Max Meyer pitched six impressive innings to lead the Miami Marlins to a 5-1 victory over the visiting Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
Meyer (2-0) gave up six hits and one run while striking out seven and walking none. Miami left fielder Bryan De La Cruz finished 2-for-4 and drove in three runs to lead the offense to a win after Friday’s 8-1 loss to the Braves.
After Meyer pitched a scoreless top of the first, Miami opened the scoring with Josh Bell’s home run off Braves starter Chris Sale in the bottom half of the inning.
In the second, Avisail Garcia and Emmanuel Rivera began the inning with back-to-back singles before Christian Bethancourt struck out. Vidal Brujan then drove in Miami’s second run on a single to left field, which Atlanta’s Jarred Kelenic bobbled, as Garcia scored.
Sale then got Luis Arraez to ground into a double play, allowing him to escape the frame.
Braves catcher Travis d’Arnaud led off the top of the third inning with a single and was eventually moved over to third on Ozzie Albies’ double. However, Meyer struck out Austin Riley to end the inning.
Atlanta once again threatened in the top of the fifth when Ronald Acuna Jr. doubled to left with two outs, but Albies left him stranded after striking out to end the inning. Meyer struck out the side in the fifth.
Sale retired Bethancourt and Brujan to start the bottom of the fifth before Arraez singled and Bell and Jake Burger each walked to load the bases. De La Cruz followed with a bases-clearing double to left, extending Miami’s lead to 5-0.
Atlanta got on the board in the sixth when Riley tripled and Marcell Ozuna drove him in on a groundout to Meyer.
After Sale (1-1) retired the final seven Miami batters he faced, he was replaced by reliever Jesse Chavez after seven innings. Sale gave up six hits, five runs and three walks. He struck out seven.
Calvin Faucher pitched a perfect seventh for Miami, which also got a 1-2-3 eighth from Anthony Bender.
Tanner Scott capped an excellent Miami pitching performance, throwing a hitless ninth inning to seal the four-run win.
–Field Level Media
