CLEVELAND -- The Guardians had no problem getting runners on base against the Braves on Wednesday night. The struggles came in bringing them home.

Despite putting a runner on base in almost every inning, the Guardians could not get the big hit during an 8-1 loss in the rubber game of the series at Progressive Field.

Most of the traffic came early on against Atlanta starter Michael Soroka, as Cleveland put two on base in each of the first six innings, five of which were against Soroka.

In the first inning, with the Guardians already facing a 4-0 deficit thanks to a shaky first frame by starter Cal Quantrill, they had runners on second and third with one out, but the rally ended via an Andrés Giménez strikeout and Josh Bell groundout.

Cleveland faced the same scenario in the next inning, but it wasn’t able to capitalize after strikeouts from Bo Naylor (after an 11-pitch at-bat) and Myles Straw, along with an inning-ending groundout from Steven Kwan.

“We got a couple guys on, but to [Soroka’s] credit, he struck some guys out,” manager Terry Francona said. “We got his pitch count up high, we just didn’t have anything to show for it.”

The theme continued the rest of the game. The next inning, Cleveland once again had runners on second and third with none out, but a strikeout and flyout ended the rally. In the fourth, an Amed Rosario groundout snuffed out a second and third, two-out opportunity.

After the Guardians finally chased Soroka in the fifth inning (he allowed five hits and walked three in his 4 2/3 innings of work), Braves third baseman Austin Riley kept the Guardians off the board with a fantastic stop on a David Fry grounder that saved two runs.

“That kid at third base made some really good plays,” Francona said. “They’re very athletic, that’s part of why they’re good.”

As mentioned above, the Guardians spent all 27 outs playing from behind after the Braves’ powerhouse offense dinked-and-dunked its way through a productive first inning. After Ronald Acuña Jr. started the game with a 101.7 mph lineout to José Ramírez, the Braves tallied two runs on four straight hits, none of which were hit more than 85 mph.

“Three seeing-eye singles. Not much I can do there,” Quantrill said of his first inning. “I thought I threw the ball pretty well, honestly. Just have to find a way to have those balls hit at people or make them miss it.”

The big blow in the inning came in the form of a two-out, two-run double from Eddie Rosario that staked the Braves to a 4-0 lead. They added another run off Quantrill in the third inning on a solo home run from Sean Murphy, who finished with four hits and a triple shy of the cycle.

Murphy was among seven Braves who had multiple hits, and the team’s 19 hits collectively was the highest single-game total the Guardians have allowed this season.

“It’s a good team,” Quantrill said. “They have playoff aspirations, but so do we. I thought we battled hard this series, we’ve just got to find ways to win games.”

The Braves added runs on solo home runs from Riley and Olson, and an RBI groundout from Michael Harris II. Atlanta’s three home runs marked its 25th three-homer game this season, which tied the 1997 and ‘99 Mariners for most three-homer games through this point in the season.

“Pretty much one through nine, they all have the ability to homer. But that’s kind of the game we play now,” Quantrill said. “They’re pretty exceptional at it, but I thought we did a good job keeping them in the ballpark for the most part.”

Quantrill has now allowed 11 runs and 19 hits in his two starts (7 2/3 innings) since returning from the injured list with right shoulder issues.

“This is the highest level in baseball and you have to be at your best, and right now, I’m not offering my best,” he said.

Cleveland left a single runner on base against Michael Tonkin in the sixth and seventh innings, and tallied its only run in the ninth inning when Rosario drove Kwan in with an RBI groundout. Rosario now has tallied an RBI in five straight games, which is a career high.

“It would have been nice to get some runs [early] to crawl back in and make it a different [game], but we didn’t,” Francona said.