ATLANTA — The Braves took a series from the team with baseball’s best record, beating the San Francisco Giants on Sunday at Truist Park for the second time in three days.
The Braves won the series finale in a 9-0 rout as their offense strongly supported pitcher Ian Anderson, who worked 5-2/3 scoreless innings in his first start back from a seven-week stint on the injured list with right shoulder inflammation. He allowed four hits, all singles, and two walks in the impressive outing.
Between Anderson’s encouraging return and an offense powered by three home runs, the Braves enjoyed the final game of a challenging homestand and now travel to Los Angeles to open a three-game series against the defending World Series champion Dodgers on Monday night.
The Braves took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning Sunday on two long, loud home runs against Giants starting pitcher Anthony DeSclafani. The inning opened with a 109.3-mph blast to left by Jorge Soler, his 20th homer of the season and seventh in 25 games since joining the Braves. Two batters later, following a Freddie Freeman infield hit, Austin Riley drilled a two-run homer to left, his 28th homer of the season and 14th since the All-Star break.
A two-run triple into the right-field corner by Eddie Rosario, making his first start for the Braves, stretched the lead to 5-0 in the sixth inning.
The Braves tacked on two more runs in the seventh on an RBI hit by Freddie Freeman and a sacrifice fly by Joc Pederson. They completed the scoring with two in the eighth on a double by Guillermo Herdia, back-to-back wild pitches and an Ozzie Albies solo homer.
The National League East-leading Braves maintained a 4-1/2-game margin over the second-place Phillies.
The Braves completed a homestand against two elite teams with a 2-3 record. They were swept in a two-game series by the New York Yankees before the Giants arrived.
The ultra-challenging stretch of the Braves’ schedule continues this week. First, a three-game series at Dodger Stadium is a rematch of last year’s National League Championship Series that LA won in seven games. The Dodgers have baseball’s second-best record this year, behind only the Giants.
The Braves will face formidable opposing pitchers in all three games in Los Angeles: left-hander Julio Urias (14-3, 3.17 ERA) on Monday, right-hander Walker Buehler (13-2, 2.02) on Tuesday and right-hander Max Scherzer (12-4, 2.51) on Wednesday.
The Braves’ scheduled starters for the series are, in order, Drew Smyly, Charlie Morton and Max Fried.
After the games against the Dodgers, another intriguing series looms as the Braves will go to Colorado for a four-game set beginning Thursday against the Rockies, who entered Sunday tied with the Dodgers for MLB’s second-best home record (43-22, behind only the Giants’ 42-19). The Rockies are 16-48 on the road but a different team at Coors Field.
