Ozuna's 3-hit night leads charge in Braves' rousing comeback win

ATLANTA -- As soon as Marcell Ozuna hit a three-run homer in the fifth inning of a 9-8 comeback win over the D-backs on Saturday night at Truist Park, there was reason to wonder if the Braves were about to do it again.

“I’ll be honest with you, throughout the whole game, even when we were down, 6-0, I never sensed panic,” Braves left fielder Jarred Kelenic said. “I was pretty confident. We knew that if we just kept doing what we’ve been doing since we got here, the rest would take care of itself.”

It’s been a crazy weekend for the Braves, who have won the first two games of their three-game set against Arizona, despite allowing a total of nine first-inning runs the past two nights. Spencer Strider allowed three runs in the opening inning of Friday’s night’s 10-inning comeback win.

Then early Saturday evening, as Braves fans were digesting news that Strider might need Tommy John surgery, Max Fried allowed Arizona to jump ahead in a six-run first. This exact deficit had been overcome just three previous times in franchise history. But the task was handled by an offense that might be even better than it was last year when it became the first team in AL/NL history to record a .500 slugging percentage.

“Everyone knows what we can do in baseball,” Ozuna said. “We’re always together. We trust each other and we have fun. So there’s no doubt we can do the mission on the field.”

Ozuna highlighted a three-hit night with the fifth-inning homer that brought the Braves within three runs. Kelenic highlighted his three-hit performance with a leadoff double in the decisive eighth inning. Ronald Acuña Jr. scored Kelenic with a game-tying single and later scored on the game-winning single Austin Riley pushed through the left side of the infield.

“This team doesn’t quit,” Riley said. “It was great to do this in front of our fans. They’re awesome and they keep us in it. They were on every pitch. Those were two pretty fun games the last two nights.”

It certainly wasn’t a fun beginning for Fried, who allowed each of the six batters he faced to reach safely. Ketel Marte started the game with a homer and capped the six-run frame with an RBI double. The Braves left-hander surrendered seven hits in the opening frame. But after enduring a rough beginning, he pitched into the fifth and prevented the bullpen from being overtaxed.

It was certainly a more encouraging exit than the one he had last weekend in Philadelphia, where he allowed three runs and recorded just two outs in his season debut. The Braves came back to win that game, 12-4.

“It’s time for me to pick [stuff] up,” Fried said.

Jesse Chavez provided three strong innings in relief of Fried last weekend in Philly and he stopped the bleeding with two scoreless innings in relief of Strider on Friday. With him down on Saturday, the Braves turned to Dylan Lee, who provided 2 2/3 scoreless innings. A.J. Minter and Raisel Iglesias both followed with a scoreless inning to seal the win and lower the bullpen’s ERA to 2.10 through seven games.

“We do the little things right and we take advantage of every opportunity,” Kelenic said. “That’s what the good teams do. That’s what we did tonight. We battled back and it was another good team win all around.”

Kelenic has had a great start, going 10-for-16 with three doubles. He went 3-for-43 to begin Grapefruit League play, but going back to the last week of Spring Training, he has been getting great results with the swing adjustments he started to make in February.

As for Ozuna, he has gone 10-for-31 with two doubles and four home runs to pick up where he left off last year, when he enjoyed a 40-homer season after enduring a miserable April. Along with his three-run homer, he also tallied one of the three consecutive extra-base hits in Atlanta’s two-run fourth and contributed one of the four consecutive singles in the two-run seventh.