ATLANTA - Garrett Cooper has played for the Miami Marlins since 2018, which means he has endured plenty of road losses at the hands of the Atlanta Braves.
That wasn't the case this weekend at Truist Park, where the Marlins were able to eke out a series win against their National League East Division rivals.
"They've kind of had our number the last five years since I've been here," Cooper said. "Just to come in here and get a series win early in the year is huge for us, huge for the morale moving forward."
Cooper had three hits and drove in two runs Sunday afternoon, when Avisaíl García double in the fifth inning broke a scoreless tie and the Marlins held on to beat Atlanta 5-4.
Miami has won three of its past four games and took two of three from the reigning World Series champions - the visitors bounced back from Friday's 3-0 loss to win Saturday's back-and-forth battle 9-7 - to improve to 7-8 this season and remain in second place in the NL East behind the New York Mets. The Marlins are now 16-32 at Atlanta's current stadium since it opened in 2017.
Atlanta (7-10) has yet to win a series this season, also dropping two of three games to both the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Washington Nationals and splitting sets with the Cincinnati Reds and the San Diego Padres.
On Sunday, the Braves trailed 5-1 in the ninth before Matt Olson's sacrifice fly and Austin Riley's two-run homer off Tanner Scott. Louis Head relieved and got his first MLB career save, allowing Marcell Ozuna's double and then striking out Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario.
Jesús Luzardo (1-1) allowed one run and two hits in five innings. He gave up doubles to Riley in the first and the fourth, looking nothing like the left-hander who began the game 1-6 with a career 6.06 ERA on the road in nine starts and nine relief appearances.
Olson grounded out with the bases loaded in the fifth, trimming Miami's lead to 2-1. Luzardo struck out Riley with two runners in scoring position to end the inning.
"It was pretty gratifying getting him out because he had the two hits against me," Luzardo said. "I feel like the two hits he got I left some breaking balls over the plate that I shouldn't have left. They kind of just backed up on me. At the same time, we felt confident with the heater there, and I was glad to get out of the inning with a punchout there."
Luzardo struck out eight batters and walked four, three of them in the fifth.
Miami's Jesús Aguilar led off the fifth inning with a walk, advanced on two groundouts and scored when García drove the ball over Orlando Arcia and the ball popped out of the left fielder's glove on the warning track. García scored when Cooper, who has reached safely in 12 of his 14 games this year, singled to Duvall, whose throw to the plate from center was a tad late.
Both runs came with two outs. The Marlins stranded seven runners in the first four innings.
"You like to keep adding on because we know who these guys are," Miami manager Don Mattingly said. "We know where we're at. We know who these guys are."
Atlanta starter Bryce Elder (1-2) gave up two runs five hits and six walks in 4 2/3 innings.
Miami went up 3-1 in the sixth when Jon Berti, who reached three times, tripled off Darren O'Day and scored on Jacob Stallings' sacrifice fly. The lead stretched to 5-1 in the seventh on RBI doubles off A.J. Minter by Cooper and Joey Wendle, who doubled twice.
Anthony Bass, the third of five Marlins relievers, needed one pitch to escape a bases-loaded jam in the seventh when Riley grounded into a double play. Atlanta, which dropped to 1-9 this season when its opponent scores first, was 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
The Braves, who played their first 14 games before having this past Thursday as their first day off in the regular season, will get another break Monday before completing their homestand with three games against the Chicago Cubs, the latest chance at their first series victory of the year.
They fell just short Sunday, but Olson was encouraged by what happened in the bottom of the ninth.
"Any time you show a fight late like that, it's something to be happy with," he said. "Obviously we didn't complete it. You want to come out with a win, but it says a lot to have a team that's always in it."
As for help on the way, Atlanta right fielder Ronald Acuña Jr., recovering from knee surgery after missing the second half of last season, went 2-for-3 with three walks, drove in a run and scored in a rehab appearance Saturday night with Triple-A Gwinnett. The two-time MLB All-Star is hitting .417 in four games for the Stripers and is expected to return to the majors May 6.