Matt Olson has hit quite a few home runs this season.
But few have been as momentous as the three-run shot he crushed in the bottom of the seventh in the Braves’ 5-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks Sunday afternoon to help Atlanta salvage one game from the weekend set.
The homer was Olson’s 36th of the season, moving him into a tie for second in the majors with Yordan Alvarez, just one behind Kyle Schwarber’s 37. It was also his sixth homer this month and his 15th since the start of July.
With the game knotted at 2 in the seventh, Olson smashed a 3-0 sinker 437 feet to straightaway center. This was particularly important because it seemed the Braves could come up empty in the inning which began with an Austin Riley double and a Jim Jarvis sacrifice bunt after Ronald Acuña Jr. struck out ahead of Olson for out #2.
Dylan Lee worked a 1-2-3 eighth with two strikeouts. Raisel Iglesias allowed the first two batters of the ninth to reach but limited the damage, allowing just one run to secure his 25th save and prevent the Braves’ first three-game losing streak of the second half of the season.
While Bryce Elder didn’t factor into the decision, he had a strong bounceback start after Monday’s rough outing against the Mets. The right-hander allowed one run on four hits over six innings, striking out five and walking one.
Former Braves pitcher Michael Soroka was similarly effective for Arizona, giving up two runs on six hits over 5 2/3 innings, walking one and striking out five.
Didier Fuentes (5-1) earned the win for the Braves even though he allowed Ildemaro Vargas to hit a game-tying leadoff homer to begin the seventh inning. He bounced back to retire the next three batters, two of them on strikeouts.
Atlanta had previously taken a 2-1 lead in the fifth on Acuña’s two-out RBI double which scored Riley, who began the inning with a single.
Riley had a team-high two of Atlanta’s eight hits and scored two of the team’s five runs.
Both teams missed prime opportunities to plate more runs in the middle innings. The Braves managed to scrape across just one run in the third despite having two runners in scoring position after Drake Baldwin’s RBI single when Acuña and Olson each struck out.
The Diamondbacks immediately tied the game in the top of the fourth on Gabriel Moreno’s leadoff homer but then squandered a strong chance to take the lead in the fifth. After a leadoff walk was followed by a bunt single, Elder escaped the jam unscathed by getting a sacrifice bunt, inducing a grounder which Ozzie Albies fired home to retire the lead runner and then getting Corbin Carroll to line out to center.
The Braves kick off a four-city, seven-game road trip Monday evening at the Minnesota Twins with Martín Pérez on the mound for Atlanta.