Charlie Morton pitched six strong innings and Sean Murphy drove in four runs to lift the Atlanta Braves to a 9-3 win over the visiting Boston Red Sox on Tuesday in the opener of their two-game series.
Atlanta has won three straight and improved to 6-4 in interleague games.
Morton (4-3) allowed two runs on five hits with two walks and seven strikeouts. He improved his career record against the Red Sox to 8-1.
Murphy, who was named National League Player of the Week on Monday, went 3-for-4 with a double, a run and was hit by a pitch. He now leads the NL with 32 RBIs.
Boston starter Nick Pivetta (2-3) pitched four innings and allowed a season-high seven runs on eight hits with three walks and two strikeouts. His career record dropped to 6-4 against Atlanta.
The Braves sent eight men to the plate in the first inning and scored four runs.
Matt Olson slugged his 11th homer of the season, a two-run shot that carried 426 feet to right field. An RBI single from Ozzie Albies and a run-scoring infield out from Marcell Ozuna completed the scoring.
The Braves have scored a first-inning run in 16 games this season and improved to 14-2 when doing so. Atlanta has scored 32 runs in the first inning.
Atlanta upped its lead to 5-0 in the second inning when Murphy drove in Ronald Acuna Jr. with a sharp single to left.
Boston got its first run in the third inning. Alex Verdugo doubled, went to third on a balk and scored on Justin Turner’s sacrifice fly.
Murphy knocked in a pair of runs with a single in the fourth, and the Braves stretched the lead to 8-1 in the fifth on Orlando Arcia’s ground-rule RBI double.
Boston’s Justin Turner ended an 0-for-11 streak by hitting a solo homer to start the sixth inning. Turner doubled in the eighth and eventually scored on a single by Enrique Hernandez.
Boston’s Masataka Yoshida went 0-for-5 and saw his 16-game hitting streak end.
–Field Level Media
