Atlanta Braves catcher Brian McCann, right, celebrates with teammate Ender Inciarte ater hitting a solo home run against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the seventh inning of Saturday night’s game in Phoenix.
Atlanta Braves left fielder Ronald Acuna Jr. makes a sliding catch for an out on a ball hit by the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Ketel Marte in the fifth inning of Saturday night’s game in Phoenix.PHOENIX – The Atlanta Braves have found a winning lineup.
Brian McCann homered over the swimming pool behind the right-field wall at Chase Field, and every Atlanta regular had a hit as the Braves beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-4 Saturday night to earn their second straight win after manager Brian Snitker reworked the order to put Ronald Acuna Jr. back on top and Dansby Swanson in the No. 2 slot.
“Sometimes you just need a little tweak here or there,” said No. 3 hitter Freddie Freeman, one of four Braves with two hits. “We all know we have a great offense. Sometimes you can get into a little lull for a few days. What he did was pretty smart on his part. Today we woke up a little bit, and hopefully we can carry that into tomorrow.”
McCann’s homer made it 3-1 in the seventh inning. Atlanta’s offense broke out after scoring 11 runs in its previous five games. The Braves had 13 hits Saturday.
“I like it,” Snitker said of the new lineup. “We’ll stay with it for a while.”
Atlanta starter Kevin Gausman (2-3) gave up one run and five hits in six innings. He escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth when Nick Ahmed flied out and Alex Avila grounded out. When the Diamondbacks loaded the bases again with one out in the sixth, Ahmed hit a sacrifice fly that cut Atlanta’s lead to 2-1 and Avila struck out.
“I was throwing my fastball where I needed to,” Gausman said. “I threw enough strikes to where they were aggressive enough to where I could throw my offspeed and not have to worry about throwing it for strikes.”
Recovered from a calf strain that led to a stint on the injured list, Jonny Venters retired the only batter he faced, David Peralta, on a game-ending groundout for his first save of the season.
Arizona was 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position – neither hit drove in a run – and is 6-for-52 with runners on second or third in its past five games.
“It was a frustrating loss,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. “Early on, we got outside our approach. We came out of our game plan and weren’t patient enough.”
Merrill Kelly (3-4) allowed three runs and eight hits in seven innings.
Atlanta’s Ender Inciarte beat a shift with a two-out, RBI single to left in the second.
Acuna opened the third with a 377-foot single off the fence in left before being forced out at second base, and Josh Donaldson hit an RBI single to double the lead. Acuna has a four-game hitting streak.
“He’s getting really hitterish-looking to me,” Snitker said of Acuna.
McCann homered off a curveball from Kelly in the seventh inning, one pitch after sending a fastball just foul deep down the right-field line. Adam Jones pulled Arizona to 3-2 in the bottom half with his second career pinch-hit homer, a drive off Josh Tomlin.
Nick Markakis and Ozzie Albies singled in runs off Archie Bradley in the eighth, and Blake Swihart hit a two-run homer against Tomlin in the bottom half.
Johan Camargo had a pinch-hit homer off Yoshihisa Hirano in the ninth.