MIAMI - For his 32nd birthday, Drew Smyly got the following: an early lead, a big day from Austin Riley and some nifty defense from Ehire Adrianza.
And the Atlanta Braves held on for a much needed win.
Riley homered and drove in three runs, Smyly allowed two runs in five innings and the Braves snapped a four-game slide by beating the Miami Marlins 6-4 on Sunday.
The losing skid for the three-time reigning National League East champions, who on Sunday improved to 30-33 during a season in which they've yet to have a winning record, had come by a combined five runs.
"Anytime you get a win, it's a good feeling," Smyly said. "They're not easy. They just don't hand them out to teams. They're always a grind. This team has had a lot of ups and downs, but we know what we're capable of doing."
Riley reached base five times, going 3-for-3 with a walk and getting hit by a pitch. Ender Inciarte also homered for Atlanta, with his solo shot coming one inning after he entered the game as an injury replacement for Ronald Acuña Jr., who departed with what the Braves said was right pectoral soreness.
"I don't see this being lingering," Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said.
Starling Marte drove in three runs for the Marlins (29-36), who were bidding for their first sweep of Atlanta since 2016. Right-hander Pablo López (2-4) went only three innings, giving up four runs and six hits as his ERA rose from 2.76 to 3.12.
"The Braves had a plan," López said, "and they executed it really well."
In addition to everything else, Smyly (3-3) almost got his first career RBI. In his 43rd plate appearance as a Major League Baseball player, he lofted a liner to center with one out in the fifth. Marte caught it, then fired home - and even after an awkward skip off the grass, catcher Jorge Alfaro handled the throw and tagged out Adrianza to end the inning.
Adrianza made up for that a half-inning later.
The Marlins got two runs in the fifth off Smyly, with Marte hitting an RBI single and later scoring on a wild pitch. But Smyly escaped the inning and became eligible for the birthday win when Adrianza fielded a high chopper to shortstop off the bat of Miami's Corey Dickerson and flipped it from his glove to first in time for the third out.
Miami got a two-run single from Marte in the seventh, and he kept the Marlins within two runs with a sensational running grab to save a run and retire Kevan Smith to end the Atlanta ninth.
"He tried to keep us in the game today," Miami manager Don Mattingly said of Marte.
However, Will Smith retired the Marlins in the ninth in order, getting his 12th save this year and ending a three-hour, 45-minute contest.
The Braves had a total of three first-inning runs in their previous 10 games; they got three on Sunday. Acuña extended the longest active on-base streak in the majors to 22 games with a bloop single to left to open the game, and Riley had the big hit with a two-run single.
"López had a really long inning," Smyly said.
It was López's 14th start of the season. Against anyone other than Atlanta in the first inning, his ERA is 0.75; in two starts against the Braves, it's 27.00. He gave up three runs in the first both times.
Atlanta shortstop Dansby Swanson, who had been the team's only player to start each of the first 62 games this season, wasn't in the lineup, but he entered as a pinch-hitter in the eighth. All of the Braves will get a break Monday before starting a busy stretch of 15 games, with the next scheduled off day June 28.
After a two-game interleague series against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday and Wednesday at Truist Park, Atlanta's homestand continues with a four-game set against the St. Louis Cardinals. Then the Braves hit the road for four games against the New York Mets - including a June 21 doubleheader of seven-inning contests, one of them a makeup matchup from last month - and four against the Cincinnati Reds.