ATLANTA (AP) — Travis d’Arnaud and Vaughn Grissom homered off Sandy Alcantara in a four-run fourth inning, Michael Harris II homered in the sixth and the Atlanta Braves won their third straight, tying a season-high with five long balls in an 8-1 win over the Miami Marlins on Friday night.
The power display extended into the seventh when Austin Riley went deep for the 34th time and d’Arnaud followed with his 16th, marking 201 homers, most in the NL, hit by the defending World Series champion Braves.
Atlanta, three games behind the New York Mets in the NL East, matched its season high at 31 games over .500 (82-51).
Alcantara, an All-Star coming off his major league-high fourth complete game, was cruising before the fourth. He had allowed just an infield single before Dansby Swanson hit a hard single. After Swanson stole second base, d’Arnaud followed with a homer that barely cleared the wall in left.
Harris followed with a single, and fellow rookie Grissom went deep for the fourth time to make it 4-1. That was all the runs the Braves and starter Charlie Morton would need.
After Alcantara hit d’Arnaud with a pitch to begin the sixth, Harris chased the right-hander with a two-run shot that put Atlanta up 6-1. Alcantara (12-7) was charged with six runs and seven hits in five-plus innings. The Marlins have dropped five straight since his last start, a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers last Saturday.
Alcantara began the game 4-1 with a 1.74 ERA in nine career starts against the Braves and was 2-0 with a 0.53 ERA in two starts this season against Atlanta.
Morton (7-5) gave up one run and four hits with two walks and seven strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings. The 38-year-old right-hander improved to 11-5 with a 3.96 ERA in 21 career starts against the Marlins. In 14 games overall since June 17, Morton is 3-2 with a 2.84 ERA.
Morton escaped a jam in the second after Charles LeBlanc doubled with one out and advanced on a wild pitch, getting a pair of groundouts to end the threat.
He wasn’t as fortunate in the third when Jerar Encarnación led off with an opposite-field shot to right that gave the Marlins a 1-0 lead. It was Encarnación’s second homer since he debuted with a grand slam on June 19 against the New York Mets.
The Braves also hit five homers on June 13-14 against Washington.
The Marlins are coming off an 8-20 August, the worst record in the majors.
BACK IN LINEUP
Braves LF Marcell Ozuna heard boos as he returned to the lineup for the first time since Aug. 21 and the second since he was charged with DUI in Gwinnett County on Aug. 19. Ozuna went 2 for 4. Manager Brian Snitker defended the decision to play Ozuna.
“He’s been working really hard,” Snitker said. “He’s part of this club. It’s time to get him out there and hopefully he can get going and be who he has in the past. Like I say, he’s been working hard, he’s had a great attitude, he’s been very positive.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Marlins: INF Jon Berti was sidelined with a sore hip sustained in Wednesday’s loss to Tampa Bay.
Braves: Snitker said 2B Ozzie Albies felt fine after going 0 for 4 in his first rehab appearance Thursday with Triple-A Gwinnett. Albies has been out since breaking his left foot in mid-June. “It was just good to get him out there running around,” Snitker said. “As long as he’s feeling good and getting the at-bats and his timing and all that — I heard he felt good, which is a good thing.”... RHP Jackson Stephens (concussion) threw a bullpen session.
ANOTHER CAPACITY CROWD
The Braves announced 42,161 in attendance for their 33rd sellout, setting a single-season high of 2,675,846 at Truist Park, which opened in 2017.
UP NEXT
Marlins RHP Edward Cabera will face RHP Jake Odorizzi (5-5, 3.90) as the teams play the second game of a four-game series.
___
More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
