Braves sweep Marlins to win 8th in a row

“Yeah, playing good ball, really in all facets,” said Braves first baseman Matt Olson, who went 2-for-3 with a homer, two walks and three runs scored. “I can’t think of anything that we weren’t really doing well these last seven games here. It’s fun when you’re playing like that, getting timely hits, pitching, running the bases hard, playing defense. It was a couple good series.”

On Thursday, one of the more unique home runs likely ever hit came in the third inning on Acuña’s two-run shot. Acuña’s 390-foot drive into the left field gap arrived as the gloves of left fielder Heriberto Hernández and center fielder Esteury Ruiz all met at the same time in front of the wall.

The ball took a skip up off Hernández’s glove and cleared the wall for Acuña’s 10th homer of the season.

“That’s unbelievable,” said Acuña, who stopped at first on the play because he himself wasn’t quite sure what happened. “This is the first time that happened in the game when I was hitting, but that’s good for me, for the team, too.”

Said Olson: “Yeah, that was crazy. He had a little angel on his shoulder tonight or something.”

That preceded a downpour that delayed the game for 84 minutes, a downpour that knocked Braves starter Martín Pérez from the game. Pérez threw three no-hit innings and walked a batter who was erased by a 5-4-3 double play.

When play resumed, the Braves’ offense was quiet for a couple at-bats, but no longer.

Olson led off the sixth with a solo home run, his 32nd of the season. It came off Marlins reliever John King and went 422 feet to center field.

That was a precursor to a big inning that saw Michael Harris II double into the corner in right, Mauricio Dubón single to center and pinch-hitter Lane Thomas rip an RBI double into the corner in left. It was Thomas’ first hit and RBI as a member of the Braves since being traded from the Royals on Saturday.

After King walked pinch-hitter Ozzie Albies to load the bases, Victor Vodnik was summoned to match up with Austin Riley. Riley drove a sacrifice fly to center field, making it 5-0.

With two outs in the inning, Drake Baldwin’s slow roller to second was booted by Xavier Edwards, allowing Thomas to score.

Kinley and Mederos got the game to the seventh, then Young allowed two earned runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batter. He left the bases loaded for Lee, who needed just two pitches to get an inning-ending fly ball to center field.

The Braves immediately got those two runs right back on Harris’ triple to the gap in right and Dubón’s single up the middle past a drawn-in infield. Harris went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs and scored twice while Dubón, who started at second base, was 4-for-4 with a walk and two driven in.

Suter, traded to the Braves from the Angels on Monday, allowed a one-out walk (which he erased via pickoff) and a two-out double in a scoreless eighth. In the ninth, the lefty allowed a run on back-to-back doubles and a two-out single, but nothing else.

Acuña punctuated his night with a solo home run in the eighth, a seemingly harmless fly ball that carried to the corner in deep right and bounced off the top of the wall. It was Acuña’s second multihomer game of the season and 16th of his career.

“The second one was special because the first one, Olson told me I need help,” Acuña said. “But the second one only I don’t need help. But the most important thing, we got eight (wins) in a row. So let’s just continue, win the series in New York, let’s see what happens this weekend.”

Harris’ RBI single to center, bringing Olson home, made it 10-2 later in the eighth before the Marlins (58-58) put right fielder Javier Sanoja in to pitch, and Dubón banged an RBI double to deep right to provide the final tally.

The Braves joined the Brewers as the first two MLB teams to reach 70 wins.