Braves jump on Eury Perez, Marlins with back-to-back homers to lead off game as Atlanta rolls to shutout
ATLANTA — Ronald Acuña and Ozzie Albies homered as part of a six-run first inning and the Atlanta Braves beat the Miami Marlins 7-0 on Saturday as major league batting leader Luis Arraez saw his average dip to .388.
Charlie Morton (8-6) struck out five in 5 2/3 innings and scattered four hits and one walk in winning his third consecutive start.
Kirby Yates, Nick Anderson, Ben Heller, and Joe Jiménez completed the shutout for the Braves out of the bullpen.
Matt Olson went 2 for 4 with a run scored, and Austin Riley was 2 for 4 with two runs scored for the Braves, who have outscored the Marlins 23-4 in the first two games of the series.
The Braves have won 23 of their last 27 games and lead the second-place Marlins by eight games in the NL East.
Marlins rookie Eury Pérez (5-4), who entered the game with an MLB-best 21-inning scoreless streak and a 1.34 ERA, lasted just a third of an inning, giving up six runs and seven hits. He threw 35 pitches.
Arraez went 1 for 4. He is 3 for 16 over last four games and his .388 average is his lowest since June 17.
The Braves’ first-inning frenzy started with back-to-back home runs from Acuña and Albies. Riley and Olson followed with singles. Sean Murphy knocked in Riley with a double, then Marcell Ozuna drove in Olson and Murphy with a two-run single. After Pérez recorded his only out, Orlando Arcia closed the scoring with an RBI double that knocked Pérez out of the game.
The outburst gave the Braves 87 first-inning runs in their first 82 games, including 11 in the first two games of this series.
The Marlins’ bullpen slowed the Braves after the first inning, not allowing another hit until the eighth.
Marlins rookie George Soriano, who was promoted from Triple-A Jacksonville and flew into Atlanta earlier in the day, came on in relief of Pérez in the first inning and did not allow a hit in 3 2/3 innings.
UP NEXT
Braves RHP Spencer Strider (9-2, 3.73 ERA) will face RHP Sandy Alcantara (3-6, 4.82), the National League’s reigning Cy Young Award winner, in the finale of the teams’ three-game series.