The Braves’ bullpen bent for four consecutive innings at Yankee Stadium, but it didn’t break.
And then the wunderkind Ronald Acuna did his thing.
Acuna’s two-run homer in the 11th inning lifted the Braves to an impressive 5-3 win over the Yankees in a series opener Monday night at Yankee Stadium.
His one-out, game-winning drive off reliever David Robertson just cleared the right-field fence and the outstretched glove of leaping, 6-foot-7 right fielder Aaron Judge. It was the seventh homer for Acuna in 33 major league games and his second in four games since coming off the disabled list at the beginning of the road trip.
He missed a month with knee and back injuries, but you’d never know it from watching the dynamic 20-year-old, who also had an RBI double to give the Braves a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning.
Jesse Biddle, fast becoming Mr. Clutch in the Braves bullpen, pitched two scoreless innings in the ninth and 10th and had four strikeouts, striking out Greg Bird and Austin Romine consecutively with bases loaded in the 10th.
Biddle’s work in extra-inning games this season: Eight scoreless innings with 14 strikeouts.
The first-place Braves (49-34) are 15 games over .500 for the first time since ending the 2013 season as National League East champions with a 96-66 record.
They improved to 3-7 in extra-inning games including wins in their past two, and moved to 4-0 on a 10-game trip that figured to be their toughest of the season.
After sweeping the Cardinals over the weekend in the sauna that was St. Louis, the Braves continued their stifling-heat tour in the Bronx on a night when the heat index was in the mid-90s at the first pitch.
It was just the third time in 22 seasons of interleague play that teams with the best records in their respective leagues met this late in a season. Arizona and Seattle did it in a series in mid-July 2001, and St. Louis and Kansas City when they played a makeup game July 23, 2015.
The first of three between the Braves and Yankees didn’t disappoint. Braves veteran Anibal Sanchez used guile and a wide repertoire of pitches to limit the power-laden Yankees to three runs and six hits in six innings with two walks and four strikeouts. The Braves got three runs in four innings against his counterpart, 23-year-old Jonathan Loaisiga, making just his fourth major league start after going 2-0 with a 1.93 ERA in his first three.
Then it was up to the bullpens, a proposition that has become increasingly uncomfortable for followers of the Braves.
Atlanta’s bullpen had a 5.46 ERA with 14 walks and three blown leads in a recent 2-4 homestand against the Orioles and Reds, then posted a 9.64 ERA at St. Louis while Braves starters didn’t allow an earned run in the series.
Braves relievers had the third-most walks in the National League before Friday, when left-hander Sam Freeman walked the first two batters he faced after replacing Sanchez to start the seventh inning. But he got out of that jam and Dan Winkler worked out of another tight spot in the eighth.
But the bullpen wouldn’t break. Not this time.
The Braves won in just their fourth game played at the second edition of Yankee Stadium, fewer than any other major league team except the Cubs, who’ve played two there.
After Aaron Judge in the Yankees’ first inning and Johan Camargo in the Braves’ third hit solo home runs to the short right-field porch, the Yankees moved back ahead in the bottom of the third on a leadoff double from No. 9 hitter Gleyber Torres and a pair of wild pitches, the second of which allowed Torres to score with two out – after Sanchez had struck out Judge and before he got Didi Gregorius on an inning-ending groundout.
The Braves answered in the fourth with one of the things they do best: doubles. They lead the National League in doubles and got three more consecutively with one out in the fourth inning from Nick Markakis, Kurt Suzuki (11-pitch at-bat) and Acuna, with Suzuki and Acuna each driving in a run for a 3-2 lead.
In the fifth, Acuna’s fielding error on a bouncer in left allowed Torres to advance to second base on a one-out single, which was followed by consecutive walks by Brett Gardner and Judge before Gregorius hit a game-tying sacrifice fly.
After Sanchez left the game it didn’t take long for a member of the Braves’ maligned and weary bullpen to put himself in a jam as left-hander Freeman walked Torres and Gardner to start the seventh inning and bring up the hulking Judge.
But after his harmless fly-out to right, Gregorius hit a sharp grounder up the middle and Swanson was well-positioned to field it, racing to step on second base and firing to first to complete the double play as Freeman escaped with no damage.
Winkler allowed a one-out double in the eighth but struck out Neil Walker with two on to end the inning, and Biddle gave up a leadoff single in the 10th before inducing a Gardner double-play grounder and striking out Judge.
Sanchez got no decision to remain 4-1 in seven career starts against the Yankees including 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA in five since the beginning of the 2013 season. He’s 3-0 with a 3.38 ERA in four starts at this Yankee Stadium.
