Braves blaze previous Twins behind Strider with late HRs

ATLANTA — Spencer Strider pitched seven dominant innings, backed by no-doubt homers from Marcell Ozuna and Ronald Acuña Jr. that offered the profitable margin because the torrid Braves raged on with a 4-1 win over the Twins at Truist Park on Monday night time.

It was Atlanta’s third straight win, its eleventh in its previous 12 video games and 18th in 22 video games this month. The Braves stretched their lead within the National League East to six 1/2 video games over the second-place Marlins, who had an off-day.

Strider was somewhat shaky early, permitting two baserunners within the first and a solo homer within the second earlier than settling in. He completed with 10 strikeouts whereas permitting two walks over seven innings, permitting simply the one run on three hits. It was his fifth double-digit strikeout recreation this 12 months and the eleventh of his younger profession. Strider leads the Majors with 156 K’s.

Still, it was tied going into the underside of the seventh. Ozuna broke that tie with a laser-beam opposite-field homer to steer the inning off, and Acuña adopted three batters later with a two-run shot to left that salted the sport away.