The Braves came into Thursday afternoon looking to sweep the Marlins and win their 8th game in their last ten tries.
Atlanta struck first after Miami gave them a break, dropping a Ronald Acuña pop fly to begin the inning. Three batters later, Sean Murphy stayed hot and drove him in with a double that just missed leaving the ballpark.
The Marlins would answer, however, in the bottom half of the inning, and it was a familiar sight for Braves fans. With a runner on, Jorge Soler hit a ball well into the left field bleachers off of Dylan Dodd, giving The Fish the lead.
It wasn’t the best of starts for Dodd, who is auditioning for a more permanent role in the rotation following the injury to Kyle Wright, but he would settle down, allowing just two hits and no runs over the next three innings.
Meanwhile, the Braves offense was just getting started. Kevin Pillar brought in another run in the second inning with a sacrifice fly, and Acuña would give the Braves a lead with a single up the middle. Two innings later, it was the now sizzling Marcell Ozuna adding to his home run tally — a solo shot, giving him five on the season and three over his last two games.
The Marlins would cut the lead in half in the fifth on a Soler double, but Dodd did a good job of limiting the damage to just one run. He would go on to pitch a clean sixth before handing it off to the bullpen, allowing three runs on eight hits and three walks. It wasn’t the prettiest outing, but Dodd competed admirably, which should be enough to keep him up in the majors for now.
Insurance didn’t turn out to be needed, but the Braves gave it to their bullpen anyways in the ninth. Matt Olson homered, and then a sacrifice fly from Vaughn Grissom stretched the lead to three, paving the way for A.J. Minter to close the door in the ninth.
Minter hasn’t been his typically reliable self of late, but there were no heart attacks on Thursday. The Marlins could only muster a two-out single against the hard-throwing lefty, and Jorge Soler struck out to end the game.
With the Mets loss to the Tigers earlier in the day, the Braves have now stretched their lead in the division to six games as they head back home to Truist Park to take on the red-hot Orioles.
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Photo: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
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