Braves roll past Marlins 9-5 to open NLDS

HOUSTON — Ronald Acuna Jr. made history with a leadoff home run to start things off for the Atlanta Braves in their NL Division Series opener against Miami.

And another hit — once more by the Marlins, this time with Sandy Alcantara’s fastball to the left hip — fired up the Braves and fueled their comeback in a 9-5 win Tuesday.

“I think it woke us up,” said Travis d’Arnaud, who launched a tiebreaking homer during Atlanta’s six-run rally in the seventh inning . “And we took advantage of that momentum.”

D’Arnaud also doubled and singled in driving in four runs and Dansby Swanson homered during the big comeback to help power Atlanta.

After shutting out Cincinnati for 22 innings during a two-game sweep in the wild-card round, the Braves relied on their bats in this opener. Game 2 of the best-of-five series is on Wednesday in Houston.

Acuna got things going for the Braves in the bottom of the first when he sent Alcantara’s second pitch into right-center for a homer. He watched it for a second before flipping his bat and rounding the bases as he became the youngest player (22 years, 293 days old) in postseason history with a leadoff home run.

Things turned testy in the third when Acuna was nailed by a 98 mph fastball. The showy All-Star outfielder held onto his bat and walked a few steps toward the mound before umpires and Braves coaches surrounded him and directed him away from Alcantara, who had started to walk toward him.

After a short delay, featuring plenty of chirping from both dugouts, Acuna took his base. Umpires warned the teams against further trouble.

Acuna and his teammates quickly got revenge.

The Braves trailed 4-3 in the seventh before Austin Riley and Acuna hit consecutive singles with no outs to chase Alcantara.

Yimi Garcia took over and Freddie Freeman grounded into a forceout that left runners at the corners. Marcell Ozuna lined a single to left that made it 4-all.

Then d’Arnaud, in his first season with Atlanta, belted a slider over the fence in center field for a three-run drive that made it 7-4. The shot caused the Braves dugout to erupt with Acuna jumping over the railing to celebrate.

ASTROS 5, ATHLETICS 2:

George Springer hit two homers and Houston kept making more noise in the playoffs, beating Oakland in Los Angeles to take a 2-0 lead in their AL Division Series.

Martin Maldonado also went deep for Houston, which needs one win to reach its fourth straight AL Championship Series.

Game 3 in the best-of-five series is Wednesday, when Houston is the home team in the neutral site matchup.

Springer put Houston ahead to stay with a tworun, two-out drive in the third on a second straight 90-degree day at Dodger Stadium.

Maldonado’s solo shot in the fifth chased loser Sean Manaea in his first appearance of this postseason. Yusmeiro Petit came in and promptly gave up Springer’s second homer of the game, extending Houston’s lead to 5-2. Maldonado yelled and raised his right arm in celebration from his seat in the dugout.

Springer’s 17 postseason homers tied Nelson Cruz and Jim Thome for most through a player’s first 54 career postseason games. Five of Springer’s postseason homers have come at Dodger Stadium, where the Astros beat the Dodgers in Game 7 of the 2017 World Series.

Houston improved to 7-3 in Dodger Stadium since that World Series. Current A’s pitcher Mike Fiers last year told of his old team’s sign-stealing scandal used in 2017, a revelation that rocked baseball and drew the still ongoing ire of other players and fans.

Hot, sunny and dry conditions again created an ideal environment for the long ball. The teams combined for five homers, raising the series total to 11.