Acuna Jr. homers, steals another base as surging Braves knock off Dodgers
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Newlywed star Ronald Acuna Jr. hit his thirty first homer and stole his 63rd base, Max Fried tossed seven shutout innings and the Atlanta Braves defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-3 on Friday evening for his or her fifth straight win.
The Braves (89-45) lead the Dodgers (83-51) by six video games for the very best document within the majors and potential home-field benefit all through the postseason. Atlanta pounded out 14 hits in sending the Dodgers to a second consecutive loss for the primary time because the finish of July.
Acuna was at it once more one evening after he received married in the course of the day and within the night turned baseball’s first participant with 30 house runs and 60 stolen bases in the identical season.
He went deep main off the third inning in opposition to Julio Urias (11-8), flexing his muscle groups because the 418-foot shot landed past the center-field fence. In the fifth, Acuna doubled main off, stole third and scored on Austin Riley’s RBI double off the bullpen gate in proper.
For the second straight recreation, Acuna received the higher of rival NL MVP candidate Mookie Betts. Betts, who hit .455 in August, was 0 for 3 with a strikeout to open September earlier than being lifted within the eighth.
Fried struck out six of the primary eight batters he confronted. The Dodgers didn’t get their first hit till Miguel Rojas’ single with two outs within the third. They didn’t advance a runner to second till there have been two outs within the seventh.
Fried (6-1) allowed three hits, together with singles to Freddie Freeman and Amed Rosario, struck out a season-high 10 and walked two. It was the left-hander’s fourth profession recreation with double-digit strikeouts and first since Aug. 30, 2019, in opposition to the Chicago White Sox.
Kirby Yates pitched the ninth to earn his third save.
Travis d’Arnaud homered within the second and Marcell Ozuna hit his thirty second homer main off the fourth.
Ozuna added a bloop RBI single within the fifth and doubled main off the eighth. He scored on Eddie Rosario’s single for a 6-0 lead.
The Dodgers rallied with three runs within the eighth after Betts and Freeman have been eliminated for pinch-hitters.
Kolten Wong had a pinch-hit, three-run homer with two outs in his Dodgers debut, chopping their deficit to 6-3. Will Smith walked and Amed Rosario singled off Pierce Johnson, bringing Chris Taylor to the plate because the potential tying run. He went down swinging in opposition to Michael Tonkin.
Acuna raced in to make a knee-high catch for the second out of the ninth.
Urias gave up 5 runs and 9 hits in 5 innings of his second straight loss. The left-hander struck out 4 and walked two.
Eddie Rosario was caught stealing house within the second. Urias’ throw bounced within the grime and catcher Will Smith one-handed it, tagging Rosario to save lots of the run.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Braves: All-Star catcher Sean Murphy received the evening off.
Dodgers: DH J.D. Martinez (groin) will play a few rehab video games with Triple-A Oklahoma City beginning Sunday and is on observe to rejoin the workforce in Washington subsequent week. … RHP Joe Kelly (forearm) threw a 20-pitch bullpen, utilizing all his pitches and touching the mid-90s on the radar gun.
UP NEXT
RHP Bryce Elder (11-4, 3.50 ERA) begins for the Braves on Saturday. The Dodgers are more likely to both begin RHP Emmet Sheehan (3-1, 5.63) or use him for bulk innings. He simply returned for his second stint with the workforce.
