Sean Newcomb continued the best stretch of pitching of the young left-hander’s career, and Ender Inciarte broke out the power stroke for the second consecutive game to help the Braves clinch another series Sunday against the Marlins.
Newcomb allowed just one hit and four walks in six scoreless innings and Inciarte hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning of the Braves’ 4-3 win at Marlins Park, where they took three of four games in the series to give them 10 wins in their past 11 road games.
The Braves led 4-0 before Justin Bour’s towering three-run pinch-hit homer in the ninth inning off closer Arodys Vizcaino, after Jesse Biddle gave up consecutive singles to start the inning.
Newcomb has allowed just five hits in 20 scoreless innings over his past three starts, with eight walks and 20 strikeouts in those three consecutive road wins against the Mets, Rays and Marlins. None of those teams is very good right now, but Newcomb is.
In his second season in the majors, the 6-foot-5, 255-pound Massachusetts native looking like another front-line starting pitcher the Braves can build around.
After allowing five hits and five earned runs in 4-1/3 innings of his season-debut loss against the Nationals, Newcomb is 4-0 with a 1.70 ERA in his past seven starts with 48 strikeouts, 18 walks and only three home runs allowed in 42-1/3 innings.
The Braves got a run in the first inning when Freddie Freeman hit a two-out single and scored on Nick Markakis’ single. They opened it up in the sixth when Ronald Acuna hit a leadoff double and Inciarte hit a two-out homer, his third of the season and second in as many days. He has four homers in his past 11 games at Marlins Park.
Inciarte has four multi-hit games in the past five days and has hit .324 with eight extra-base hits (three homers) in his past 24 games, after hitting .183 with two extra-base hits in his first 14 games.
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