The Atlanta Braves' Ronald Acuna Jr. runs home to score on an error by Cincinnati Reds right fielder Yasiel Puig in the fifth inning of Wednesday night's game in Cincinnati.
The Atlanta Braves' Nick Markakis hits a single off Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Tanner Roark in the fifth inning Wednesday night in Cincinnati.CINCINNATI - With clutch hitting virtually nonexistent, the Atlanta Braves' pitching and Cincinnati Reds right fielder Yasiel Puig's leaky defense made the difference Wednesday night.
Ozzie Albies homered on the game's first pitch and Ronald Acuna Jr. scored from first base on Puig's fifth-inning error, helping Atlanta to a 3-1 win.
Acuna scored easily when Puig misplayed Nick Markakis's line-drive single, allowing the ball to skip under his glove and roll to the wall for a two-base error.
"Yassi made an aggressive attempt on the ball," Reds manager David Bell said. "He's made some great plays by doing that. This one didn't work out."
Josh Donaldson doubled down the left field line to drive in Albies from first base in the ninth inning.
Mike Soroka (1-1), in his second start of the season and seventh in the majors, tied his career high with seven strikeouts while allowing one run on five hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings. He threw a career-high 109 pitches.
"It was pretty cool," Soroka said. "I didn't realize I was there until I came out. I still felt pretty good."
Said Braves manager Brian Snitker: "Mike was really, really good. He just ran out of pitches. That's the farthest he's gone in a game. He had a really good breaking ball and a really, really good sinker. He was in the strike zone and attacking hitters with his stuff."
The Reds loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth against Soroka, but reliever Josh Tomlin got slumping pinch-hitter Scott Schebler to ground out on the first pitch to first baseman Freddie Freeman. Schebler has two hits in his past 27 at-bats and is batting .150 this season.
Luke Jackson and Dan Winkler combined to face the minimum six batters over the next two innings before A.J. Minter pitched a perfect ninth for his third save of 2019.
"All of them were huge in a game like this in this ballpark," Snitker said of the hitter-friendly Great American.
Albies smashed Tanner Roark's 91-mph four-seam fastball over the Reds' bullpen down the right-field line for his third home run of the season. The leadoff homer was his first of the season and fifth of his career.
"The first pitch of the game was poorly located," Roark said. "I knew he would swing first pitch. It was poor execution. I didn't want one pitch in the game to dictate how the game goes."
The Reds quickly rallied in the bottom of the first on Joey Votto's leadoff walk, his fourth consecutive walk over two games, and back-to-back singles by Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker.
That was the game's only hit with runners in scoring position. The teams combined to go 1-for-18 in such situations.
The Braves put at least two runners on base each of the next three innings, but they couldn't push them across the plate, stranding seven through four innings.
Roark (1-1) got through five innings, allowing six hits and two runs with three walks and four strikeouts. He also hit a batter.
In 44 career plate appearances against Roark, Markakis has never struck out.
Freddie Freeman's third-inning single means the veteran slugger has reached base at least once in all 23 Atlanta games this season, the National League's longest streak of the season.