Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies and Matt Olson homered in the third inning Friday night for the visiting Atlanta Braves, who beat the New York Mets 4-2 in the opener of a three-game series.
Charlie Morton tossed seven strong innings to earn the victory for the Braves, who have won three straight following a three-game losing streak. The Mets had their two-game winning streak snapped and fell for the fourth time in six games.
The Braves did all their damage in a four-run third after there were two outs and nobody on against Mets starter Jose Quintana (1-4). Acuna opened the scoring with a 461-foot blast off the black beyond the center field wall to the right of the Home Run Apple.
Two pitches later, Albies hit a 356-foot homer just beyond the left field fence. Austin Riley worked a walk, and Olson followed by hitting a homer to right. The blast snapped a 96-at-bat homer drought for Olson, who led the majors with 54 round-trippers last season.
The third-inning outburst marked the first time Quintana allowed three homers in a frame in his 13-year career.
Morton (3-0) allowed one run on three hits and one walk while striking out seven. He retired 10 consecutive batters between the third inning and Francisco Lindor’s homer leading off the seventh.
Morton retired the next three batters and A.J. Minter struck out the side in the eighth. Raisel Iglesias survived a New York rally in the ninth to earn his 10th save. Starling Marte drew a one-out walk, took second on defensive indifference and scored on Pete Alonso’s two-out single.
J.D. Martinez hit Iglesias’ next pitch deep down the left field line, but it hooked just foul into the upper deck. Martinez eventually flied out to center to end the game.
Quintana gave up four runs on six hits and two walks while striking out three over five innings. Alonso collected two of the Mets’ four hits.
–Field Level Media
