Matt Olson, Dominic Smith and Mauricio Dubon on Thursday hit solo homers, and Reynaldo Lopez gave up one run over five innings as the Atlanta Braves coasted to a 17-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the opener of a four-game series.
The Braves broke it open with an eight-run fifth inning, sending 12 batters to plate to take a 10-1 lead. Austin Riley and Michael Harris II had two-run doubles, while Ozzie Albies brought home two more with a single.
It was a frustrating inning for the Diamondbacks — partly thanks to technology.
Photo: Arianna Grainey-Imagn Images
Ryne Nelson walked three batters, including Ronald Acuna Jr, which forced in a run. The right-hander had a potential strike three to Albies overturned by a challenge, turning it into a walk. A potential inning-ending double play was also overturned when Drake Baldwin was ruled safe at first.
On top of that, 10-time Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado made a costly error, leading to five unearned runs for Nelson.
Nelson (0-1) made it just 4-2/3 innings, giving up seven runs, but only two were earned. He walked three and struck out three.
Lopez (1-0) gave up four hits and a walk while striking out three. Olson finished with three hits and three RBIs.
Arizona had their three-game winning streak snapped. Jordan Lawlar hit a solo homer in the third, which was his first career long ball in 126 career plate appearances.
Diamondbacks catcher James McCann pitched the ninth inning, giving up five runs on seven hits, including a two-run homer to Jorge Mateo.
In Kansas City, Missouri, Taj Bradley pitched six innings of five-hit ball and Minnesota homered three times in the ninth inning to break open a close game as the Twins beat the Kansas City Royals 5-1 to avoid a three-game series sweep.
Bradley (1-0) struck out three and walked one while outdueling Cole Ragans (0-2), helping the Twins improve to 2-0 with him on the mound. Minnesota were winless in their other four games on a season-opening six-game trip to Baltimore and Kansas City.
Kody Clemens scored on an error by five-time Gold Glove-winning catcher Salvador Perez in the second inning and Byron Buxton added a sacrifice fly off John Schreiber in the eighth, before the Twins teed off against Royals reliever Steven Cruz in the ninth.
Matt Wallner began the barrage with his homer to left, Clemens followed two batters later with his first of the season and Josh Bell gave the Twins their first back-to-back homers since July last year with his shot off Cruz to right field.
The only offense for Kansas City came in the eighth inning, when Maikel Garcia and Bobby Witt Jr put runners on the corners with back-to-back singles, and Vinnie Pasquantino hit a sacrifice fly, but after Perez grounded into a fielder’s choice, Twins reliever Taylor Rogers struck out Jac Caglianone with a sweeper out of the zone to leave the tying run on second base.
The meager offense came one a day after the Royals piled up 13 runs in a win over the Twins.
Ragans bounced back nicely from a dismal opening day in Atlanta, when the 2024 All-Star surrendered three homers in a 6-0 loss to the Braves. The Royals’ left-hander went six innings and allowed four hits and a walk while striking out eight.
In San Francisco, rookie catcher Daniel Susac went three for three with a walk in his first major league start as the Giants rolled over the New York Mets 7-2.
The younger brother of former Giants catcher Andrew Susac singled in his first two at-bats off David Peterson (0-1), then drew a walk and singled off Sean Manaea.
Rafael Devers homered and Casey Schmitt went three for three with a walk and an RBI for the Giants, who had 13 hits overall and handed the Mets their third straight loss.
Robbie Ray (1-1) gave up two runs and three hits in 5-1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked three.
Former Mets reliever Blade Tidwell worked three scoreless innings to earn his first major league save.