Olson homers twice, including a slam, to help Braves snap skid

DENVER -- Time will tell if this was the night the Braves turned things around. But in the midst of Matt Olson’s second multi-homer game of the season, the team was reminded of how valuable the first baseman could be during its late-season push.

Olson’s towering grand slam in the third inning wasn’t enough. But his two-run homer in the seventh allowed the Braves to end a six-game losing streak with an 11-8 win over the Rockies at Coors Field.

“That thing started out like it could have been another 'here we go' moment,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said. “Guys fought back, man. They kept fighting the fight. It was a good ballgame to win.”

Releasing frustrations during this slugfest might have been just what the Braves needed. Olson set a career high with six RBIs and Marcell Ozuna homered for the third straight day. Jorge Soler homered in a second straight game and tallied a key two-out, two-strike, two-run single in the seventh.

Nothing has come easy for the Braves, who won for just the eighth time in 21 games since the All-Star break. But with the Mets losing to the Mariners on Saturday night, Atlanta regained the lead in the battle for the third National League Wild Card spot.

“We haven’t gotten hot yet,” Olson said. “You never know when it’s going to happen. We show up every day with a mindset that it’s going to start today. This hasn’t been the stretch we’ve wanted as of late. But it was a good game today and we’ll see if we can get hot at the right time.”

One reason the Braves could soon get hot is their rotation, which could welcome Reynaldo López back from the injured list as early as Aug. 17. The Braves sent three starters (López, Chris Sale and Max Fried) to the All-Star Game. But they haven’t had all three in the rotation at the same time since the All-Star break.

Fried’s second start back from the injured list wasn’t sharp, but he was better than he was last weekend against the Marlins. The All-Star hurler allowed the Rockies five runs through the first three innings and then retired each of the final seven batters faced in his five-inning stint.

“You can check [Fried’s] baseball card,” Olson said. “He’s been doing it at a high level for a long time.”

So, too has Olson, who set franchise records when he led the Majors in both home runs (54) and RBIs (139) last season. That’s why the Braves have remained confident the first baseman might eventually find his groove.

Olson entered July 27 with 13 homers through his first 380 at-bats. That 29.2 at-bat-to-home run ratio was far different than last year’s 11.3 AB/HR mark. But the power has come back over the past couple weeks. He has seven homers in his past 51 at-bats, a 7.3 AB/HR ratio.

“I would say the quality of at-bats have been better than they were earlier in the year,” Olson said. “But there’s always room to grow.”

Olson certainly seemed to be in a zone after he fell behind Rockies starter Dakota Hudson with two outs and the bases loaded in the third. He looked at three straight pitches out of the zone and then pulverized an 87.5 mph fastball down in the zone.

As the ball rose, it appeared to have a chance to land in the third deck. But it fell just short clanging off the facade. The blast traveled a Statcast-projected 416 feet and had a 41 degree launch angle. It was one of just 20 homers to travel 415-plus feet with a 40-plus degree launch angle since Statcast tracking began in 2015.

Each of the first eight RBIs tallied by the Braves were recorded with two outs. Olson ended that trend in the seventh, when he drilled Angel Chivilli’s 1-1 changeup over the right-field wall. His previous two-homer game this season came against the Brewers on July 31.

“It’s been a rough stretch for us,” Olson said. “It was a good hard-fought win.”