Orlando Arcia drove home pinch-hitter Eddie Rosario with a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning Thursday night to give Atlanta a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres in the Braves’ home opener at Truist Park.
After a two-out double to right field off Padres reliever Nabil Crismatt, Rosario easily scored on Arcia’s liner to center. The winning run was the fifth the Braves have scored with two outs this season.
Left-handed reliever A.J. Minter pitched a scoreless ninth to earn the win. Crismatt, whose early-season ERA is 16.20, took the loss. The teams combined for 14 walks in a game that saw five pitchers work for each team.
Each team scored twice in the eighth.
Former Padres reliever Kirby Yates walked the first two Padres he faced, and both runners advanced on Matt Carpenter’s fly to center. Xander Bogaerts scored on a wild pitch to give the Padres a 5-4 lead and Jake Cronenworth scored on Jose Azocar’s two-out bunt single up the third-base line.
Atlanta answered against left-handed reliever Tim Hill. Arcia doubled to open the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Matt Olson, Austin Riley and Travis d’Arnaud hit three straight singles to tie it at 6-6.
Earlier, the Padres had tied the score at 4-4 in the sixth when Cronenworth greeted left-handed reliever Lucas with a homer into the right-field seats.
Atlanta took a 2-0 lead early against Padres starter Blake Snell, who struggled with his control.
Ronald Acuna Jr. opened the Braves’ first with a double, moved to third with a groundout and scored on Riley’s sacrifice fly. Arcia made it 2-0 when he opened the third with a homer to left on a 3-0 fastball from Snell.
Atlanta starter Spencer Strider allowed one hit with five strikeouts over the first three innings. But Carpenter gave the Padres a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth off Strider. Manny Machado opened the inning with a double but was tagged out between second and third on a comebacker to Strider. Cronenworth then drew a walk ahead of Carpenter’s line drive to right.
The Braves regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the fourth as Snell walked three straight batters with two outs. Sean Murphy had doubled with one out and scored on Kevin Pillar’s game-tying single. Pilar came around on the three straight walks.
–Field Level Media
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