Recap: Another Reynaldo Lopez gem and just enough offense carries the Braves to a 4-2 win over Oakland

Braves get back in the win column Friday night with a 4-2 win over the A’s.

Reynaldo Lopez had another tremendous outing for Atlanta and the offense did just enough to scratch out four runs to take down the Oakland A’s 4-2 Friday night at Truist Park.

The offense got things kicked off this evening, a rarity lately, with an Ozzie Albies walk, a Marcell Ozuna single, and a Matt Olson sac fly to give Atlanta an early 1-0 lead.

Reynaldo Lopez looked good early, getting a 1-2-3 inning in the top of the first with a groundout and a strikeout. He got into a little trouble in the second after Miguel Anduajr led off the frame with a double but caught a break after Kyle McCann grounded a ball deep into the shortstop hole that Orlando Arcia had no chance of making a play at first. But Andujar broke to third on the play, allowing Arcia to make the easy throw to third for an out that otherwise would’ve been a hit.

After that the Braves’ offense went back to work off A’s starters JP Sears in the bottom of the second. Michael Harris II started things with a 1-out single to right, followed by a walk from Sean Murphy. Jarred Kelenic then came up and roped a loud double off the base of the wall in left-center field, scoring both Harris and Murphy, and giving Atlanta an early 3-0 lead.

The only run Lopez surrendered came in the 4th when Andujar led off the inning with a single, a stolen base and then another single from Kyle McCann to put runners on first and third with 1 out. Zack Gelof then lifted a sac fly to left to score Oakland’s first run of the night and cut the lead to 3-1.

It was pretty quiet for a while after that, with neither offense putting up much of a threat until the Braves came up in the bottom of the 6th. Matt Olson led the inning off with a single, followed by a double from Adam Duvall to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Arcia followed with a sac fly to left to make it 4-1, but that’s all the Braves would get in the inning.

Lopez finished the game going 6 innings, 4 hits allowed, 1 earned run, 8 strikeouts and 2 walks. Another tremendous outing dropped his ERA down to 1.73 for the season.

The Braves’ bullpen took over from there as Brian Snitker called on Pierce Johnson, Joe Jimenez, and Raisel Iglesias to cover the final three innings. Johnson and Jimenez both had scoreless outings with Johnson striking out one and Jimenez striking out two. Iglesias allowed a leadoff double in the 9th that came around to score after consecutive groundouts but was able to shut it down from there to close out a 4-2 win.

Atlanta moves to 32-23 on the season while Oakland falls to 23-36. Braves will go for a series win tomorrow night as Chris Sale faces off with Aaron Brooks for the A’s. Game starts at 7:20 ET.