Braves club three more homers in 5-3 win over the Marlins

The Atlanta Braves cracked three more home runs on their way to a 5-3 win over the Miami Marlins Sunday afternoon at Truist Park.

Max Fried needed just five pitches to get through a scoreless first inning and then included striking out Jazz Chisholm on three pitches. That is notable given that it snapped a five game stretch where Atlanta had given up at least one run in the first inning.

The Marlins struck first as Jesus Sanchez launched the first pitch of the second inning 460 feet into the fountain beyond the center field wall at Truist Park to make it 1-0.

The Braves finally broke through in the fourth as Dansby Swanson worked a two-out walk off of Edward Cabrera and then Eddie Rosario followed with a two-run shot into the Atlanta bullpen to make it 2-1. Rosario’s homer was his third in a Braves uniform and snapped a two-game homerless streak.

Jorge Soler lead off the fifth with a double to left and then came around to score on a single by Travis d’Arnaud that extended the lead to 3-1.

Fried cruised through the first five innings but ran into trouble in the sixth. Pinch-hitter Lewin Diaz tripled to lead off the inning and then scored on a single by Miguel Rojas to cut Atlanta’s lead to 3-2. Chisholm then dropped down a bunt that bounced back to Fried but he bobbled it to put runners at first and second. Bryan De La Cruz then grounded to Freddie Freeman at first who fired to Swanson for the first out. Swanson’s relay throw to Fried was in time but Fried was unable to find the first base bag. That put runners at the corners with one out. Fried then got ahead of Sanchez 0-2 but left a fastball up that he lined into center to tie the game. Fried recovered and retired Lewis Branson and Joe Panik to end the threat with no further damage.

Jacob Webb worked a scoreless seventh and then Ozzie Albies put the Braves back in front with his 28th home run of the season to make it 4-3.

Atlanta wasn’t finished in the seventh as Freddie Freeman went deep off of Anthony Bass to push the lead to 5-3. That was Freeman’s 30th home run of the season and it came on his 32nd birthday.

Luke Jackson worked a scoreless eighth and Will Smith took over in the ninth. Smith promptly served up a triple to Sanchez off the wall in right. Smith then retired Lewis Brinson on a fly out but it wasn’t deep enough to score Sanchez as Rosario showed off a good arm on the throw home. Smith then walked Isan Diaz to put runners at the corners. Alex Jackson popped out to Freeman in foul territory for the second out and Smith then got Alvarez to ground out to end the game.

With the win, Atlanta takes the series and increases their lead in the NL East to 4.5 games. The Braves will enjoy an off day Monday before beginning a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies.