Jarred Kelenic’s Atlanta Braves’ leadoff home run helps spark 4-2 win over Red Sox

Jarred Kelenic’s first home run in an Atlanta Braves uniform helped spark the offense for tonight’s game. They eventually earned a 4-2 win over the Boston Red Sox to get back on the winning path once again.

The first inning saw the Red Sox attempt to get off to a fast start as Jarren Duran led off the game with a double, then Wiyer Abreu joined him on base with a two-out walk. This opened the way for Vaughn Grissom to potentially topple the apple cart upon his return to Cobb County, but Reynaldo López was able to ground him to end the round quietly. Ronald Acuña Jr. led off half of the Braves’ first inning with a single and everyone in the stadium knew he was going to try to get to second at the first opportunity. That included Kutter Crawford and the Red Sox, who caught up with him while he was trying to steal second and erased him from the base paths. Atlanta lost without threat for the remainder of the inning and things remained quiet for both teams for the first two innings.

Things changed once the end of the third round arrived. Travis d’Arnaud ignored a sweeper he was hit with, bringing Jarred Kelenic to the plate with a man on base. Kutter Crawford came up with an 89 mph cutter and he threw it in a very bad spot to throw an 89 mph pitch to any big league hitter. Kelenic made no mistake with the meatball and sent it into the Chop House seats for his first dinger in ages and a two-run lead for the Braves. Ozzie Albies and Austin Riley both got on base after the dinger, but the Braves were unable to push for more runs at that point, so the game remained 2-0 in Atlanta’s favor.

Reynaldo López handled traffic on the base paths every inning from then on. Vaughn Grissom led off the fourth with a single, but López sat the Red Sox down to end that threat. He then gave up a one-out triple to Jarren Duran and found himself in a tough spot to come out of that situation unscathed. Two straight outs did the trick and López pitched a shutout in the sixth inning.

Unfortunately for López, that’s when the scoreless innings streak ended and it was also the end of the road for López that night. Two walks and an error in the sixth landed López in hot water with the bases loaded. He was given a chance to get out of it, then he walked Reese McGuire on four pitches to put the Red Sox on the board. It was the end of the line for López and Aaron Bummer came in to replace him.

Bummer entered the game and induced a ground ball from Ceddanne Rafaela that would have been a tailor-made double play if it had gone just inches to Bummer’s left or right. Instead, Bummer ended up making a kick save that wasn’t a beauty. The ball ended up with Austin Riley and the game was tied. Bummer then struck out Jarren Duran and Rafael Devers, but it was really disappointing (for lack of a better term) that Bummer couldn’t come out of that one with the scoreless inning that would have been golden.

Fortunately, Jesse Chavez and Joe Jiménez came in for the seventh and eighth innings, respectively, and locked things down so the game was still tied before the end of the eighth inning. That included a huge infield play by Adam Duvall, who made a sliding catch with two men on and two outs to end the scoreless inning.

Boston was also well in its bullpen at this point and Ozzie Albies welcomed Justin Slaten into the game by taking a six-pitch walk to reach base. Austin Riley followed up with a single and suddenly the Braves were up to something again.

After a Matt Olson strikeout put one on the board, it was up to Marcell Ozuna to hope for a big hit to put Atlanta in front. Sure enough, Ozuna hit a bouncing ground ball that took a while to get out of the infield, but left Truist Park in a state of pure delight once he did. Ozzie scored to give the Braves the lead and Riley reached third in the play. It ended up being crucial as Orlando Arcia fielded a ground ball to first. Usually this would have resulted in a double play, but instead the Red Sox managed to only get one out in this situation and Riley scored to give the Braves some breathing room for the ninth sleeve.

That wiggle room ended up being more than enough for Raisel Iglesias to work. It took all night, but Iglesias’ ninth inning was the first 1-2-3 inning of the night for any Braves pitcher. Regardless, the Braves were able to end the night on a happy note with a 4-2 victory that ended a miserable three-game losing streak.

They will now have the chance to leave town on a winning note as they will be back in action tomorrow night at 7:20 p.m. PMET as Chris Sale takes on his former team for the first time.