Pinch-hitter Brandon Snyder’s two-run triple off Mike Dunn highlighted a four-run sixth inning that enabled the Braves to further frustrate the Marlins in claiming an 8-5 win on Thursday night at Turner Field.

Tyler Flowers recorded a career-high three doubles, including one that chased Marlins starter Wei-Yin Chen in the sixth. Erick Aybar greeted Dunn with a game-tying infield single, and Snyder followed with his two-run triple. Chase d’Arnaud capped the sixth inning with a RBI single for the Braves.
Miami scored a pair of two-out runs in the ninth and brought the tying run to the plate, but Mauricio Cabrera retired pinch-hitter Cole Gillespie on a lineout to record his first save.
“It was a little too eventful, but we won the game, and that’s the main thing,’ said Braves manager Brian Snitker, whose team has gone 7-2 against the Marlins and 20-50 against all other opponents.
Justin Bour provided the Marlins an early lead with a three-run homer off Mike Foltynewicz in the second. Foltynewicz did not return after rain halted play during the middle of the third inning for 68 minutes. But the Marlins stayed with Chen, who allowed three hits, including Freddie Freeman’s RBI triple, during Atlanta’s two-run third. Mike Dunn surrendered four hits, including Brandon Snyder’s go-ahead two-run triple and Chase d’Arnaud’s decisive two-out RBI single, in Atlanta’s four-run sixth.
“Frustrating, in a sense, really with myself, to be honest with you,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said of his club’s struggles with the Braves. “I feel like somewhere, we’re not getting prepared properly. I feel like I’m missing something with this. I just have to do a better job of getting us ready to play.”
The game resumed after the delay at 9:09 p.m. ET, and Mattingly said his cutoff point to send Chen back out was at 9:15 p.m.
“I didn’t think [the delay] was a big problem because I had been ready to go and pitch again,” Chen said through his interpreter. “Today, it wasn’t my best condition, and I missed some spots, and I couldn’t control the game as I wished.”
Flowers’ sixth-inning double gave him the first multi-double game of his career and, more importantly, set the stage for the decisive rally. Aybar’s game-tying single deflected off the glove of Dunn, the former Atlanta lefty who has allowed hits to four of the six Braves batters he has faced this season. Snyder’s pinch-hit triple gave him five extra-base hits through 19 at-bats this season.
“It wasn’t the prettiest [game],” Flowers said. “It was a long one, for sure. We did a good job of tacking on runs and taking advantage of some two-out situations. That’s always a plus. Our pitching did a good job all and all to shut them down and eliminate the big innings.”
It was the biggest moment of the game before the rain delay. Bour’s homer gave the Marlins a three-run cushion, and it also capped an impressive month for the left-handed-hitting first baseman. Bour also drew two walks, including with two outs in the ninth inning, and he went on to score. In June, Bour connected on six home runs while driving in 20 runs.
“I just noticed, it wasn’t good enough tonight,” Bour said. “We’ve got to move on and get to tomorrow. No real excuse. It wasn’t good enough today. We’ve got to do better tomorrow.”
The long rain delay limited Foltynewicz to just three innings in his first start since going on the disabled list on June 3 with a bone spur in his right elbow. Tyrell Jenkins pitched around three fifth-inning walks over 2 1/3 scoreless innings, and the Marlins did not tally another run until Ichiro Suzuki ended Jim Johnson’s 11-inning scoreless streak with a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
“Just out of the stretch [in the second inning], I didn’t get a good rhythm,” Foltynewicz said. “I think I got a little excited and just kind of rushed through things. But other than that, everything felt good for me.”
Stranding runners, a problem in their two losses at Detroit, carried over for the Marlins. A pivotal moment for Miami came in the fifth inning when Jenkins walked the bases loaded with two outs. With the Marlins ahead, 3-2, J.T. Realmuto had a 2-0 count before Jenkins regrouped and fanned the Miami catcher to retire the side. In the eighth inning with two outs, Christian Yelich went down swinging. The Marlins left 13 on base, which is one reason they have now lost three straight. In each of the two losses at Detroit to open the road trip, Miami stranded 12.
Mattingly and hitting coach Barry Bonds discussed stranding runners before the game and how better to approach situational hitting.
“How do we attack it?” Mattingly said. “We’re not quite sure. I don’t really have an answer for that. But the name of the game is runs, not necessarily hits. I think that’s where we’re falling short a little bit. But I think we know we’re capable. I think that’s the one thing we need to continue to look at, and stay positive. We’re getting hits. Tonight, we throw up some runs. But in general, runs we have to get offensively better at. I think that’s one of the areas we need to improve.”
Freeman has recorded four triples in his past 98 plate appearances, dating back to June 7. Before this stretch, he had totaled eight triples through the first 3,337 plate appearances of his career.
The Marlins’ historical defensive streak also came to an end. Leading off the eighth inning, Emilio Bonifacio hit a grounder to third that Martin Prado couldn’t handle. The misplay went as an error, which snapped Miami’s streak of 28 straight games without an error committed by an infielder. According to STATS LLC, that’s the longest such streak in MLB’s modern era. STAT’s data dates back to 1913. Prior to Prado’s error, the last miscue by a Marlins infielder came on May 29, by second baseman Derek Dietrich, also at Atlanta.
Julio Teheran will carry a streak of 23 consecutive scoreless innings into Friday’s start. Teheran has produced a 1.72 ERA over his past 13 starts. He allowed three earned runs in 5 1/3 innings to the Marlins on May 29 at Turner Field.  First pitch is set for 6:35 PM.  Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast as part of the Atlanta Braves Radio Network beginning with the pregame show at 6:00 PM.

The Oklahoma City Dodgers’ steady offense led to a 7-3 win over the Nashville Sounds in front of a sellout crowd of 10,023 Thursday night at First Tennessee Park.

In a battle of first place teams in the PCL’s American Conference, Oklahoma City grabbed game one of the four-game series thanks to scoring in five different innings.

The trouble started right away for Nashville’s Angel Castro. Micah Johnson opened the game with a double to the left field wall against the Sounds’ starter. Corey Brown knocked him in with a groundout to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead before the Sounds came to the plate.

After Nashville left a pair of runners on base in the home half of the first, Oklahoma City was at it again in the second. Jack Murphy drove in Charlie Culberson with the second run of the game, and Castro issued a bases loaded walk to force in Andrew Toles to make it 3-0.

Jaycob Brugman started the bottom of the third with a double to left-center. He quickly moved to third when Chad Pinder followed with a base hit up the middle. Ryon Healy’s groundout brought in Brugman to cut the deficit to 3-1.

That’s as close as the Sounds would get as the Dodgers continued to tack on runs. Jack Murphy, who went 4-for-4, plated Zach Walters with a base hit in the fourth.

Castro was finished after six innings and gave way to Ryan Doolittle. The reliever was greeted by Corey Brown who launched the first pitch he saw into The Band Box for a solo home run. O’Koyea Dickson did the same thing to the other side of the field as he blasted his own solo shot out to left field to open up a 6-1 lead.

Matt Olson added a solo homer of his own in the bottom of the ninth inning but it was too late. The home run for Olson was his eighth of the season.

Castro was tagged with the loss and Jose De Leon picked up the win for the Dodgers after allowing one run in five innings.

Olson and Brugman each had multi-hit games for the Sounds who dropped to 47-34 on the season. Murphy’s four hits led the way for the Dodgers who improved to 43-36.

Game two of the four-game series is set for Friday night at First Tennessee Park. Right-hander Nick Tepesch (7-2, 3.66) starts in his Sounds debut against right-hander Jharel Cotton (6-4, 4.98) for the Dodgers. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Jason Kipnis soured Joel De La Cruz’s Major League debut with a two-out, two-run single in the fifth and Danny Salazar enhanced his All-Star candidacy as the Indians extended their winning streak to 12 games with Wednesday night’s 3-0 victory over the Braves at Turner Field.

Salazar won his sixth straight start and lowered his ERA to 2.22 with seven scoreless innings. Kipnis extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a two-run single that followed Rajai Davis’ two-out single. Lonnie Chisenhall’s two-out solo homer in the sixth inning provided some insurance for the Indians, who are one win shy of matching the franchise-best 13-game win streak recorded in both 1942 and 1951.
The Braves have lost six of eight since recording a season-best six-game winning streak. They received more than they could have expected from De La Cruz, who allowed three earned runs over six innings. The 27-year-old right-hander was promoted from Triple-A Gwinnett to fill the rotation spot vacated when Aaron Blair was optioned to Gwinnett.
With his solo home run on Wednesday, Chisenhall has now homered three times in the past four games. All five of his homers this year have come since May 31. The 27-year-old is batting .322 (29-for-90) with 16 RBIs during that span. The right fielder’s hot hitting has played an influential role in the Indians’ winning streak, during which he’s batted .359 (14-for-39).
Jace Peterson recorded a pair of leadoff doubles off Salazar, who entered the game having limited left-handed hitters to three hits in 26 at-bats in June. But Peterson was retired when he tried to score on Ender Inciarte’s grounder to third in the first inning and he was left stranded when Salazar concluded the sixth with consecutive strikeouts of Freddie Freeman and Nick Markakis. Freeman shattered his bat against the ground when Bryan Shaw struck him out with two on to end the eighth.
With one out and a runner on first in the bottom of the fifth, De La Cruz pushed a sacrifice bunt toward the left side of the pitcher’s mound, hoping to advance Emilio Bonifacio to second. Jose Ramirez snuffed the play out, though, and threw across his body to second base to initiate an inning-ending double play. The utility man has proven himself at third base, committing zero errors in 63 chances this year.
De La Cruz had been promoted to the Major Leagues three previous times (twice this season) but had not made an appearance. The Minor League journeyman notched his first big league hit with a third-inning single, and he held the Indians scoreless through the first four innings. But his good fortune expired when Davis doubled and Kipnis followed with his sharp two-run single that eluded a diving Adonis Garcia at third base.
Atlanta will open a four-game home series against Miami on Thursday at 6:10 p.m. CT. Mike Foltynewicz will return from the disabled list to make his first start since May 30. Thunder Radio will bring you the broadcast as part of the Atlanta Braves Radio Network beginning with the pregame show at 6:00 PM.