Atlanta’s bats too quiet vs. Red Sox
ATLANTA — Kenley Jansen became the seventh player in Major League Baseball history with 400 career saves, pinch-hitter Raimel Tapia delivered a go-ahead RBI double in the seventh inning, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Atlanta Braves 5-2 on Wednesday night to split a two-game interleague series.
Jansen, who had 41 saves in 2022 in his only season with the Braves — he spent the first dozen year of his MLB career with the Los Angeles Dodgers — faced four batters for his ninth save in 10 chances in 2023.
The 35-year-old righthander trails Billy Wagner by 22 saves for sixth place on MLB’s career list. Jansen retired Sean Murphy on a shallow fly ball, gave up a double to Eddie Rosario, retired Ozzie Albies on another flyout and struck out Travis d’Arnaud to end it.
Facing reliever Nick Anderson, Tapia drove in Jarren Duran from second to make it 3-2. The run was charged to A.J. Minter (2-4).
Triston Casas hit a tworun homer 442 feet off Braves closer Raisel Iglesias to make it 5-2 in the ninth.
The Braves began the night leading the National League with an .809 on-base percentage and a .465 slugging percentage, but they didn’t score a run against Boston starter Brayan Bello (2-1) until Ronald Acuña Jr. hit his seventh homer of the season, a 470-foot shot to left with an exit velocity of 113.9 mph to trim the lead to 2-1 in the sixth. It was Acuña’s longest homer of the season and the fourth-longest shot of his career.
Austin Riley followed with a single and scored from second on Eddie Rosario’s single to make it 2-all.
Bello allowed six hits and two runs in six innings. Josh Winckowski faced the minimum in the seventh.
Atlanta’s Dylan Lee pitched 2 2/3 innings of hitless ball before Collin McHugh replaced him and gave up RBI singles to Kiké Hernández and Duran that put Boston up 2-0 in the fourth.
Lee, a reliever making his first start since Game 4 of the 2021 World Series, took the rotation spot of ace Max Fried, who went on the injured Tuesday with a strained left forearm.
The Red Sox snapped a two-game skid that included Tuesday’s 9-3 loss at Truist Park.
Bello was tough on the
NL-best Braves early, giving up only singles to Michael Harris II in the third, Riley in the fourth and d’Arnaud in the fifth.
Atlanta, first in the NL East, finished a five-game homestand against American League East Division opposition 3-2, having won a weekend series against the Baltimore Orioles. The Braves are off Thursday before opening a three-game series against another AL East team, the Toronto Blue Jays, on Friday in Canada.
Right-hander Spencer Strider (4-0, 2.70) is the scheduled starting pitcher against the Blue Jays, who have not announced their starter yet.