Eddie Rosario homered and drove in three runs Friday to help the Atlanta Braves wallop the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates 8-2.
Ronald Acuna Jr. also homered and added an RBI single, going 3-for-4. Travis d’Arnaud hit a two-run single and Orlando Arcia added an RBI single for the Braves (92-48), who have won two straight.
Atlanta starter Bryce Elder (12-4) allowed two runs and four hits in seven innings, with nine strikeouts and one walk. He is 4-0 over his past five starts.
Jack Suwinski homered for the Pirates (65-76), who have lost three of five.
Pittsburgh starter Mitch Keller (11-9), who had made four quality starts in a row, got knocked around for eight runs and a career-high 12 hits in five innings, with four strikeouts and no walks. He has never beaten the Braves, going 0-3 in five career starts with a 9.97 ERA.
Atlanta batted around in a four-run third.
After Acuna singled to center and Ozzie Albies struck out, Matt Olson singled to center. Marcell Ozuna’s single to right loaded the bases, and Rosario drove in Acuna with a single to left-center for a 1-0 Braves lead.
Olson and Ozuna scored on d’Arnaud’s base hit to left. Rosario moved to third on Michael Harris II’s flyout to right and scored on Arcia’s single to left to make it 4-0.
Each of the Braves’ eight hits to that point were singles.
That changed in the fourth when Acuna led off with his 35th homer, an estimated 455-foot crack to center, to up it to 5-0. After Albies struck out, Olson was hit by a pitch. Ozuna flied out before Rosario homered to right, his 21st, to make it 7-0.
Arcia doubled to left with one out in the fifth, went to third on Nicky Lopez’s groundout and scored on Acuna’s base hit to right for an 8-0 lead.
With two outs in the Pittsburgh sixth, Ke’Bryan Hayes doubled to left ahead of Suwinski’s 24th homer, to right, to cut it to 8-2.
–Field Level Media
