Another Acuña milestone, but rally falls short

Despite another highlight-filled performance from Ronald Acuña Jr., the Braves’ hopes of sweeping the series and finally getting over .500 drifted away in the opener of a three-game set against the Marlins on Friday night.

Acuña notched a pair of doubles, including one for his 400th career hit in the top of the third, but the Braves fell, 4-3, at loanDepot park.

“I'm not an Instagram guy, so I have no clue how many hits he’s got -- I just know the ones he has tonight,” said Braves manager Brian Snitker. “[For the] next 15 to 20 years, you're gonna have fun watching and checking boxes off for the milestones that he does.”

Acuña's milestone set up Ozzie Albies for an RBI double to give the Braves a 2-1 lead. It was Albies' second RBI of the game -- his first coming when he singled to right to bring in Acuña for the first run of the matchup.

Albies has been the Braves’ primary No. 3 hitter since May 26, and since making the switch, Albies was hitting .356 with eight extra-base hits coming into the game. With his multi-RBI performance on Friday, Albies extended his on-base streak to 18 games.

Since May 18, Acuña has reached base safely in 20 straight games for the longest active streak in the Majors. To add on to his night, he also drew a walk to extend his streak to 10 games with a free pass -- the most since 2014, when Freddie Freeman went for nine straight.

In the top of the seventh, Acuña came up clutch with a line-drive missile hit to the left-field corner to bring in Ehire Adrianza and cut the Marlins’ lead to one run. Acuña finished the game with one RBI, two runs and one walk.

Despite the Braves jumping out to an early lead, the Marlins had their fair share of success from the plate.

Charlie Morton took the mound for Atlanta and was immediately put to the test, giving up two singles, one run and a walk in the first inning. However, a strikeout of Isan Díaz allowed Morton to escape the inning and avoid any extra damage.

Although Morton was coming off three straight wins for the first time since July 2019, he never found his groove and struggled to find the strike zone Friday night, throwing only 48 of his 84 pitches for strikes.

“Think I was fighting myself all night with my command, especially my two-seam command,” said Morton. “It was just too many balls, too many missed locations and then giving up the timely hits.

“I had a pretty good idea of what hitters were trying to do over there. I feel like in my last start, I threw pretty well against a really good Dodgers team. Tonight, it was completely different. ... Just establishing the strike zone -- I yanked curveballs, I yanked heaters, and I was burying my two-seamer. I wasn't getting a lot of swings and misses, and these guys didn’t chase. It just wasn't a good day.”

Morton followed up that rough first inning by holding the Marlins scoreless through the next two innings, but that momentum would not last. Miami put two runners on with one out in the fourth with a walk and a hit by pitch to kick-start a three-run rally. Guillermo Heredia pinch-hit in the fifth for Morton, who finished his night with four earned runs allowed and three strikeouts through four innings.

“Just the wheels fell off there in the fourth. We had the good part of their lineup up to get through that inning,” said Snitker. “He walked Díaz, hit [Jorge] Alfaro [in] just kind of a weird inning. I mean, that's the ballgame. ... It was set up for us that inning -- just couldn't make anything happen.”

In the bottom of the ninth inning, Snitker called on pinch-hit machine Pablo Sandoval, who hit a line-drive single to right field, but the Braves were unable to capitalize and ended the game on an Austin Riley strikeout. Despite being one of their hottest hitters, Riley went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.

“With who we had up, I felt really good, you know, especially with the big hit by Pablo to get on and those next two guys could win the game,” said Snitker. “Our bullpen did a great job keeping the game manageable and giving us a chance. We just couldn't get anything going.”

The Braves have lost their last three games by one run and are 8-11 in one-run games this season.