warrior, man. He’s been fighting through some stuff and continues the post.”

That kept the game tied and allowed Acuña to give the Braves the lead in the bottom of the inning when his two-out RBI double into the corner in left scored Austin Riley from third. The Braves had been 2-for-16 with runners in scoring position in the series before Acuna’s hit.