ATLANTA (AP) — Bryce Elder pitched scoreless ball into the sixth inning, three Atlanta players homered and the Braves won another series with a 6-3 victory over the Miami Marlins on Wednesday night.
Ozzie Albies, Austin Riley and Matt Olson went deep for the first-place Braves, who took two of three from Miami for their fifth series win. They split their other series, a four-game set at Arizona.
Considered the weak link in the rotation coming into the season,
Elder (2-1) lowered his ERA through four starts to 0.77. He limited the Marlins to four hits over 5 2-3 innings, with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Albies put the home team ahead with his fourth homer of the season, a 370-foot drive off Chris Paddack (0-3) that just cleared the right-field wall. The Braves followed with three straight singles, including Mauricio Dubón's run-scoring liner that made it 2-0.
The Marlins appeared to halve the deficit in the fifth when Xavier Edwards was ruled safe at first on an attempted double play with the bases loaded. The Braves challenged, and the call was overturned when the replay showed the throw from shortstop Dubón landing in Matt Olson's glove just before Edwards' cleats landed on first base for the third out.
Riley, off to a sluggish start, tacked on his first homer of the season in the sixth by sending one into the left-field seats off John King. Olson added a two-run homer against Andrew Nardi in the seventh.
Miami's Liam Hicks broke up the shutout in the eighth with a two-run homer. Robert Suárez escaped further trouble with an inning-ending double play, and Raisel Iglesias struck out the side in the ninth for his fourth save.
Marlins: RH Janson Junk (0-2, 4.32) will make his fourth start of the season Friday when Miami hosts the Milwaukee Brewers to begin a three-game series.
Braves: After an off day, Atlanta heads to Philadelphia to open a three-game series Friday. The Braves have yet to announce a starter to face RH Taijuan Walker (1-2, 7.36) of the Phillies.
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