PHOENIX — Mauricio Dubón, Matt Olson and Dominic Smith went deep at the plate, right-handed starter Reynaldo López gave up one run in five innings on the mound, and the Atlanta Braves coasted to a 17-2 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday night in the opener of a four-game series between National League clubs.
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, and Ozzie Albies brought home two more with a single.
It was a frustrating inning for the Diamondbacks — partly due to technology. Ryne Nelson walked three batters, including Ronald Acuña Jr., which forced in a run. The right-hander had a potential strike three to Albies overturned by an ABS 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 batters and struck out as many.
López (1-0) gave up four hits and a walk while striking out three batters. Olson finished with three hits, including his solo shot for his first home run of the season, and three RBIs.
Arizona had its 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 in the majors.
Diamondbacks catcher James McCann pitched the ninth inning, giving up five runs on seven hits, including a two-run homer to Jorge Mateo.
A year after an 0-7 start to a losing season that ended short of the playoffs, Atlanta is off to a 5-2 start and half-game behind the first-place Miami Marlins (5-1) in the NL East Division standings.
The Diamondbacks (3-4) are 1 1/2 games out of first place in the NL West.
The scheduled starting pitchers for Friday night’s game are Arizona left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) and Atlanta right-hander Grant Holmes (0-1, 5.40).