Acuña goes deep again, leads Fried, Braves over Brewers

ATLANTA (AP) — Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a fifth-inning homer for the game's first run, Max Fried outpitched Corbin Burnes and the Atlanta Braves held off the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2 on Saturday night. Asked to protect a 3-1 lead, Braves closer Kenley Jansen gave up a run in the ninth.

ATLANTA (AP) — Ronald Acuña Jr. hit a fifth-inning homer for the game’s first run, Max Fried outpitched Corbin Burnes and the Atlanta Braves held off the Milwaukee Brewers 3-2 on Saturday night.

Asked to protect a 3-1 lead, Braves closer Kenley Jansen gave up a run in the ninth. Christian Yelich, who led off with a double, scored on Tyrone Taylor’s one-out single to cut the Braves’ lead to one run.

Jansen then struck out Rowdy Tellez and Taylor was caught stealing for a double play to end the game. The Brewers unsuccessfully challenged the call on Taylor. Jansen earned his eighth save.

Fried (4-2) allowed one run on four hits with one walk and eight strikeouts in seven innings to end Milwaukee’s four-game winning streak. The teams have split the first two games of the rematch of last season’s NL Division Series won by the Braves on their way to their World Series championship.

Acuña’s homer off Burnes (1-2) was his second in two games as he continued to prove he has fully recovered from knee surgery.

Burnes lowered his ERA from 1.93 to 1.86 while allowing two runs, one earned, in six innings. He gave up six hits with seven strikeouts and one walk.

Travis Demeritte’s diving catch of Christian Yelich’s shallow liner in left field kept the Brewers scoreless in the sixth. With two outs, Luis Urías singled and moved to third on Willy Adames’ double. Demeritte then raced in toward the infield to rob Yelich of a hit that likely would have driven in two runs.

Hunter Renfroe led off the Brewers seventh with his sixth homer. Travis d’Arnaud’s eighth-inning single off Luis Perdomo drove in Ozzie Albies to give Atlanta a two-run lead.

Acuña, making back-to-back starts in right field for the first time since returning from 2021 knee surgery on April 28, led off the game with a single off the right-field wall.

In the fifth, Acuña’s blast over the wall in left-center snapped a scoreless tie.

On Friday night, Acuña fell in the batter’s box after his big home-run swing. This time, Acuña kept his feet and thumped his chest while looking into the Braves dugout before beginning his path around the bases.

Acuña walked and stole second in the seventh.

The Brewers committed two errors, including a two-base fielding miscue by Lorenzo Cain in center field, allowing Marcell Ozuna’s single to bounce past him in the sixth. Ozuna advance to third and scored on Albies’ sharp grounder past Tellez at first base.

Renfroe’s walk to open the second ended Fried’s streak of 29 innings without a free pass. Renfroe was thrown out by d’Arnaud while attempting to steal second base to end the inning.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Brewers: OF Andrew McCutchen was placed on the COVID-19 injured list after testing positive. Manager Craig Counsell said McCutchen had symptoms on Saturday before returning to the team hotel. It was not known if McCutchen will be able to join the team on its trip to Cincinnati following Sunday’s game. INF Mike Brosseau was recalled from Triple-A Nashville.

UP NEXT

Brewers LHP Aaron Ashby (0-2, 2.33), who has worked in relief and as a spot starter, moves back into the rotation for an indefinite period when he makes his third start of the season in Sunday’s final game of the series against Braves RHP Charlie Morton (1-3, 6.85). Morton is attempting to regroup following a slow start to the season.

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