Braves beat Rockies, move above .500 for first time since early April

DENVER - Matt Olson hit a three-run homer, Ronald Acuña Jr. had a solo shot among his four hits and the Atlanta Braves moved above .500 for the first time since the season's opening week by holding off the Colorado Rockies 8-7 on Sunday.

Ozzie Albies added a two-run single and Adam Duvall doubled and tripled for the Braves (28-27), who completed a four-game sweep and posted a season-high fifth consecutive victory. They last had a winning record when they were 2-1 on April 9.

"I think everybody in here knows the talent that's in here and the type of team that we have with everything that was accomplished last year," said Olson, an offseason addition for the reigning World Series champions. "It feels like we're starting to get on that roll."

Ryan Feltner (1-2) allowed six runs and seven hits over three innings in the Rockies' fourth straight loss. Brendan Rodgers homered, doubled, singled and drove in three runs. Charlie Blackmon and Brian Serven also homered for Colorado, which has dropped 20 of 27 games since starting 16-11.

Rockies manager Bud Black said Feltner would stay with the team as the sixth starter with another doubleheader coming this week.

"He's got to reel it in to be around the strike zone," Black said. "You can't just pop one up and miss one by two feet. You can't do that in the big leagues."

The Rockies got within 8-7 on Blackmon's solo homer off Kenley Jansen in the ninth. Pinch-hitter C.J. Cron doubled with two outs, but Sam Hilliard grounded to first and Olson dove to tag the bag just ahead of the runner to give Jansen his 14th save this year.

"I wasn't 100% sure if he was going to beat Kenley to the bag, so I thought I had a better chance of getting there myself," Olson said. "Glad I didn't take out any knees or anything."

Olson belted Feltner's fastball 441 feet to center field in the second inning for his seventh homer of the year, putting Atlanta up for good at 6-3. The first baseman drove in nine runs on the Braves' 5-2 trip that included three games against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Acuña went deep against Robert Stephenson in the eighth for the sixth four-hit game of his MLB career.

After the teams headed to extra innings 0-0 and 1-1 the previous two days, Sunday resembled a familiar high-altitude game at Coors Field. The first inning lasted 41 minutes and ended 3-all. Feltner threw 38 pitches and Charlie Morton 41. There were 18 batters, five hits, three walks, a hit batter and an error.

Connor Joe led off the bottom of the inning with a walk to extend his on-base streak to 32 games. It's the longest for a Colorado player since DJ LeMahieu's 38-game run in 2016.

Morton (4-3) settled down and allowed four runs and six hits in five innings.

"I was yanking cutters and pulling sinkers below the zone," Morton said. "But the guys really picked me up."

A trainer checked on Morton for a bit before he stayed in after taking a comebacker off his pitching hand in the third.

"It just jammed my thumb, index and middle finger," he said.

Colorado continued to play poor defense. Serven's throwing error at catcher allowed a run to score in the fifth. Third baseman Ryan McMahon booted a grounder in the eighth for his 11th error of the year to give the Rockies a major league-high 46.

The Braves are off Monday after playing 17 straight days. Right-hander Kyle Wright (5-3, 2.41 ERA) will start at home Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics in Olson's first game against his former team.

"It'll be good to see some old people and catch up," said Olson, who was traded by the Athletics in March as the Braves sought to replace veteran first baseman Freddie Freeman, now with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Also Sunday, the Braves claimed infielder Kramer Robertson off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals and optioned him to Triple-A Gwinnett. Robertson is the son of LSU women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey. Outfielder Eddie Rosario was moved to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man roster spot.

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