Ronald Acuna Jr. had a home run and a double to bolster his MVP case as the visiting Atlanta Braves continued to establish their dominance in the National League with a 6-3 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday.
Travis d’Arnaud and Marcell Ozuna also homered as the Braves won the first two games in a four-game series between the top two teams in the NL. Ozuna had three hits.
Left-hander Max Fried (6-1) went seven scoreless innings and struck out a season-high 10 as the Braves increased their winning streak to five games and prevailed for the ninth time in 10 games.
Fried allowed three hits and two walks. He pitched into the seventh inning for the first time since coming off the injured list Aug. 4 after recovering from a left forearm strain.
Acuna is 5-for-8 in the series, including a grand slam in Thursday’s series opener. The Braves’ three home runs Friday increased their major-league-best total to 256.
Kolten Wong hit a three-run home run in his first at-bat as a member of the Dodgers to start an eighth-inning rally that brought the tying run to the plate before Chris Taylor struck out against right-hander Michael Tonkin. Kirby Yates pitched the ninth for his third save.
Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias (11-8) gave up five runs on nine hits, three of them home runs, in five innings. He walked two and struck out four. After posting a 2.16 ERA last season to lead the NL, Urias saw his mark rise to 4.60 this season.
Atlanta waited until the second inning to show off its power capabilities when d’Arnaud took Urias deep for his 10th of the season. Acuna hit his 31st of the season in the third inning on a drive to center field.
The Braves made it 3-0 in the fourth inning on Ozuna’s 32nd home run, and then they increased the lead to 5-0 in the fifth on an RBI double from Austin Riley and an RBI single from Ozuna. It became 6-0 on an Eddie Rosario single in the eighth.
Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman combined to go 1-for-6 with three strikeouts as the Dodgers lost consecutive games for the first time since July 26-28 following a 24-5 August.
–Field Level Media
