Braves bats awaken with five homers in blowout win over Athletics

Five homers? In this economy?

Fresh off a blowout loss in Sacramento on Tuesday night, the Braves bounced back in a big way with a 9-2 win to mercifully snap an ugly five-game losing skid.

Ronald Acuña Jr. sat out Tuesday’s game with low back tightness, but he quickly dispelled any long-term concern when he absolutely launched a leadoff homer to give Atlanta an early 1-0 lead. Statcast had the baseball going 429 feet, which feels about 25 short.

The offense didn’t stop there as Matt Olson singled, Austin Riley doubled, and Drake Baldwin smacked a three-run homer over the wall in right-center to make it 4-0 in the blink of an eye. It was the first time all season the Braves scored four runs (or more) in the first inning.

Atlanta kept the pressure on in the second as Riley hit one 408 feet to make it 6-0. Acuña then followed with his second homer of the night — this one a patented opposite-field laser to right — to make it 7-0 in the third.

Oakland would finally put a run on the board in the fifth to make it 7-1, but a solo Marcell Ozuna homer — his first since June 13 — extended the lead to 8-1. If Ozuna can heat up the next few weeks it would go a long ways in getting something for the veteran before he hits free agency in November.

The next inning, Jurickson Profar would get in on the action with an RBI double down the line to make it 9-2.

Coming off a couple of brutal starts, Bryce Elder pitched really well. He did a nice job of establishing his fastball in the zone and limited base runners throughout. Elder worked 6.2 innings of two-run ball, striking out seven and issuing just one walk. Hopefully a step in the right direction.

Dylan Lee, Daysbel Hernandez and Rafael Montero did a nice job keeping things drama-free in relief of Elder.

The three-game series in Sacramento wraps up Thursday, this time with first pitch an hour earlier at 9:05 p.m. ET. It’ll be Spencer Strider looking to continue his strong stretch against lefty JP Sears, who owns an ERA, FIP and xFIP all north of 4.70 but is coming off back-to-back shutout performances.