Olson’s early grand slam sets pace as Atlanta rolls
ATLANTA — The Atlanta Braves have a right to disagree with anyone who suggests their offensive mindset is to wait around for their powerful lineup to hit home runs.
Doesn’t seem like there’s much waiting involved these days.
Matt Olson hit a first-inning grand slam, and the homerhappy Braves pushed their winning streak to five games with a 10-2 rout of the Colorado Rockies on Saturday.
Ozzie Albies, Orlando Arcia and Eddie Rosario also went deep as the Braves, who lead the National League with a 45-26 record, moved a seasonhigh 19 games over .500. They have combined for 42 runs and 52 hits during the winning streak and lead the majors with 122 homers this year.
“It really is one through nine — there’s no soft spots,” Olson said. “Being on the other side of good lineups like that, you feel like every guy has a chance to do something big.”
Olson’s 20th long ball of the season, an opposite-field shot that sailed 424 feet into leftcenter field, added to the Braves’ dominance in the first. Their 66 runs in the opening inning lead the majors, and they’re also No. 1 with 31 games of at least one run in the first.
“It’s always good to be the team that scores first,” said Olson, whose nine first-inning homers are most in the majors in 2-23. “We’ve been doing it at a pretty good clip this year and it kind of sets the tone for the game.”
After Olson made it 4-0, Michael Harris II’s sacrifice fly and Albies’ 16th homer of the year put the Braves up 6-0 in the second. Rosario and Arcia went deep in the third to pad the lead at 9-0 for Atlanta, which won for the 12th time in its past 14 games. Arcia, who added an RBI single in the fifth, went 3-for-4 and is hitting .339.
Atlanta starter Bryce Elder (5-1) retired the first 11 batters he faced before Ryan McMahon hit a hard single past Albies at second base in the fourth inning. Elder gave up Mike Moustakas’ homer in the fifth and finished with four hits and one run allowed with no walks and four strikeouts in six innings.
Elder began the game ranked second in the NL with a 2.69 ERA. The 23-year-old was coming off allowing eight hits and a career-high five runs in 5 1/3 innings against the Washington Nationals while taking his first loss of the season last Sunday.
Saturday’s game marked Elder’s 19th consecutive outing of at least five innings pitched, and Atlanta is 10-4 in his starts this season.
“I thought he was really good,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “I liked how he bounced back and had his sinker going again. His slider was a good pitch for him, his changeup. He looked more kind of free and easy and himself, I guess.”
Rockies starter Connor Seabold (1-3) was charged with a career-high nine runs and tied a career high with nine hits allowed. He lasted three innings and gave up four homers as his ERA rose 118 points to 5.88.
“Any time I’d make a mistake, they’d hit it hard,” Seabold said. “Any time I made a pitch, it seemed like they still hit it hard. They were on a lot of what I threw today.”
The Rockies (29-44), last in the NL West Division, have lost 14 of their past 19 games, including four straight. Their starting pitchers have posted a 7.73 ERA over that span.
Harold Castro’s RBI double off Joe Jiménez in the seventh cut the lead to 10-2. Castro moved from second base to pitch the eighth, giving up two hits and facing four batters.
Atlanta catcher Sean Murphy left in the third with right hamstring tightness after hitting a hard single to the wall in leftcenter. Murphy pulled up as he crossed the bag and signaled to the dugout that something was wrong. Snitker and a trainer came out to see about him, and Murphy walked slowly off the field. He was replaced by Travis d’Arnaud.
Snitker said after the game that the team is waiting on results of an MRI.
Atlanta will go for a sweep of the four-game series Sunday afternoon, when both teams are scheduled to start right-handers. Atlanta’s Charlie Morton (5-6, 3.60 ERA) will face Colorado’s Chase Anderson (0-0, 2.72).