Braves’ offense shows life again, backing a stellar Charlie Morton in 9-2 win

The Braves bats showed up for the third consecutive night and supported a great start from Charlie Morton, grabbing their first series win in two weeks.

The Braves were hoping to get back on track with a series win over the Rays, another underperforming team.

Charlie Morton got himself into some early trouble with a one out walk and a double in the first. A sac fly converted a run for Tampa, but Chuck struck out Randy Arozarena to keep the Rays at one run. Unlike the explosive first inning of yesterday, the Braves offense did not manage a baserunner in the today’s first. Charlie settled in and worked a clean second. Austin Riley earned a walk with one out in the bottom of the frame for Atlanta’s first baserunner of the evening, but Adam Duvall hit a soft liner to the pitcher who threw it to first before Austin could get back, ending the inning. Charlie managed his traditional “hit a batter with a curveball” quota with two outs in the third, but nothing came of it for the Rays.

A Sean Murphy leadoff single in the third was Atlanta’s first hit and Jared Kelenic roped a line drive to right field that was not far off from an RBI double, but settled as a single that put runners on the corners with two outs for Ozzie. Unfortunately, Albies struck out, leaving the Braves still scoreless. Richie Palacios was granted first base with two outs for Tampa in the fourth on a called hit-by-pitch that I’m not sure actually touched him, but Charlie picked him off in a ball-don’t-lie situation. Marcell Ozuna led off the fourth with a single, but a Matt Olson strikeout and two pop-ups from Riley and Duvall produced nothing from the baserunner. Amed Rosario managed a leadoff infield single to start the fifth, but Charlie struck out the next three batters to put out that mini-fire.

Sean Murphy got on base again to lead off the home fifth, this time on a walk, and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Similar to the first time, Arcia and Laureano couldn’t do anything to bring around Murphy, but Jarred Kelenic came through in the leadoff spot with a 108.6 MPH two run homer that just scraped the right field wall, giving the Braves a 2-1 lead.

Ozzie drew a rare walk after Kelenic’s laser shot and Marcell Ozuna did what he has all season for Atlanta and launched another two run homer, his 20th on the year. Matt Olson decided to join the party and went back to back with Marcell, sending on of his own into the chop house, 109.1 MPH off the bat.

Austin Riley walked, but Adam Duvall, who is really struggling at the plate, ended the inning with a strikeout.

Morton pitched a scoreless sixth to close out a really good outing of 6.0 innings of 1 run ball with 8 strikeouts. Ramon Laureano had a homer robbed in a 1-2-3 sixth for the bottom of the Atlanta lineup. Aaron Bummer got the seventh and issued a walk to Amed Rosario but absolutely sliced up Alex Jackson and Jose Siri on his way to a scoreless frame. Ozuna got an extremely lucky swinging bunt that flirted with the foul line but settled far for a single and Matt Olson hit a more normal single to put two on ahead of Austin Riley, who launched a homer on his second straight night. Austin may be finally turning the corner after a rough start to the season for him.

Pierce Johnson worked around a single for a scoreless eighth. Laureano and Kelenic each hit a single in the home eighth and Laureano scored on an Ozzie sac fly. Ray Kerr got the ninth and gave up a solo shot to Randy Arozarena. He issued three walks, but did finish off the game with no further runs scored, with the help of a double-play.

Join us again as the Braves go for a sweep (isn’t that fun to say again?) behind Hurston Waldrep at 1:35 PM ET.