The Red Sox hit a grand slam but it was nowhere near enough to offset what the Braves had in store for today’s contest.
The Atlanta Braves matched their season-high for runs today, as the lineup made things very difficult for both Brayan Bello and old friend Sean Newcomb. As such, the Braves ended up leaving Fenway Park with an emphatic 10-4 win over the Boston Red Sox in order to get back to having a winning record for 2025.
Once again, the Braves were the team that took the initiative in this one. For the second day in a row, the Braves scored multiple runs in the first inning and this also ensured that the Braves would have struck early in each of the three games they played in Boston — remember, they scored in the second inning back on Friday.
Anyways, the offense in the first inning came from Drake Baldwin poking one out into the greenery in left field with the bases loaded and one out in order to put the Braves on the board. Ozzie Albies followed that up with a productive out in order to plate another run to make it 2-0 and that’s how the first inning ended.
After the two teams traded scoreless frames in the second inning, things picked up considerably once the third inning rolled around. That was when a Matt Olson leadoff double and a follow-up broken-bat single from Marcell Ozuna made it a 3-0 lead for Atlanta and that’s how things remained heading into the bottom half of the frame.
After two quiet innings to start this one, the Red Sox came to life in the third against Spencer Schwellenbach. The first three Boston batters all reached safely in order to make it so that Rafael Devers came up to the plate with the bases loaded and nobody out. Folks, that’s a bad situation to be in and Devers ensured that Schwellenbach paid the full penalty by absolutely mashing one to dead center for a go-ahead grand slam for the Red Sox. Woof! Schwellenbach retired the Red Sox in order from that point forward in the third inning but that was definitely a rough patch for Schwellenbach and the braves in this one.
Fortunately, the Braves immediately picked Schwellenbach up over the course of the next two innings. In the very next frame, Atlanta strung together three straight hits, with the third hit coming from Austin Riley hitting a single deep into left field to tie the game back up at four runs apiece.
The Red Sox almost got something going with David Hamilton hitting a two-out single in the bottom of the fourth and then stealing second. However, Hamilton got greedy when Drake Baldwin’s throw went into the extremely shallow part of the outfield. Hamilton took off for third and that was a pretty bad idea for him since Nick Allen quickly got the ball, fired it off to third base and Austin Riley gave Hamilton his walking papers back to the dugout with the tag.
Atlanta did a lot more damage in the very next inning. It started with the middle-third of Atlanta’s order loading up the bases and Michael Harris II walking with the bases loaded to put the Braves back in front. An Eli White RBI single and a Nick Allen sacrifice fly made it 7-4 Atlanta and that was the end of Brayan Bello’s day. 4.1 innings, 10 hits, five walks and seven runs allowed in a single game isn’t the best day in the world but you certainly won’t be seeing or hearing anybody around here complaining about it!
Old Friend Sean Newcomb entered the game after Bello’s blowup and it appeared that he was the designated hurler to eat the rest of the innings for the day. Newcomb got through the rest of the fifth inning with no problem and he also successfully navigated Boston through the sixth and seventh inning without giving up any more runs.
That changed once the eighth inning rolled around. Alex Verdugo and Austin Riley hit back-to-back singles off of Newcomb to start off the eighth inning and then Matt Olson converted the chance with runners on the corners by hitting a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 8-4. Marcell Ozuna came up to the plate afterwards and hit a fly ball of his own. While Olson’s fly ball landed in a glove, Ozuna’s fly ball landed on Lansdowne Street in order to make it a 10-4 lead for the Braves at that point. A lucky fan even got Ozuna’s bat following the home run!
While the Braves were busy pummeling Boston’s two pitchers for the day, Spencer Schwellenbach made it into the seventh inning with the grand slam being the only major mistake that he’d make all day. Schwellenbach finished with 7 IP, three strikeouts, one walk allowed and the four runs given up. The runs given up won’t look great for Schwellenbach, personally, but if you take his performance into the context of the game then he certainly did enough to help keep the Braves competitive in this one.
Dylan Lee got the ball for the eighth inning and other than giving up a double to Rafael Devers (no shame in that), the Red Sox were unable to scratch a run past Lee while he was out there. Scott Blewett got the ball for the ninth inning and gave up a single of his own but other than that, the Red Sox didn’t make anything happen and so Blewett’s inning confirmed the win for the Braves.
This was a lovely and emphatic way for the Braves to respond following that rough walk-off loss that they took last night. The Braves were the better team over the course of this three-game series and today’s win confirmed it. The Braves are over .500 once again and they will also be going into a rare day off on a winning note — this was the 17th game in a row that the Braves had played without an off day, so it will certainly feel good to enter that day of rest having picked up a series win the day before.
As such, the next Braves game will take place on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. ET in the nation’s capital against the Nationals. Hopefully they’ll be able to put some breathing room between themselves and the .500 mark as they go from Boston to Washington.